Hi everyone- So let's begin with saying that I've taught myself everything I know through many hours of trial and error and online research. There is much more to know than what I know now. Please share more "know" with me on this issue if you can and I thank you for your time and help.
We have an older Dell PowerEdge 2800 Server running Windows Server 2003 (Enterprise). We started with an error that directed us to replace the RAM on the RAID array. Did that. Booted first time, Same error. After that it went away. However, new error from lsass.exe started and it would reboot after about 3 minutes. So here's where I got stupid. I don't have a Server 2003 Startup Disk because we purchase our servers through another entity who does the initial setup and they never leave the disks. So knowing that lsass.exe is a problem I've seen in my lab I copied that file from a machine there (running Windows 7) and replaced the file on the server. Annoying error about lsass.exe gone and no longer reboots :) BUT now goes to a gray screen with no log in box!!!!! Shoot dang diggity. Same in SAFE mode. So now I go online to find a download and create a Startup Disk for Server 2003 so I can get in there and either do a repair or replace that file. No love. It says no drive detected after the disk finally loads everything. Then I try using the driver files for my service tag #20B5M71 for all drivers listed in the following categories:
and that didn't work. So I slipstream the above drivers available on Dell.com for this machine using nLite. Still same.
Does anyone have a suggestion on how I can get into this thing? Can you point me to the specific drivers I SHOULD be installing to address the no drive found and is it better to go the floppy route or slipstream (some were only available as executable files that couldn't be added via floppy). I teach full-time and manage our network on the side and I have to figure everything out myself. It sucks not having someone to bounce ideas off and can take hours to finally find the golden ticket. I'm in about 15 hours already with this thing because it's on another floor so I'm back and forth with boot disks trying to see if I've got the drivers it wants... I am ready to ask for help. Please. Asap.