Cisco C240 M4 with 12g SAS RAID controller - Windows 2012 R2 install failure

[alisdair_stewart]

I have got 3 new servers, and I cannot get a windows server 2012 R2 build onto them. I have RAID1 setup with 2 disks. Have tried converting the disk to GPT, I have tried UEFI boot and Legacy boot.

Every time I mount the iso, and go through the installation I get an error message

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk" - please see screenshot.

I have looked through this fourm / discussion and not got any further

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/13041271/cisco-ucs-c220-m4-how-can-i-boot-cisco-sas-12g-controller-uefi-server-2012

I have added a local HDD and reference the HBA slot - but I cannot see VD0 as a boot option.

On one server I have upgraded all firmware and this has not helped either.

Any help would be much appreciated - I can attach further screenshots as required.

[Wes Austin]

When the server boots, you should see a message similar to "Virtual drives handles by the BIOS"...do you see that? What does it say?

Are you using drives with 4K block size? Are you letting windows create partitions? Based on your screen capture there is a 600 GB partition, have you tried to format it and install accordingly?

[alisdair_stewart]

Hi Wesley,

0 drives handled by BIOS

4k Block size - Yes

Windows partitions- yes

Tried formatting and also change to GPT in Diskpart. Have deleted and re-add as well.

Recreated the RAID array.

Thanks

[Wes Austin · Accepted solution]

If using 4K, will have to use UEFI, so Legacy is not an option.

When you boot up the server and press F6, you should get options similar to "UEFI KVM Mapped CD/DVD"

Can you confirm the option you choose when you boot up the server and press F6 to list the boot options? Are we sure we are not using the legacy option?

Wes

[alisdair_stewart]

Hi Wesley, Thank you very much for your help. Got the server built yesterday.

[ranumala]

Hi 

I am facing same problem as flexflash SD card not detected. pls help.when i try to load windows iso i cannot see sd card but its connected and host accessible.

windows 2008 R2 on C220M4S

flexflash 2 60G SD cards configured in mirror RAID 1 mode