# Dell Poweredge 2600 refuses to boot from CD



## jrl1357

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iGustopher*
> 
> Hello everybody!
> 
> I've had this Dell Poweredge 2600 server after my boss gave it to me since it was collecting dust. I booted it up and it went straight to the Windows Server 2003 login screen, to which the password was unknown. After that, I set it aside.
> 
> A year later, I have replaced some of the 36gb drives with 72gb drives, so the RAID array is destroyed. No big deal, I'll just boot off of a CD, right? Wrong. No matter what CD, be it Dell's OpenManage iso, Windows server 2003 installation, Debian, Ubuntu, *absolutely nothing will boot off of the CD drive.* It always says "No boot device found". I try to boot into the F10 Utility Mode, but it still says that there is no boot device found.
> 
> So how can I boot from a CD to install an OS? I cannot believe how defiant this machine is.
> 
> Thanks,
> Gus


dumb question but you've been into the bios and changed the settings right? if it still doesn't work cd drive could be defective. maybe try booting from usb if the machine supports that (some don't)


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## iGustopher

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jrl1357*
> 
> dumb question but you've been into the bios and changed the settings right? if it still doesn't work cd drive could be defective. maybe try booting from usb if the machine supports that (some don't)


Yeah, the CD drive and floppy drive are the only two options ticked on. The 2600 doesn't support USB boot, but I'll see if I can get around that with sbm. I'll give it a shot again tomorrow, right now I have a big headache


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## dushan24

Can you PXE boot it?


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## iGustopher

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *dushan24*
> 
> Can you PXE boot it?


I'm setting this one up from the home network, so how would I go about doing that? I've never had to use PXE, so I'm kind of a noob at it. The only solutions I have found is the Windows Deployment Services, but could I do that through a VM?


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## vpadro

Why don't you get an old PCI-X SATA from ebay?

You can get them very cheap nowadays.

Plug a SATA CD/DVR-ROM Drive and configure it on BIOS to be a boot device.

Or just try to replace the DVD Drive.


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## tompsonn

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iGustopher*
> 
> I'm setting this one up from the home network, so how would I go about doing that? I've never had to use PXE, so I'm kind of a noob at it. The only solutions I have found is the Windows Deployment Services, but could I do that through a VM?


Yes you can do it through a VM. You can use tftpd-hpa on Linux if you don't need WDS.
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu_pxe_install_server


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## Boyboyd

If it has a storage card make sure that the CD drive is listed before the storage card's ports in the BIOS. This isn't the same as boot order, on my 2850 this was called "drive priority order" or something and it caused me quite a few headaches before i figured it out.


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## 2thAche

Have you tried a different drive? Optical drives fail or partially fail all the time.

I have optical drives become non-bootable probably 2-3 times a year.


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## iGustopher

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *vpadro*
> 
> Why don't you get an old PCI-X SATA from ebay?
> You can get them very cheap nowadays.
> Plug a SATA CD/DVR-ROM Drive and configure it on BIOS to be a boot device.
> Or just try to replace the DVD Drive.


I have a PCI-X to IDE adapter, and I've hooked up an IDE disk drive to the server and powered it up. It doesn't seem to want to boot up from it, but the drive spins up.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tompsonn*
> 
> Yes you can do it through a VM. You can use tftpd-hpa on Linux if you don't need WDS.
> http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu_pxe_install_server


I'll try that tomorrow night!
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Boyboyd*
> 
> If it has a storage card make sure that the CD drive is listed before the storage card's ports in the BIOS. This isn't the same as boot order, on my 2850 this was called "drive priority order" or something and it caused me quite a few headaches before i figured it out.


I don't remember seeing a "drive priority order", it might be because I'm running on BIOS version A04 though. I'll see if I can burn the bios update to a floppy.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *2thAche*
> 
> Have you tried a different drive? Optical drives fail or partially fail all the time.
> I have optical drives become non-bootable probably 2-3 times a year.


Yes, I have two of the same drives from two of the same models. Neither of them boot up. :/

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I'll try to boot up through an IDE disk drive again, and if that doesn't work, PXE will be the last resort. I'll update this thread with results.


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