Question on Installing Win Server 2016 on RAID 1 Volume

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Larson

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Nov 10, 2015
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Can anybody please help with this?

I had a clean install of Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard installed on a RAID1 volume (2x 480GB SSDs); the install went without a hitch, including no need to load drivers or anything else. I decided I wanted to upgrade to Windows Server 2016 Standard, so from the new setup disk, I selected a Custom Installation and deleted the System Reserved partition (probably shouldn't have done that) and the OS partition (Disk 0) so that I was back to unallocated space for a clean install. However, Windows Server 2016 Standard will not install, giving me an error "Windows is unable to install to the selected location. Error: 0x80300024." I guess this error is due to timing out trying to create the partitions. It's a Supermicro X10SDV-7TP4F motherboard. I called them to make sure there weren't any problems with 2016 on it ... there aren't any known problems, drivers are available, and they even installed 2016 on a new drive just to check. What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance! :)
 
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Larson

Member
Nov 10, 2015
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Hi Steven, thanks for the quick reply! I should have mentioned that I did try this:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

but it didn't work. Should I have not created the "partition primary" maybe?
 

StevenDTX

Active Member
Aug 17, 2016
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I generally do not. I let it create the partition(s) it wants, and then resize the primary later if necessary.
 

Larson

Member
Nov 10, 2015
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So I did just a clean in DiskPart (w/o creating the partition primary),

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0
CLEAN

but I get the same error message, Error: 0x80300024. I don't know what having a previous installation (2012 R2) on those drives could have done to mess it up. From the Windows Setup, I can create a new partition, format it, delete it, but not install on it.
 

K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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Are you doing UEFI boot? If so, convert the disk to GPT first, then reattempt?
Also, are you trying to create partitions from the setup wizard?

After CLEAN in diskpart, run the wizard and select the available disk and hit next. Let the installer create the partition.
 

Larson

Member
Nov 10, 2015
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I'm not doing a UEFI boot. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having the OS (Windows Server 2016 Standard) on a GPT disk with a UEFI boot? Wouldn't it be better to leave the boot/OS disk non-GPT?
 

weust

Active Member
Aug 15, 2014
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If you choose to let the Windows setup do it for you, the boot disk will be MBR iirc.
Other then that, I choose GPT for everything.

I also choose UEFI over BIOS whenever I can.
Just because I prefer to leave legacy behind me as much as possible.
 

Larson

Member
Nov 10, 2015
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So, for anybody who's interested, the cause of the error appears to be that I had my optical drive (used to install the OS) connected to the wrong controller on the motherboard. The SuperMicro X10SDV-7TP4F motherboard has two controllers: a Broadcom (LSI) controller for the 16 SATA3/SAS2 connections via the 4 ports, and an Intel controller for the other 4 ports. I accidentally had the optical drive connected to the LSI controller instead of the Intel controller. Once I switched that, everything was fine. The error I was getting was when I was booting Legacy; if I booted UEFI, then my optical drive was not visible at all to boot the Windows Setup disk. Once I connected my optical drive to the Intel controller, UEFI boot was good and Server 2016 installed no problem.

Thanks to everybody for their input and helping me solve this little annoyance! :)