Hi, I am planning an in place upgrade from windows server 2003 to server 2008 (so 32 bit). The server is an active domain controller for a remote site and has some other applications installed which should be compatible with the 2008. I am trying this on an HP proliant ML370 G4. I have done this before in a lab where I freshly installed 2003 installed some applications and succesfully upgraded to 2008 so that all worked fine. When I planned this last week the compatibility report was fine and the upgrade went good, it restarted several times and at the first boot when you see the scroll bar it just hangs there. Some more information on where that i think the cause is. The proliant server is configured with a raid 1+0 where i have 2 disks before the install. I remove one of them to revert back to my windows server 2003 installation if anything should fail and I upgraded from one disk. Although I have also done this before and it worked on the same hardware this does not work on the actual live server. Can anyone help me with the fact why my upgrade won't compleet it's first boot or can anyone explain to me on how that I can create a copy of my actual server to my lab and perform the upgrade there. I have 2 proliant ML370 G4's identical hardware, when I place a disk from my "live" server into my lab server it won't boot. What are the steps I can take because I would rather not perform an upgrade on this live server because I had 2 days big problems with my replication topology, the server disblaed all inbound and outbound replication, this is fixed now. please advise, thank you Neirynck Davy

Hi, I suspect that the issue is the RAID. By the way, the following post discussed the similar issue, you can refer to: In place upgrade of 2008 STD w/Hyper-V to R2 fails on reboot http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsserver2008r2virtualization/thread/3d9e88ba-40d9-4e12-ad67-db85e3ef4880 Best Regards, Vincent Hu

Thanks for the reply Vincent, I have read the post and I seem to have the same problem. I have however one other strange remark. I tried installing a fresh 2003 on the same hardware, pressing F6 to load RAID drivers, I downloaded these from the office HP website and the windows setup showed no system drives installed. I am also a bit confused about the upgrade. Does the windows DVD use RAID drivers on that DVD, why doesn't it use the ones I have because they work? I also did point in the beginning i don't want to go online for updates just because i don't want it to download other drivers. Other question: Would the upgrade have a greater chance to work if I use a 2008 with SP1? Any other suggestions are welcome.Kind regards, Neirynck Davy - MCTS

Hi, I downloaded these from the office HP website and the windows setup showed no system drives installed. >> It is recommend that you check the following guide. How to install an operating system onto a RAID volume (F6 install method) http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-021701.htm#3 Would the upgrade have a greater chance to work if I use a 2008 with SP1? >> There is no guarantee, you can perform a test using your spare disks. Important Note: This response contains a reference to a third party World Wide Web site. Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. Microsoft does not control these sites and has not tested any software or information found on these sites; therefore, Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. There are inherent dangers in the use of any software found on the Internet, and Microsoft cautions you to make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any software from the Internet. Best Regards, Vincent Hu

Hi, I have been trying to start the 2003 setup and try to repair my computer by hitting the F6 button and load the necessary drivers. The problem now is that, after I inserted and loaded the necessary drivers, it shows that windows setup can not find any disks. I know that the HP smartstart 8.4 cd has the drivers on it to do the install, but I you choose to boot from the windows cd you have to specify your drivers. I just can't seem to find the right drivers! How can I "export" these from another server for example? I have the same hardware running so I should be able to do something like that? Can anyone help in finding the correct driver for an HP proliant ML370 g4? Thank youKind regards, Neirynck Davy - MCTS

Hi, I did manage to find the necessary drivers, but now I have another problem getting my windows back to work. I loaded the drivers and try to repair my server 2003 by using the recovery console. I tried the command fixmbr, fixboot and bootcfg. I got an error saying that windows can not find any system drivers or drivers where windows is installed. Can I do anything more to get my 2003 back to work? EDIT: I did manage to swap disks back and now I have my installation working in the lab where I will be performing the upgrade to 2008.Should the RAID drivers be updated before upgrade or should I do anything else to make sure that the server can boot after the upgrade? Kind regards, Neirynck Davy - MCTS

So I swapped disks from my live server to my lab server so they are identical now, i try to upgrade with 2008 SP 2, the upgrade goes absolutely fine! Still i can not boot into windows because the scroll bar keeps loading, what is wrong with the RAID drivers? If there were to be a problem with them then why can he install the OS perfectly? If I can not upgrade that DC, I won't upgrade at ALL, we were planning to buy new hardware within 1-2 years so we can do a clean install by then. Some lines of the setupact.log 2010-08-05 11:48:31, Info MIG Entering Callback_FirstBoot_Upgrade_Done 2010-08-05 11:48:31, Info [0x0806e5] MIG Entering Callback_Rollback_PrepareForReboot ... 2010-08-05 11:48:31, Info [0x0900c5] PANTHR Queue Serialization Succeeded 2010-08-05 11:48:31, Info UI CallbackShowFinishOnline: Enter 2010-08-05 11:48:31, Info UI CallbackShowFinishOnline: Exit 2010-08-05 11:48:31, Info [0x090095] PANTHR WdsExitImmediate called! Execution will stop, and the queue won't be saved. 2010-08-05 11:48:31, Info [0x060357] IBS CallBack_RestartSetup:Successfully set all the restart parameters. 2010-08-05 11:48:31, Info MIG Leaving Callback_FirstBoot_Upgrade_Done (success) ... 2010-08-05 11:48:31, Info [0x0601d8] IBS InstallWindows:Restarting machine. 2010-08-05 11:48:32, Info [0x0601e0] IBS InstallWindows:Restarting machine during first boot phase. 2010-08-05 11:48:32, Info [0x090009] PANTHR CBlackboard::Close: c:\windows\panther\setupinfo. I don't see a lot of warning or errors, everything succeeds..hard to troubleshoot a succeeded installation that won't boot Kind regards, Neirynck Davy - MCTS

I'm not sure if anyone could help me get further but I will just post MS answer to my problem 1. Do the upgrade, when it fails insert the 2008 DVD and repair your installation, load the correct drivers <== This didn't work for me 2. Demote the machine, do the upgrade and perform the dcpromo after <= this confuses me because I thought it was a hardware issue or drivers, could someone else confirm this to me because we can not miss this DC (it's a remote site) Ideas, thoughts?Kind regards, Neirynck Davy - MCTS

Thanks to MS Support we were able to find out what the problem was, if you are experiencing the same problems I had, please follow this answer from MS: KNOWN ISSUES: - An LSI IDE RAID (lsicsb6.sys) driver is causing the system to hang - Please refer to HP Document "Implementing Microsoft Windows Server 2008 on HP ProLiant servers integration note, 2nd edition" Appendix A: Known issues and work around while deploying Windows 2008 on HP Proliant Servers - Remove lsicsb6.sys from the systems by either removing the lsicsb6.sys file from the \windows\system32\drivers directory (and any other locations) or removing any INF files that reference the lsicsb6 driver. Thank you Kind regards, Neirynck Davy - MCTS