On a server mobo

[Hermskii]

I was given an old Compaq server about a month ago from a guy who upgraded the PC that runs his business. It's from about 1999 as near as I can tell. It has two seperate processors on it and two Scuzzi drives. It has Windows 2000 Server running on it now.

I'm thinking about using it as a game server but I don't want to run Windows server on it. I want to know if I can run Windows XP Pro on it. If I can, will it be able to use both processors properly meaning load balanced etc etc?

I figured a server is nothing more than a high end PC with extra features to ensure lack of errors like the ECC memory which in this case is 2gb of RDRAM.

No matter what the answer is, please explain it well if you have the time. I'll say that I booted it up once with the XP cd in it thinking I'd simply format and reinstall. When I got to the drive partion information screen it only saw one 8mb partition and it was named (MBR) which I take as being the Master Boot Record but I'm sure I may be wrong. Each Scuzzi drive is 18.1gb in size. Thanks for any help. BTW, the Server is a Compaq Proliant ML330. Thanks again.

 

[MichaelD]

The main issue is driver support. When the XP CD starts up, know how you see the message "Hit F6 if you need to install a SCSI or storage driver"? You'll need to do that and use a floppy to load the drivers for the SCSI adapter, otherwise Windows Installer won't see your SCSI adapter or the drives attached to it.

Go to www.hp.com/support and try to find WinXP drivers for your server. In a pinch, Windows2000 or Windows 2K3 drivers MIGHT work. Try both.

The two drives are probably set up in a RAID1 mirror. You'll need to go into the SCSI cards' BIOS and look. When you reboot the server, you'll see "Hit F8 to enter HBA/SCSI BIOS". Do that choose 'View Array" option.

Hope this helps.

 

[Hermskii]

Oh yes. That will help. Thanks. I would have done the drivers as you suggested but the rest would have been new to me. I'll let you know what I find and I'll ask what to do next. Later!