Raid 5- no boot on Dell 1400sc server

[mboy]

Have a Dell Poweredge 1400sc server with Perc 3 raid controller (and built in adaptecp SCSI controller). Stock Dell stuff.
NO backups of server. Person responsible for it screwed up royally. I put an HP superstore 8 on the external Perc 3 out, rebooted NT 4. and now it says their is no boot device. Raid array seems to be there, was never broken, but fdisk (only viewed, no chnages) with win 98 boot disk shows no visible partitions at all. I have 5 gb of data (probably 2Gb very important, that I need to recover). How can adding a tape drive wipe out all 3 of my partitions?
ANy help greatly appreciated, it is my ass on the line now to get this thing back!

P.S. Was on phone with Dell for 1.5 hrs, they were, of course, no help.

 

[LiLithTecH]

You need to turn set the BIOS to not BOOT from ATAPI devices.
Do not boot with a TAPE in the drive.

Win98 will not see the partitions if they are NTFS.
They will show-up as Non-DOS partitions in Fdisk.

 

[mboy]

Right, NO partitions showed in fdisk!

 

[Magicthyse]

So what happens if you boot up the system without the tape drive?

 

[mboy]

It posts and then says no boot device. Go into PERC3 bios and it still shows the raid array. I am going to add an IDE HD tomorrow morning and load win2k pro on it, then go and see if I can see any of the partitions thats used to be there in hopes of pulling everything I need off.
If not, I might try this. what do you think of it?
Text
That seems like it could help if I cant boot the damn thing or see my 2 partitions that are holfding the data I need.

 

[Goosemaster]

Like I wrote in the other post, install another OS on another HD as you just said, and access it that way...


Basically all you will ahve to do is import the disks after installing the drivers...I think 2k already has PERC drivers

Good luck