Hi everyone,
Having a bit of a problem here. Here's the situation: Server was running Server 2008 R2 Entreprise, had to upgrade to Server 2012 R2 Standard, and I can't seem to boot into Windows ever since.
The Server has an Intel S5520HC board with 2 X Intel Xeon processors, 24 GB of RAM, and an Intel Integrated Server RAID Module RMS2LL040, with 2 X 450 GB Seagate Cheetah 15K drives in RAID1 configuration.
Here's what I did: Downloaded Server 2012 R2 from the Microsoft Licensing Website, installed the ISO on a USB Stick, booted the server on the stick, did a complete format and deletion of the Server 2008 R2 partition and installed Server 2012 R2 (With GUI) on the fresh partition.
The install went great and without a hitch (the first four steps, up until "Installing updates"). After that, server restarted, went into the usual Server 2012 R2 boot screen (Windows Logo with the little dotted-wheel at the bottom). The screen flashed about 2 to 3 times, before getting to "Getting devices ready". At that point, it went from 0 to 100% in a normal speed (I'd say about a minute or so), and then the server restarted again.
The problem happens here: After said restart, the computer boots up to the Windows Server 2012 R2 boot screen (Windows logo and little dotted-wheel), the "wheel" makes about 4-5 turns and then BAM, I get the dreaded screen saying that "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We are just collecting some error info, and then we'll restart for you".
After that, Windows Setup wasn't even recognizing my drives. I had to find the SAS Driver, put it on the stick and load it manually.
I tried changing the USB stick, tried changing the USB port used, even tried going into the SAS configuration at boot and destroying the volume and recreating one from scratch: Same issue.
I even tried putting in another, single drive (WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500 GB) and installing on it: Same exact problem.
Is there something I'm doing wrong ? Is it possible that the RAID Module is not correctly configured or there's something wrong in the BIOS that was OK for Server 2008 R2 but not for 2012 R2 ?
I have to do the same on another server with the exact same specs, but I don't want to **** it all up like that one as well.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Update #1: Just for the hell, I tried reinstalling Server 2008 R2 on the server, after clearing everything (deleting the RAID volume and recreating and, and installing from USB Stick) and it was somewhat problematic.
The installation went through without a problem, it restarted, got the message saying the installation program was starting the services, then a black screen and another message stating the Registry was being updated, went back to the Installation checklist, checked "Finish installing" and then rebooted...got an error message from Windows saying it wasn't stopped correctly. Chose to start Windows normally, went back to starting the services, and then an error message stating that the computer was restarted, Windows' installation couldn't continue, had to click on "OK" to reboot the computer and restart the installation...