I use a Dell Poweredge SC440 running Win 2003 server in my office. Recently, we bought a new and more powerful server and I wanted to demote the server to an ordinary workstation. To my surprise however, it will not demote. Instead, I get this message " there are no more endpoint mappers". As an alternative measure, I tried installing Win XP on the system, but no luck. I get the message" Windows cannot detect a hard drive on your system".
I checked and discovered the system has virtual disk configuration. So my question is how do I get Windows to see my hard drive?, and how do I demote the server?
All suggestions will be appreciated pls.

Coolruler, !

I've got one those SC440 servers running SBS2003!

To install XP on this both you will the drivers for the SATA disk in that box. You see your server has a RAID config setup, hence the virtual disk you where seeing. Well you need to get the drivers from Dell, and press F6 during the install process and tell it where to find the drivers for your RAID card, so it can see the disks.

Let me know how you get on?

- Computer Troubleshooter

i my self is having the same problem too, i will advice u to install original window server 2003 operating system back, or take it back to dell if u bought it new

The issue your facing with installing an alternative OS this server isnt new. It fairly common, I remember facing thses issues back in the days of NT4. The virtual disk you saw listed, was basically the logical drive presented to the OS at install, and could be made up of one or more physical disk drives. For an older OS such as XP to see that volume you need to tell it what driversto use, hence you gt the option to press F6 during the install so additional drivers can be specfied.

But as I think about it, i know from experience that the installationwill require you to put a floppy disk with drivers in the machine. This is a histotric thing, so if you dont have a floppy drive in that server then you'll run into problems.

I was also curious how you came about this problem. Its not clear if you were demoting prior to installing the new server? I would expect you to 1stly install the new server, then demote the older one.

Hope this helps

Thank you weymola,
I actually installed the new Server first. I now wanted to demote the SC440 and I got the message"there are no more endpoint mappers available". I tried re-installing the Server OS, but Windows would not see the hard drives.
I guess my main problem is, how would I convert virtual drives to physical drives that Windows can see?

Coolruler.

Yeah I think i'm getting a better now. So the new server was insatlled into the same AD domain, you ran the dcpromo command on the old server and got the mappers not availiable message? Have you got the dell openmanage CD? I think thats your best bet at this stage as it has the utilites to allow you install a new server OS. You wont be able to install XP usinf this utility CD as its not built for that purpose. It maybe possible to get the drivers fro your raid card, so you can manually try the install. But your best bet is to install Win2003.

On another note I ust remember that on my SC400 I have VMware ESXi running. It was an easy install and it recognised the disks and other bits of hardware in the box. My SC440 processor had the V extentions buitl so ESX installed easily. I'm thinking since the ESXi foot print is only 64Mb and its overheads on the server very low, then this might be a solution for your problem. Once ESXi is installed you can then install XP on the box with no worries.

The ESXi is a free download from VMWare so its worth a shot, plus you can begin to play around with ESX server in the process.

cheers

Weymola