A few weeks ago, I initially had issues installing Windows Hyper-V Server onto a Dell 1950 server. It gave a useless drive error and says go see the logs. Sadly, since the server doesn’t have a pre-existing windows drive set up, the logs aren’t stored anywhere. This is a server product, I’d happily read through accessible logs and/or look up a code online.

After trying to search the Microsoft support website, I gave up and went to google. Searching through google for an answer shows it may be an issue with the fact I’ve installed a USB drive in the computer.  I had installed the USB drive installed inside the computer with a shroud over it.  I also didn’t have it racked as of yet and it was sitting between two other servers in my rack (there was shipping issues with the rails for the server). So I needed to shut it down, let it cool so I don’t burn myself, pull out the server, remove the shrouds and USB drive, reattach the shrouds, put the server back into the rack, and then restart the install.

THIS IS A SERVER PRODUCT! It should just work in a standard configuration. If it breaks, it should give me an error I can at least punch into your support database to get a well reasoned answer as to what is going on and how I fix it (instead of reading random google pages and hoping something works). Also, an installed USB drive shouldn’t break an install.

Ultimately, I gave up for the night and decided to work on it the next day.  One removal of the internal USB drive and it installed with no problems.

Stay tuned because I’ll be publishing more articles about my Hyper-V travails.  The drop dead date for Hyper-V studying is January 20th, 2014 when I take my Microsoft 74-409 Server Visualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center.   I’m about halfway through the online Microsoft Virtual Academy Videos already and hope to have them completed by this weekend.