So my supervisor wanted to do some preliminary testing of our product on Windows Server 2008 on some spare machines, Dell 1750′s to be specific. One problem, no DVD drives and the 1750′s don’t boot from USB. He tried just installing on another machine and ghosting onto the 1750 but ran into problems due to the PERC4/Di raid controller on the 1750.

I didn’t really want to set up the full Vista/2008 deployment system, so my first attempt was to install on another machine and just load the PERC4/Di driver when given the option during install (You have to uncheck the “hide drivers that aren’t for this system” option). Apparently at some point during the install it purges the driver if it doesn’t need it, so it just BSODed after ghosting to the 1750. I thought of a possible workaround the other day and finally got around to trying it today. Right after you load the additional storage drivers it reboots before finishing the installation. I grabbed the image during that reboot and let the install finish on the 1750 successfully. This should work on any system in a similar situation.