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Installing WINDOWS HOME SERVER on a server that I just built. Any driver issues. RRS feed

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    I am going to be using my 3 year old Dell Desktop (Inspiron 531) as a server. I will be installing WINDOWS HOME SERVER software on it. It currently has Vista Home Premium on it. Someone I know says I might encounter driver issues. Is this true? If it is which drivers need to be loaded and how do I go about loading them?
    Chris Mah
    Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:17 PM

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    On 6/23/2010 1:17 PM, Chris Mah wrote:

    I am going to be using my 3 year old Dell Desktop (Inspiron 531) as a server. I will be installing WINDOWS HOME SERVER software on it. It currently has Vista Home Premium on it. Someone I know says I might encounter driver issues. Is this true? If it is which drivers need to be loaded and how do I go about loading them?

    Potentially you will encounter driver issues with networking, video, audio, and card readers.  The networking can be solved by finding drivers for your network interface card.  The video and audio are moot points, as you're not "supposed" to use a monitor or speakers on a server (in fact, you won't find audio drivers for the server).  The card reader may be an issue (if you have one)--although you may be able to install drivers for Windows XP (as WHS is built off of Windows Server 2003).

    Also if you have wireless networking, you may encounter problems finding drivers for that.  Like the ethernet network card, you'll want to see if you can find drivers for it that work with either Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP.

    Hope this helps, and have a great day:)
    Patrick.

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    Wednesday, June 23, 2010 9:46 PM
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    If your server supports SATA disks, check and make sure your BIOS is set to IDE mode. That way, you won't need to find and load proper SATA AHCI drivers (WHS/Server 2003 does not include them in their package)
    Wednesday, June 23, 2010 10:44 PM
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    Dell has Windows XP drivers for that computer; those will be the drivers you will need. As Evaders99 has suggested, setting your BIOS to run your SATA drives in IDE mode will offer the best compatibility and fewest chances for storage issues. for other drivers, you will need a network driver if it's not "in box" in Windows Home Server setup, but you won't need sound or video drivers (the standard VGA driver will be fine, as it is a server, after all).
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Thursday, June 24, 2010 12:49 PM
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