HP Microserver BIOS Boot Order Issue

[Brian M. Veteran]

Hi All,

I know a few of us here have these boxes - so hopefully someone has an idea as to what's going on here.

I have a little micro server upstairs which has the following config:

- 2TB *boot

- 4 x 3TB in software RAID5

The boot order is set as HDD first, and in the HDD selection screen, only the 2TB drive is selected. Works like a charm, that is, until I plug in a USB stick/hard drive.

If I attach a USB hard drive whilst it's powered on (i.e. for remote backups) for some reason the boot order reconfigures itself to allow the USB to boot (putting it before the internal HDD). In doing so, however, it also resets the HDD boot order to be:

- 3TB

- 3TB

- 3TB

- 3TB

Meaning that, because the 2TB disk which has the OS on it isn't listed - it refuses to boot. So whenever I plug in a USB stick, before rebooting I have to go in and change the boot order again - which is rather inconvenient for a headless server!

Does anyone have any ideas how I can stop this happening?

[+BudMan MVC]

I can not say I have seen this, but I never plug a usb disk in..  I would assume its seeing it as new disk, which is why the order gets changed.

 

But it shouldn't change the boot order, seems like a bug for sure to me.  What bios are you running native or modded?

[mcloum]

Try plugging the USB stick in first then altering the boot order, im sure Hp stuff picks up the USB as a HDD during boot, alter it while its plugged in and move your 2TB to the top.

 

Or you could try flashing the hacked BIOS rather than the official, at least you get full speed SATA ports, and hot swappable ports with the hacked BIOS, i run it on both mine and have no issues.

 

http://homeservershow.com/hp-proliant-n40l-microserver-build-and-bios-modification-revisited.html

[Haggis Veteran]

again never come across it but never tried, next time i am rebooting

[philcruicks]

I Have a slightly similar issue, tried to upgrade to Server 2012 R2 the other day (has put the image on a USB, installed OK, after selecting it from boot menu manually (hadn't changed the order), and after restarting it tried to boot the USB again.

 

 

However mine doesn't re-config the boot order, if I take the USB out then to normal OS drive (in a 5.25" caddy) boots fine...

 

I'd agree with Bud that its a bug, there's no obvious reason I can think of as to why that'd happen or why you'd want it to (i.e. its an option somewhere that you've got switched on and don't know about).

[+John Teacake MVC]

Yeah I had this issue or similar. I rebooted and wondered why it didnt come backup. I had to faff about connecting a monitor to see what was going on. I just removed the USB device and reset the boot order and rebooted. 

[kampua]

Same issue here, any solution to fix this?