New to forum, maybe someone can help with an idea

I have a DL 360 G5 with the P800 controller attached to a MSA60 storage array. The problem is with the MSA60 attached Windows 7 will take 20 minutes to boot. If I unhook the MSA60 boot is normal. There are no errors in the event log.

Since the storage array was added after Windows 7 had been up and running I decided to reinstall Windows with the array attached - no joy as took 20 minutes to start the install. I had an old 2003 server install that worked fine but the old OS wouldn't work for what I needed.

I installed Ubuntu without issues and all works fine but again that OS won't work for what I need. I installed Windows 7 in an VM on Ubuntu but couldn't get the serial passthrough working (home automation - 6 serial ports needed). What I'm getting at is the hardware is fine and as long as the MSA60 is not used Windows 7 works fine also. The MSA60 has all the latest firmware and drivers. Any suggestions?

Always unplug all other drives when installing Win7 or you are asking for problems.

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image with all other drives plugged in as we will likely be able to spot the problem.

gregrocker said:

Always unplug all other drives when installing Win7 or you are asking for problems.

Sorry I wasn't very clear - original install of Windows 7 was without the MSA60, problem occurred when the MSA60 was plugged in. Second attempt was to install with the MSA60 plugged in, problem occurred at install.

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image with all other drives plugged in as we will likely be able to spot the problem.

I'll need to get 7 installed on the box again. I probably wont get the chance to do that until next week, I'll post a screenshot then, thanks.

This time wipe the HD first with Diskpart Clean Command to clear any code that might be interfering. Make sure all other drives are unplugged.

Test performance after Clean Install Windows 7, then enable Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3) and run all rounds of IMportant and Optional Windows Updates until no more are offered with you Check For Updates. Test performance between each group of Updates.

After no more Update are offered, check Device Manager for missing drivers. Import them from the Support Downloads webpage for the device model. Test performance between each Driver install.

Then install programs, testing between each install.

Only plug back in your array when ready to import files, then test performance. If it slows, test it with one drive at a time added to pinpoint the cause.

Thanks for your help getting me in the right frame of mind, color me stupid. The problem ends up that even with all reference to a floppy drive disabled and removed from the boot order in BIOS Windows 7 won't allow the use of A: for the storage array (at least not with this hardware combination). Ubuntu (no drive letter, mount after boot, etc) and Windows 2003 installs had no issue with it but Windows 7 would still look at the storage array to boot until it gave up (20 minutes). Thanks again!

The 20 minute boot times are back. The only change was running a Windows Backup (system and user files) to the storage array. I've tried to disable Windows backup (by disabling the service), this didn't help. I've noticed many posts in the Drobo forums that describe this exact symptom and other posts that describe the problem when using large RAID arrays (like this is), but those posts fail to give resolutions.

Anyone know of a registry setting or way to disable whatever Windows boot is looking for because of the Backup? I'm happy with using other backup methods and leaving Windows Backup disabled if I can get my boot problem solved. I tried a system restore to a time before the backup without success.

Turn off Windows Backup in Backup and Restore Center, not by disabling its Service. What other Services have you disabled? None should ever be disabled in Win7 as it's already lean as an OS can be.

What type of RAID array do you have? You say its Storage but if its also that you have OS RAID'ed then we see nothing but problems with Win7 and RAID so this is not surprising.

Unplug the other drives and plug Win7 hard drive in directly to internal SATA to see if problem replicates. Then add back the storage drives one by one to see which is slowing boot, move data off of it to wipe with Diskpart. Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

gregrocker said:

Turn off Windows Backup in Backup and Restore Center, not by disabling its Service. What other Services have you disabled? None should ever be disabled in Win7 as it's already lean as an OS can be.

Tried both ways - no difference. No other services disabled.

What type of RAID array do you have? You say its Storage but if its also that you have OS RAID'ed then we see nothing but problems with Win7 and RAID so this is not surprising.

The RAID array is the MSA60 from the original post. P800 is the controller in the DL360. 12x2TB drives in the MSA60, 6x72G SAS drives in the DL360. RAID 5 in both.

Unplug the other drives and plug Win7 hard drive in directly to internal SATA to see if problem replicates. Then add back the storage drives one by one to see which is slowing boot, move data off of it to wipe with Diskpart. Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

It's of course not an option to unplug all drives and add back one by one as suggested. The drives aren't the cause, Compatibility between my hardware and Windows 7 or more precisely the hardware and Windows 7 backup are the issue. I can rebuild one more time and just remember to turn off backup - problem solved, thanks.