Dual boot with Server 2003 64bit and XP 64bit

I have a dell precision 690 that came with XP 64bit on it. I want to be able
to dual boot with Server 2003 64bit on a separate hard drive, but when I try
to install, it can't find the hard drive. Any Ideas on how to get this to
work?

 

You may need a driver on a floppy. How is the hard drive
connected?

 

The hard drive is connected to the mother board. I think I need an intel AHCI
driver, which I have attempted to install (tried three different versions),
but after the install takes the driver it still says the hard drive can't be
found. Re-looking at the instructions the intel chipset might need installed
prior to installing the AHCI driver, but I am not sure how to do that. Dell
doesn't support Server 2003 installed on the Precision 690, but the Intel
controler I have does support Server 2003. I don't know how to configure the
controller/hard drives other than installing the AHCI drivers as mentioned on
various posts. Would installing drivers for the WD hard drives be of any use.
Dell says no. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Can you see the hard drive from within XP64? If not, try to figure out what
you need to get it running on a supported OS.

Once you have done that, see if you can figure out which drivers will
duplicate that on the 2003 install.

Does the 2003 install see your XP64 drive? If so, what is different between
the 2 drives?

 

The disk drives are identical, each WD 250 gig SATA. I can see both hard
drives from the XP OS, but I can't install the 2003 Server OS. I think it is
either a bios settings or a driver during the 2003 Server install that is
needed (or both).

 

You will most likely need the SATA drivers during the install of 2003 64-bit
and may need BIOS also. Is your BIOS reasonalbly current?

 

Problem solved. The Precison 690 was originally set up as serial ATA drives
(for the XP 64bit OS only), but needed to be set up as SAS (serial attatched
SCSI). The guy from Dell (I found one that actually knew what he was talking
about) had me switch the SATA HD cables on the motherboard from HDD-0 and
HDD-1 to the SATA-0 and SATA-1 connections. We also had to turn on the SATA-0
and SATA-1 drives in the BIOS. Hope this helps for anyone else.

 

It is amazing to find one that actually knows what they are talking about
AND speaks so you can understand what they are saying.

 

I don't get it...