Question:

How do I reinstall the operating system on my Volicon Observer system?

Answer:

Before proceeding with the following steps, please observe the following prerequisites:

• Current Observer system should be using Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
• Current Observer system should be using a Broadcom/Avago/LSI Raid controller model LSI92xx.  (You can check Device Manager under Storage Controllers to confirm)
• A USB flash drive that is 4gb or 8gb in size.An image of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Download here: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit image (Download no longer available).
• Windows 7 Pro 64-bit CDKEY (located on the server chassis via the Microsoft license sticker)
• Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder (optional) (a utility to obtain your Windows CDKEY). Download here: Magical Jelly Bean (Click on Download of the Free version)
• Drivers for the previously mentioned Raid controller. Download here: Raid Controller Driver (Download no longer available)
• Rufus (a utility to create a bootable USB flash drive): Download here: Rufus (Version 3.5 is the latest version as of 03/28/2019)
• Winrar (a utility to extract .RAR archives). Download here: Winrar (Select the version that is compatible with your Windows computer, x86 (32 bit) or x64 (64 bit) graphical and command line trial) 

Setup Rufus on the USB flash drive:

1. On any Windows 7/10 client PC, plug in the USB flash drive and start Rufus.
2. Under 'Device', select your USB flash drive.
3. Under 'Boot selection' you will need to select the Windows 7 Pro 64-bit image.  Click on SELECT and then select the Windows 7 64-bit image file.  (You will need to extract the *.rar  file beforehand, it should be a *.iso once extracted)
4. Under Partition Scheme, select MBR.
5. The Status should be READY, click START at the bottom.
6. Once completed, you can proceed to close Rufus.
7. Open the USB flash drive in Windows Explorer/My Computer/etc.
8. Create a folder and call it RAID DRIVER on the root of the USB flash drive.
9. Extract the contents of the Raid Controller Driver into this folder.  (The listing should be srv_2008_x64, srv2008_x86, win7_x64 and etc.)

 Reinstalling the operating system

1. Before you begin reinstalling the operation system, locate the Windows CDKEY.
   The CDKEY can be located on the server chassis via the Microsoft license sticker or if Windows is still accessible, run Magical Jelly Bean to obtain your Windows CDKEY.
2. Insert the USB flash drive into the server.
3. Power-on the Observer system and tap key that designates Boot Option/Order (it should display the key to tap)
4. Follow the onscreen prompts to proceed through the Windows installation.
5. During the installation, it may prompt you for "Which type of installation do you want?" Please select Custom (advanced)
6. It will then proceed to ask you "Where do you want to install Windows?" Click on Load Driver.
7. Click on Browse and access the USB flash drive and then proceed to the RAID DRIVER folder and select the Win7_x64 directory.
8. Once the driver is loaded, you will see several partitions (most of the time 2 partitions)  Please select the smaller of the two which is usually 2tb or similar in size.  Please be careful and do not select the larger/largest partition.  (Formatting the smaller partition that you will install Windows on is okay.)
9. Windows will continue the installation and may reboot your system.  Please remember to remove the USB flash drive before it reboots.
10. Once completed, please proceed into Windows with setting up Windows.
11. You may name the system whatever you would like and the user can be anything you would like also but there is a requirement to have a user account called "Observer" and it will need to be a local administrator on the system.
12. Input your Windows CDKEY when prompted.
13. Once you have done that, please enable Remote Desktop.
14. Setup the system to connect to the internet.
15. Install all important and optional Windows Updates. (This is required in order for the Observer software to be installed.)
16. Once you have completed all these steps, the support team will need to take over to install the Observer software. Please contact your support team.

Keywords:

Volicon Observer Operating System Reinstall Raid Drivers