Supermicro X7DA3 Windows installation issue.

[alaskey]

Hello all!

 

I have an old Supermicro X7DA3 server board that I am in the process of repurposing and I am having some issues with the windows installation process.  The basic description of the problem is the machine powers on to the Supermicro splash screen, it then moves onto the built in SAS/SATA controller BIOS which says that it finds no logical drives and that the BIOS is not installed.  From there two possibilities occur:  If ACPI is turned off I boot from flash drive/disk drive fine and Windows proceeds to give me error: 0x0000225 due to ACPI being disabled in the mobo BIOS, the other possibility is if ACPI has been enabled in the BIOS it performs all of the same steps as before except instead of booting the windows installation media it just reverts to the Supermicro splash screen and freezes there.  I am able to get into the BIOS and change settings fine, and all of my hardware is correctly detected.  I am stumped at this point and am also confused on the mobo's website's description of how to flash the BIOS to an updated version.  If anyone has any expertise or suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.  I would prefer to install Windows 10 but Windows 7 would be doable.  Note: I do not have the original HDD/RAM/CPU that came with the machine when it was passed on to me.

 

Thank you!

 

Hardware List:

 

CPU: 2x Xeon E5450

RAM: 4x2GB  KVR667D2S8F5/512

MOBO: Supermicro X7DA3

HDD (Intended): Seagate Barracuda 1TB

[alaskey]

Found the fix.  Used Rufus to create a bootable USB and the correct directory format for the Supermicro BIOS to recognize the drive correctly.  Flashed to the most recent BIOS and voila!