Dell R430 server after power loss cant boot into C:

[alekseiharlasov]

After a power loss in the building. No boot device available or OS detected. Server 2019 Std.
RAID 5 with a controller H730P.
Date and time were off… 2001.01.01
IDRAC is working fine over IP, ver 6. I arrived at the site, and the screen is just going in circles with booting options.
The server was working fine over 5 years.
Virtual disk is visible, all physical disks are visible(online)

[Jay-Updegrove]

Hate to say it, but you might have a server to donate to the annual server-tossing competition…

[neal2314]

You might try booting it from Hiren’s BootCD PE to see what’s there. Like @Jay-Updegrove said, it may be done. Good luck!

[somedude2]

It is possible the bios forgot all it’s settings…do you know for sure it isn’t
supposed to be using UEFI?

Go into bios setup and see if the bios can read disk geometry, that will
at least tell you if the drive completly died…

Otherwise, yes, hirens, and plan a long weekend maybe..
Is iDRAC alive? can you get into the config menu?

[adrian_ych]

Likely the Mobo batt is dead so it did a BIOS reset, but fortunately it seems the RAID adapter have its own set of batts so RAID info is intact.

But I think the boot may need to set to UEFI and boot sequence should be RAID adapter (instead of BIOS or C:\ (unless the RAID adapter died as well).

Worse case scenario is that the BIOS not only reset but went to factory default which also wiped any formware updates that enable the integrated RAID adapter settings as well ?

[matt7863 (m@ttshaw)]

Based on it being an R430 and S2019 I would guess at it being UEFI.
At least try UEFI mode.

I would also try booting from windows media / recovery / to a command prompt - check if it sees the volume. try both bios and ueif mode.

[microsoftfanboy]

If that was a workstation, I’d say that the bios battery is dead.

[aarondennis2]

Does iDRAC report any drive failures or issues with the raid card?
Do you have a backup of the server that you can restore from?

[jarmbrister]

@somedude2

It is possible the bios forgot all it’s settings…do you know for sure it isn’t
supposed to be using UEFI?

+1 for this possible scenario. Looks like the CMOS battery died. Replace and check your settings.

[admin-omar (admin omar 2025)]

you need to replace the bios battery with a new one

[afroz-stellar]

The Server 2019 boot failure after power loss is caused by the H730P RAID controller losing its configuration or boot settings, even though the virtual disk and physical disks show online. Access the RAID configuration utility (Ctrl+R during boot) to check if the virtual disk shows “Optimal,” look for foreign configurations that need importing, and verify the RAID array is set as the primary boot device in BIOS. The reset date indicates a dead CMOS battery but won’t prevent booting. If RAID configuration looks correct, the Master Boot Record may need rebuilding or restoration from backup. After 5 years of stable operation, this is a configuration issue, not hardware failure.