Need PERC 4e/Di Win7/Vista x86 driver for Dell PowerEdge 2850

Your best bet would be the 2008 x86 drivers if they don't work then you may want to look into running win 7 as a virtual machine on top of a supported server os.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WLHS1&catid=-1&dateid=-1&impid=-1&osl=EN&typeid=-1&formatid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=PWE_PNT_P3C_2850&hidos=WNET&hidlang=en&TabIndex=&scanSupported=False&scanConsent=False

thanks for the suggestions, close but not quite.  For some reason, there ARE drivers for Windows Server 2008R2 (x64) but none for 2008 x86.  strange.  any other ideas?

2008 R1 had the PERC drivers integrated, which is why there are none listed for 2008.  2008 R2 had the drivers removed, and although they are available on Dell's website, 2008 R2 is 64-bit only, so they won't work with 7x86.

Your best bet is this driver - it is a 2008 R2 driver for the PCIe add-in version of the same RAID controller (PERC 4e/DC) ... it does have a slightly different firmware vs. the onboard PERC 4e/Di, but it is really your only option, unless you can find a Windows 7 driver on LSI's website for the model the PERC 4e/Di is based on.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=08&l=en&s=bsdr&releaseid=R227150&SystemID=PWE_1800&servicetag=&os=WS8R2&osl=en&deviceid=6315&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=35&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=326367

Alternatively, you could always turn off RAID (set onboard RAID to SCSI Enabled under Integrated Devices in BIOS Setup (F2)).

Sorry ... scratch that link ... apparently I forgot half-way through we decided 2008 R2 drivers won't work and 2008 R1 drivers weren't necessary :)

There were also no workstations where Vista/7 would have been supported that used a card with a compatible driver.  

My recommendation?  Disable RAID to install Windows 7 on the 2850.  (Or, see if LSI has a driver for Windows 7 ... I didn't see one at a glance.)

Other alternatives ...

I believe Vista will install ok on this (if I remember right, I tried this way back when Vista came out - and it should have the same driver base as 2008 R1).

Install Windows 7x64 with the 2008 R2 driver.

Hi PowerEdgeTech -

Thanks for the suggestions.

I tried installing Vista and no driver available, and the 2008R1 x86 driver shows up properly in the list of available devices when I browse to the floppy drive with the driver, but the driver will not load.

I have now disabled RAID and have booted to my WDS server to install Win7 Pro x86 and I'm bring prompted for a storage driver again - with the PERC disabled, what should I choose here?

Thanks for all the help thus far!

Just a thought ... for kicks, you could try the backplane driver if Windows doesn't find drives in SCSI mode, but this is usually not needed during the install, but after:
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&releaseid=R220657&SystemID=PWE_PNT_P3C_2850&servicetag=&os=WLHS1&osl=en&deviceid=976&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=34&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=314563

this worked, thanks!  still disappointed that I can't use the hardware RAID but at least I can get some value out of this old server.  cheers!