Users Guide
b On the Choose server installation mode page, select the appropriate installation mode, and provide the required data. For a new
installation, select Clean install. Proceed with required inputs to congure your install.
For detailed steps on conguring your Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials install, see Technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sbs/
jj159331.aspx.
c Create the Administrator user account and Standard user account and complete the installation.
13 On the Settings screen, type the password, conrm the password, and click Finish.
The system is locked.
14 The system is locked now, and you can log in to the system by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
15 Type the administrator password, and then press Enter to log in to the system.
The operating system installation is complete.
NOTE: After you log in to the system, you can use the Server Manager Dashboard to congure and manage dierent roles and
features in the operating system.
Appendix—Partitioning a drive
Drive partitioning allows you to divide a physical hard drive into multiple virtual hard drives. Each virtual hard drive is called a partition. There
are two types of partition schemes:
• Master Boot Record scheme
• GUID Partition Table scheme
Master boot record scheme
Master boot record (MBR) scheme is a legacy partition scheme that can be used by most operating systems. The total data storage space
of a computer hard drive is divided into at a maximum four primary partitions.
GUID partition table scheme
GUID partition table (GPT) scheme is a new standard for the layout of the partition table on a physical hard drive. It is part of the extensible
rmware interface (EFI) standard, which is a replacement for the system BIOS.
Choosing between partition schemes
NOTE
: To change your partition scheme from BIOS to UEFI and vice versa during POST, press F2, select Boot Settings, and
press Enter. Change the value of Boot Mode to BIOS or UEFI. For more information, follow steps 1–8 in the Install Windows
Server 2012 R2 by using the Dell LifeCycle Controller section.
The main considerations for choosing between the partition schemes are:
• Hard drive size
• Operating system version
• Software tools used in the operating system
The MBR partition scheme is used across older versions of the Microsoft operating systems. MBR partitioning scheme supports a volume
size smaller than 2 TB. Use the GPT partition scheme for newer operating systems such as Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows
Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, and hard drive sizes larger than 2 TB.
NOTE
: GPT boot (UEFI boot) is supported only on 11
th
generation of the PowerEdge servers or later.
NOTE: Dell EMC recommends that you use the GPT partition scheme as it is more exible, supports larger hard drive sizes, and
has some features and recovery mechanisms that are not available in the MBR partition scheme.
Installing and reinstalling Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 11