I had a problem recently with a failed RAID-5 set on an older PowerEdge 1600SC.  During the recovery process, I installed an IDE drive to be the C: drive of the recovery installation.  I tried several times to install Windows 2003 using different hard drives and different BIOS configurations; Each time the install would finish copying and when it was starting to finish the initial copy install, it would hang at loading DMREG.INF.  This also happened when using the Dell Open Manage Installation and Server Manager CD.  I researched the problem and found nothing productive.

I decided to install Windows Server 2008 on the box to act as the recovery host.  Server 2008 installed and booted.  All drivers loaded properly (it appeared).  As I was installing the Backup Exec software, it kept crashing.  I opened IE to research the problem, and it, too crashed.  I scanned the drive for errors - none found.  Researched the problem.  Noticed serveral errors in the SYSTEM log from ATAPI saying bad blocks on the drive.  After further research, I discovered the problem - the IDE chipset on the ServerWorks® GC-SL is not compatible with Windows Server 2008.  In the BIOS, the highest the drive would go was ATA-33 - anything more and the box reported invalid cabling and would automatically downgrade the speed back to 33.  I assume this is the problem - the 33 transfer rate is just not enough for Server 2008.  I am assuming this was the problem with the Windows 2003 installation as well.