The 1950 does not officially support the "SAS 6 HBA".  It is an "external" controller, and It is also not capable of RAID.  If you mean the SAS 6/iR, then the drivers should be built into 2008 R2. If you are truly using a SAS 6 HBA, then you need this driver for 2008 R2, although I'm not sure how you would have set it up to use the internal storage:[URL] However, your problem sounds to me like bad media - corrupt download, burn, DVD, etc.  Try some or all of the following: Install via USB (2008 family and later): [URL] I would forget about XP for now.   
Hi all!  I'm having an issue,the external CDROM i'm trying to use to install Windows XP or 2008 Server R2 doesn't load all the way, it give an error code (0x80070017) for all installations. I made a usb key with Windows XP which loads on the 1950 but only shows the USB drive's as a HDD to partition.  I've tried to change the settings in the BIOS (Revision 2.7.0)  I'm using a Dell SAS 6 Host Bus Adapter for the controller for the RAID 1.  Can someone help me out, I can't figure out why the other HDD's aren't showing up. Is there a newer BIOS install I need to do, or do I need to install drivers for the SAS Controller to show up when it's trying to do windows installation?  All help is appreciated! 
Poweredge 1950 Windows XP Bootable USB install Issue