I am having a similar problem, but here is how I got there:
I am running a Proliant M370 with 4 Compaq 9GB SCSI drives. We added a Promise IDE Array controller with 2 IDE drives (approx. 240 GB each).
I did a complete system erase. Then I loaded the Smart Start CD and created the system partition and through the Smart Start Menu installed Windows 2000 Server.
Everything was working great until I went into Windows disk management and accidentally deleted the system partition on the SCSI drives. I started getting the "Press F1 To Continue" message.
I went back and recreated the system partition and attempted to install the System Utilities. However, I still get the "Press F1 to continue" and if I press F10 without the Smart Start CD in the drive, I get the error the System Administration utilities do not exist.
I am too far down the road of installing patches to Windows and installing software to start from scratch again.
Thanks,
Dan