Re: can't boot from mirrored boot drive

PS:

Reasons why Windows NT does not boot from a shadow mirror drive
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/167045

John

John John wrote:

Well then it looks like you have to boot on
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)

If the disk containing the primary partition fails you will have to create a fault tolerant boot floppy to recover the installation.

John

billd wrote:

hmmm, seems to have missed a post here :-( I used winobj, the arc name folder showed me that rdisk1 is actaully \device\harddisk2 and that rdisk2 is actually \device\harddisk1 so, it appeared to me I had rdisk1 and it should have been rdisk2... so I changed it and then got the message in the previous post, it can't find windows root\system32\config\system... I think, as someone read that to me over the phone... it didn't boot. So I'm not sure if that is worse or better... it looks to me as though it should be rdisk2.

Also, in ARC names, the partitio n that it is booted from successfully C: has the following entries:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2) SymbolicLink \Device\HarddiskDMVolumes\MetaDg0\Volume1

and the plex/mirror has:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2) SymbolicLink \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1

No other paths are pointing at any sort of MetaDG0\Volume type entry.

Under the Device\Harddisk folders, Harddisk0 and Harddisk1 both have MegaDg0 entries under them...

If I had a known good working system, I could compare, but I don't, all my other systems use hardware RAID.

Thanks
Bill





"billd" wrote:


grrrr... the message changed, but it still doesn't boot...

now is says it can't find:

\windows\system32\config\system (that's read to me from someone over the phone, I hope its right)

is that better or worse than the:

<windows root>\system32ntoskrnl.exe

message?

Geesh this is frustrating

How can I tell, in winobj which harddisk is which?



"John John" wrote:


To me it sounds like the ARC path is wrong, you should be able to see the drives' ARC paths with WinObj. Does it match the ARC path in your boot.ini file?

John

billd wrote:


Well, I used bootcfg after I created the mirror and it looked fine. I've just installed WinObj, but I can't seem to see anything there that helps me identify what is the problem on this disk.

Basically, I'd like to know how to approch this disk. Do I break the mirror, shutdown and remove the good boot disk rdisk(0) and just leave the disk that doesn't want to boot in and boot to the recovery conole to check it out?

Then if I can see the problem and take whatever steps, how do I put a mirror back in place, without removing the mirror and putting the mirror back? I haven't done this before... well, not in windows, only in PERC and other hardware raid controllers and while I have googled this extensively, I get conflicting information as to if I need a floppy boot disk with boot.ini on it or not, which I don't currently have (I assume as the disks are mirrored, they each have a copy of boot.ini right?) Was there a step I missed in mirroring the disk, do I have to do anything besides install it, go to disk manager and make it dynamic and then add mirror to it? Do I have to make it bootable somehow first?

I've worked hardware RAIDs and even Linux S/W RAID without incident, but this one has got me befuddled.

Thanks


"John John" wrote:



The Recovery Console's bootcfg or map commands or using Sysinternal's WinObj tool in the up and running installation may shed some light on the situation.

John

billd wrote:


Yes, I am... The first disk boots ok. There is an EISA partition that is the first partition on the first rdisk(0). So I boot from the second. On the second harddisk rdisk(1) there are only two partitions, the first is the boot, but it will not boot.

Thanks for your response..
Bill

"John John" wrote:




You are trying to boot on the second partition on the first hard disk, is that where the installation resides?

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)
^^^^^^^^

John

billd wrote:




Hi,

Recently, my mirrored drive in my 2K3 server died. I took the drive out, removed the mirror, but new drive in, replaced the mirror. It says it is healthing and the mirror is fine. However, if I try to boot from the mirrored drive, it fails with the error:

windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<windows root>\system32ntoskrnl.exe

please reinstall a copy of the above file.

Now that would normally say to me that the boot.ini is incorrect, but it looks right to me:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server" /noexecute=optout /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Boot Mirror C: - secondary plex" /noexecute=optout /fastdetect

the disks are mirrored, so the path to windows should be correct yes? They are sata drives, drive 0 and drive 1 on the main system board's controller. I was able to format the drive correctly etc before I made the mirror> I can look at properties of the disk in disk manager - everything seems sweet until I try and boot the secondary. There are three partitions on rdisk(0) 102MB EISA Configuration) C: 12GB NTFS (Healthy System) and Logs (G:) 62.40 GB NTFS Healthy

rdisk(1) only has 2 partitions, the C: and G: which are mirrored and healthy. When I set up the mirror, it did not give me the opportunity to mirror the EISA Configuration.

Anyway, it would appear that I am running on empty to coin a phrase because if my first drive fails, it looks as though I would not be able to boot the mirror drive. How can I see what the state of that drive is? Do I need to break the mirror and unplug the rdsk(0) and see if it will boot? What is the best procedure for this.

Thanks







.

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