Boot Problem Since Disk Failure

[debsw1]

Having problems with a Windows Server 2003, has mirrored disks, 1 disk failed and was replaced, mirror is all up and running again but the disks won't boot!

Nothing has changed in the BIOS boot order or SCSI controller settings, but when trying to boot from disks, you just get a flashing cursor in the corner and nothing happens.

If using a Boot Floppy disk with, ntldr, ntdetect and a boot.ini with the appropriate paths it boots ok, from either disk.

Have tried doing a bootcfg /rebuild, fixboot and fixmbr from the recovery console, but nothing helps.

Any ideas?

Regards
Debbie

 

[bananahammocks]

Deb, you have to go into Disk management and right click on the drive and choose "Mark Partition as Active". You can make a NT boot floppy and boot up to that drive then do it in disk management. You might have to edit the boot.ini file on the floppy to do it.

You might be able to do it with a 98 disk and fdisk but if your disk is bigger than 60 GB or so it might mess it up.

If you use the disk from this site and choose Boot NT you should also be able to do it.

http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz/bm_plus.html

Best of luck!

 

[debsw1]

Thanks for log.

The server is booting all ok from a floppy boot disk.

The 'Mark Partition as Active' option is not available. We think the active partition is a 8mb eisa diag partition on the disks, therefore it won't boot. We cannot seem to change the active partition from this diag partition.

Do you know of any application which could force a change.

Regards
Debbie

 

[porkchopexpress]

You need to get the boot.ini on the floppy onto the hard drive, i had the same problem with our dell raid setup when we did a restore the eisa partition (dell tools) was missing on the new drive so it failed to boot after we restored the C: drive as boot.ini pointed to the wrong partition.

 

[porkchopexpress]

This is how our Dell server boot.ini now looks

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, Standard" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut


but with the eisa partition it had to be

[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, Standard" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

 

[debsw1]

Thanks for information but unfortunately the boot.ini on the floppy is identical to the one on the server, we actually used the one off the server to create the bootable floopy.

Regards
Debbie

 

[porkchopexpress]

This could provide a fix.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=167045

 

[debsw1]

Thanks for the link.

I think it is a problem with the EISA partitons, i think these are set to be the active/primary partitions. But when trying to set the server 2003 partition as active the option is not available. The server 2003 partition is marked as 'boot' in disk administrator, but i beleive it should be marked as 'system' as this is done by marking it as the active partition.

Is there a 3rd party utility which can change this active partition? Or should i try and create a ms-dos boot disk with appropriate raid drivers and use fdisk? Can fdisk access ntfs paritions?

Thanks

 

[porkchopexpress]

Fdisk can delete an NTFS partition and recreate a new partition for you, you might try Barts PE

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Which disk in the mirror failed? If it was the primary then the problem might be that it can't boot from the replacement, if the old disks were identical you could try swapping them over. I can't see it being the active pastition as the OS boots from a floppy.

 

[porkchopexpress]

Is it possible that the new drive doesn't have an EISA partition but one does? This won't show up in windows but your RAID util might see it.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/165181/

 

[debsw1]

So using bartspe i could change the active partition? Or maybe even delete the EISA partions?

I have tried a wininternals boot cd but couldn't change any partition information.

The primary disk failed, and after replacing this and re-mirroring the problem happened. I did try swapping the drives over but still the same.

Both disks contain a EISA partiton the same size. I don't get any options within windows to change delete the partitions only 'help'!!

 

[porkchopexpress]

I'm not sure if barts PE could help it might just give you the same options as disk admin.

Are the drives absolutly identical as suggested in the thread, same manufacturer model and size?

 

[debsw1]

Yes drives same model size, and offset for partions are the same.

Disks came with EISA partition on them, the EISA partition is 8mb.

These partitions can't be doind anything as the server doesn't boot from them, but not error is shown just a blinking cursor top left.

I do think these partitions are the active boot parition i just can't say how this happend!! As when the server was first setup all was ok and the mirrored disks were tested, i did think that the boot files might of been corrupted when the disk failed so ran the fixboot etc. but hasn't helped.

 

[porkchopexpress]

I wonder if the array is trying to start from the second disk and shadowing to the first and this is causing the problem like the MS link says. Is there a way to see which disk is now concidered the shadow?

I'm not sure how to solve the active partition problem if that is the issue, i'm not sure how the EISA part became the active.