Booting to RAID 5 Drive 1

[BernardStewart]

I have a workstation running XP Pro in a multi-boot set up.
The hardware is ASUS A7NX8 motherbooard. The disk configuration is as follows: two 80Gb EIDE drives as drives C&D (both with XP Pro loaded) and four 40Gb drives on a Promise RAID controller card with RAID 5 split into multiple partitions with XP Pro installed into RAID drive Partition E.

The setup was configured to boot first into the RAID XP installation so the motherboard BIOS was set to boot options floppy=1, SCSI=2, CDROM=3.

The problem was that for no apparent reason the XP installation on the RAID drive literally trashed (no apparent reason or cause). I would boot in safe mode but no other. It also had lost all the carefully set sysstem restore points!. I tried doing a repair installation and that did not work. I have had to do a rewipe and total reinstall. All OK so far except that it cannot now boot directly into the RAID XP with the BIOS settings as given. When I try I get the error "NTLDR is missing".
The only way I can boot into the XP raid is by setting the bios HDDO=1. This means that it is relying on the EIDE C drive to be present and then will boot into the RAID XP having used the boot.ini file on the C drive to see the RAID system. Since the C&D drives are swappable backup disks I don't want this.

Any ideas how I can get it to boot directly to the RAID drive?

Unfortunately my tech expert who built this for me has retired and moved abroad!

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[CSUKNic]

This is a thorny problem, primarily because the MBR on your Raid Array is corrupted, and Microsoft's website usually advises that you reinstall. However, experience has shown that this usually makes no difference.

I had this problem on a Win 2K Pro machine, so I am guessing that the solution I developed may help.

Get a windows 95, 98 or ME bootdisk that has the sys.com command installed on it. Also make sure you have the XP CD handy. boot the pc from the 9x/me bootdisk, and type SYS E: (where E: is the raid partition). This will rewrite the bootsector as ME.

Restart the machine and boot from the XP CD, go into recovery console and once logged into the partition on E:, TYPE FIXMBR then FIXBOOT, and you should find the bootsector will be rewritten back to XP.

 

[bcastner]

See: thread779-720095

 

[BernardStewart]

Many thanks CSNUKNic,

You say microsoft advises to reinstall - I did a fressh reinstall so am I missing a point here?

 

[CSUKNic]

No, you aren't missing anything, it just appears that the reinstall proceedure does not always overwrite the error. This problem caused me no end of grief after a major pc upgrade, and sys'ing the drive was the only thing that worked.

 

[BernardStewart]

CSUKNic,

You are right about the hassle!!
I had reformatted that partition and did a fresh install.

It failed to write any of the important boot files to the disk (i.e boot.ini, NTLDR, Netdetect.com etc) - I don't understand why not.

Also is there something being written outside of this partition that determins the disk 'bootability'? Sorry if this is an inane q!

 

[CSUKNic]

Only in the Master Boot Record, but this should be modified on format.

 

[BernardStewart]

The raid drive is in several partitions so I only reformatted the first partition - so I assume the MBR has stayed as it was??

Why wouldn't a fresh install write those important boot files to the new installation?

 

[bcastner]

I think the issue is that the Active Partition has changed.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318728

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320397

And you will likely need this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305595

 

[BernardStewart]

Many thanks for all your helpful replies. However, I am still not clear!!!
Firstly, the microsoft articles seem to be for work-arounds to boot from a floppy.

Secondly, copying Netdetect, NTLDR etc to the E partition (as suggested in MS article) does not help.

Thirdly, if one boots from a win 95/95 boot disk the raid drive is not recognised.

Fourth, using the FIXMBR command in recovery console gives a warning that it may make all partitions inaccessible.

So, I'm not sure if I am further forward!! Or have I missed something?

Incidentally, Partition magic shows this E drive partition to be Active Primary.

So, here are a few Qs to help me understand.

1) Why, having reformatted the E Partition and fresh installed XP pro is it not writing any of the key boot files to that partition and is relying on the C Drive Boot.ini?

If I delete all the partition and do a reformat and then rinstall will this make the RAID drive a bootable drive independent of the C drive?

Hope somone can throw some further light on this.

 

[Jump1ng]

The reason why your drive isn't showing up in DOS is most likely a driver issue, you need to load the DOS drivers for your raid card (it there is any).

If you just copy the NTLDR to a partion that will not fix the boot record which you need to run FIXMBR to overwrite it.

Do you still have a windows xp system on your c drive? If you do it will setup your system for multibooting and still use the c drive and configure its boot.ini to select which of your oses (is that the right word for multiple os?) to startup.

If you don't need any os on your c drive i would disconnect your c drive and only leave your raid disks and install it fresh again this should setup all you need on your raid drives. This should leave all your other drives intact.

You then need to make sure that you boot from the raid before c drive or it might load to your old os when you put your c drive in.

You could try the fixmbr with your c drive disconnected first as this will make sure that it doesn't change anything on this drive.

 

[BernardStewart]

Thanks to you all - I've tried most of the ideas but none was quite right but Jump!ng gave me a clue to an effective if laborious solution.

The reason for having 2 EIDE drives and the RAID drives is for security and backup on a mission critical workstation. The RAID system is used for the main work. The OS is also installed on the EIDE drives so as to allow access if the RAID fails. If this seems OTT all I can say is that having had 3 HD failures and a virus attack which cost my business dearly it doesn't feel so! I keep the OS and anti virus software up to date. This latest quest was prompted by the totally inexplicable failure last weekend of the main OS.

The solution I developed is as follows:-

1) Intall XP pro to the C Drive - this then has all other software etc and data.

2) Swap the C&D Drives around and reinstall OS on the 'C' drive (these drives are in slide out caddies). This means that if one fails the other can be swapped in.

3) Install OS, partition on the first RAID Drive (Drive E)with other software and data in an other partitions. This relies on the C & D drives being functional in order to boot since the XP installation process won't install the boot files to the RAID E partition root. So if C Drive Fails one cannot boot into the RAID OS.

4) So, next slide out C&D drives. What were partitions E & F on the Raid drive now are drives C& D so one cannot boot into the OS on the C RAID Drive(nee E).

5) Install a new OS into the 'D RAID (orifginally F partition)Now I can boot directly into the RAID without the C&D EIDE drives being present.

What I now have is a totall multi boot either with or without either the EIDE or RAID options. This means any single disk failure or OS corruption does not prevent access to the system, applications and data.

This gives peace of mind when having to deliver to my client schedules! Incidentally all data is also backed uo on a USB2 external drive as well as CDs so can be transferred to a backup PC - albeit less powerful. This has now cost me four days of my time to achieve this resolution but is, hopefully, as secure as it can be.


Thanks for all your advice.

 

[Jump1ng]

Glad you got something working Bernard!

As you said its one elaborate process, but if it works you can sleep easier. The main thing is that no matter what drive fails you can boot from a diffrent one and get into your system.

I take it you copy data from the main drive to your backup drives on a regular basis? What software are u using for this?

 

[BernardStewart]

Jum1ng,

Thanks for your kind words - it is elaborate I know but seems to be the most robust - all the other more 'complicated' techie solutions didn't achieve this and seemed to cause other problems.

I have to admit I don't use any backup software - my main data is about 5Gb of some 20,000 files in 'My Documents which I just cut and paste acroos the drives - not very smart I know but simple and effective. Any suggestions?

By the way, on a more general matter of security and XP Pro - if one has the main operating version of XP updated with all the security patches and some of the other OS's not updated will this leave vulnerable 'holes' even if one isn't booted into these others? (I always keep one of my OS installations with the barest of updates and software so as to have least potential conflicts in case something goes wrong with the main one - if that makes sense.

 

[Jump1ng]

Well I guess you could use some kind of software like second copy which you can set to copy files at a certain time for you.

But if its just a matter of copy whole folders over in theory a batch script with xcopy in it should be able to do the job and it doesn't cost you anything more than the time to create a batch script and put it in the task scheduler.

About your question about security patches, the holes are only available in the os you have currently loaded so if your normal boot has all the patches you are as secure as its possible to be with a MS os. But remember that when you boot up with an unpatched version that you could suffer the effect of blaster worms etc that can shutdown your machines etc.