asked on

Mirroring 2 NTFS Hard Disks under Win2k

Dear all,

Here's the issue;

I am trying to create data redundancy under win2k server.
i have two identical hard disks converted into dynamic volumes and both partitioned into C and D.

under win2k i am able to mirror the D partitions but i have tried almost everything to mirror the C but i keep getting messages like" Drives upgrade to dynamic volumes from basic disks cannot be mirrored "

Please tell me how i can mirror both my C and D partitions successfully so that if one hard disk fails , the server can still boot/ function from the other hard disk.

thanx.

jwalsh88

That message is correct. I don't think you can use Microsoft's Windows based mirroring to mirror your bootable drive with Windows installed on it. You see you can not mirror drives upgraded to dynamic because Windows needs to reformat the volumes and and then start mirroring. to do that it would wipe out your OS and then where would you be. Remember this is software redundancy so there is a couple of catches like this one. I would recommend getting a ATA-Raid controller card, they work very well and are under $100. If you have EIDE disks this is definitely the way to go.

pandav

ASKER

Jwalsh, Thanx for the comment, nut i have read books that say you can mirror both partitions on a hard disk to another , inclusive of C:

Thanx..

jwalsh88

well those books have to be wrong. I should have been more definite in my answer. I am basically positive that you can not mirror your boot drive unless it's done at a hardware level, outside of the Operating System. Windows is handling the mirror and the point of a mirror is to recover if the master drive fails. If you "boot" master drive fails, you will not be able to fail over to the backup mirrored drive because that is not a boot drive. believe me there is no way for that to work unless it's done at a hardware level independant of the Operating System.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

rcasteel

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

Moondancer

Question(s) below appears to have been abandoned. Your options are:

1. Accept a Comment As Answer (use the button next to the Expert's name).
2. Close the question if the information was not useful to you. You must tell the participants why you wish to do this, and allow for Expert response.
3. Ask Community Support to help split points between participating experts, or just comment here with details and we'll respond with the process.
4. Delete the question. Again, please comment to advise the other participants why you wish to do this.

For special handling needs, please post a zero point question in the link below and include the question QID/link(s) that it regards.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/jsp/qList.jsp?ta=commspt

Please click the Help Desk link on the left for Member Guidelines, Member Agreement and the Question/Answer process. https://www.experts-exchange.com/jsp/cmtyHelpDesk.jsp

Please click you Member Profile to view your question history and keep them all current with updates as the collaboration effort continues, to track all your open and locked questions at this site. If you are an EE Pro user, use the Power Search option to find them.

To view your open questions, please click the following link(s) and keep them all current with updates.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/Q.20140968.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/Q.20192564.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/Q.20192992.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/Q.20243243.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/Q.20255450.html
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/Q.20266310.html

PLEASE DO NOT AWARD THE POINTS TO ME.

------------> EXPERTS: Please leave any comments regarding your closing recommendations if this item remains inactive another seven (7) days.

Thank you everyone.

Moondancer
Moderator @ Experts Exchange

P.S. For any year 2000 questions, special attention is needed to ensure the first correct response is awarded, since they are not in the comment date order, but rather in Member ID order.

pandav

ASKER

Thanks rcasteel.

My friend wanted to know the answer. so, i already passed the info. thank you everyone.