Windows 2000 Server RAID 5....One hard drive failed..!!!!

Have you tried a blank password (just hit enter) in recovery console?
What about safe mode?

i have tried a blank password.no luck....

i have tried all of the options after hitting F8........same result....it locks up at the middle of "windows is starting" message

Hmm - have you tried booting with the CD and entering recovery console that route?

thats the only way to enter the recovery console..as far as i know the only way to enter the recovery console y booting off the CD. ,,,,,,,,,like i said ive done that and the administrator password is not being recognized

how do i get to a DOS prompt ???? when i use the bootup disks its booting like if it was the CD ROM there is no option to get to a DOS prompt

i used a DOS bootup disk to get to a DOS Prompt but DOS does not see the C drive, i think this is due to DOS not seeing the SCSI controller that has the HARD Drvies.......is there a way to laod the drivers in DOS for the SCSI controller??

i did not replaced the failed drive.........i only rebuilt the data unto the same drive...........after i did that the status on all 3 drivers or to :healthy" so im assuming all 3 drives are working ok..

Hmm the recovery console denied access sure causes a lot of problems for you. As SirBounty recommended a repair might be your only option now.

Out of curiousity you did a rebuild and didnt delete and recreate the RAID5 volume right? If you did the latter then you will definately need to repair. :(

the hardware raid utility had only one option "restore" or "repar" i dont remember exacly the word but there was only one option....so i used it...all 3
drives status are "healthy" ..........i was able to login to the recovery console and the first command i used where chkdsk then i will use fixmbr and
fixboot hopefully those last 2 wont destry any imporant files ir registry setting to the aplications i have installed

No they won't.

i used a password recovery utility that i used to reset the admin password and i saw somethign weird........the administrator account was locked and disabled?!!!!! how could this happen??

cool,

the repair option is once the failed hard drive has been replaced... typically, when it is in a status of failed it is a hardware issue and the drive needs to
be replaced... to properly fix, you would replace the drive, then enter the raid utility for your card and select repair. At this point, it would rebuild the
array onto the three disks using the data that was stored on the 2 remaining disks... raid 5 is set up in a way that makes this possible when one drive
fails... with the route you went, you may or may not be able to recover the server, you would have to replace the drive, then attempt to repair it,
however, as I stated before, this might not be possible....

are you saying that restoring the data to the same hard drive messed up everything??? when i did the resotre i did not get any errors...and the status is healthy for all 3

the only problem im having is that windows 2000 is not bootin totally it locks up at the starting windows screen

ok it hs helped a little..now it doesnt get lock at the starting windows screen..........its gets to the windows 2000 logo it loads files but then i get a error
"the registry cannot load the hive file: \systemRoot\System32\config software or its log or alterrnate"

please help me? how can i fix this??

yes, however, when you rebuild the array it would have moved files around based on the three drives in the array, and if the one drive is having issues
it is possible that the data that was copied over the the drive might have been corrupted... I just know from prior experience that usually when I drive
shows as failed in an array, it is usually a hardware issue...

your registry is corrupt...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822705

as stated before and listed in the article, a hardware failure can cause this...

imho, replace the drive that failed before with a new drive, repair the array once the new drive is in and see if that fixes the issue. If it still gives you
the error referenced in http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822705, then I would follow the steps listed later on in the article to repair your registry. I
believe this will be the best route for you to go to resolve this issue...

Right now I belive your installationn of W2K is corrupted due to the rebuilding of the array on a bad disk.

I would download the word doc from the following web page and familiarize yourself with the 2000 Repair process

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/samplechapters/fndc/fndc_rec_uctu.asp

You can try to get the machine back up using this process.  If it succeeds I would immediately back up all critical data, shut down the system, replace the drive that failed with a new drive, and then rebuild the array.

i will need th purchase a new hard drive and try that...........does it have to be the same exact drive as the other 2?? model number size brand etc

Exact match (i.e. model, speed, etc..) is best.

It should be at least the same size.

its best but not neccesary?

This is from an Adaptec Knowledge base article for the 3200S Raid Controller...

"1. Remove and replace the failed hard disk drive according to the procedure in the computer hardware documentation. The drive must be set to the
same SCSI ID as the originally failed drive. The drive must also be the same size or larger. If the drive is not, then it will not allow the RAID to be
rebuilt. "

to keep the array a raid5 you would need to have the same size drive...

in response the blohrer, I believe if I remember correctly, the raid drive is best suited to be the same drive, if it is larger, I believe it might only use the same amount of disk as the other 2 drives in the array.

do u have the ,link to that article on the adaptec site pease?? ive been looking for it and cant find it

i ahve the 2100s model raid controller

support for your card is here -
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/suppdetail.jsp?sess=no&language=English+US&prodkey=ASR-2100S

the notes referenced above can be found here -
http://tinyurl.com/2nb4t <link shortened by sirbounty>

also, to confirm a prior comment I made about the new drive being the same size as the old drive, from what I have seen doing a quick google search seems to confirm that.. if the new drive is larger, when you rebuild the array, it will only allow you to use the same amount of disk space... no point in spending the extra money for a larger drive unless if you plan to upgrade in the future... you could upgrade all drives by swapping out one drive at a time and rebuilding with the larger drives in there...

Absolutely correct... if the new drive is larger, only the space equal to that of the other two drives will be allocated to the raid array.  The rest will be wasted.

You have to evaluate your downtime vs cost.   If its an older server you may not be able to get a drive that equals the drive you have.

No need to echo the info about the larger drive size - but I agree.

I will say this though:
In my environment, I've had the following conditions/outcomes with RAID 5...

a) lost a drive and simply installed the new one (they are hot-pluggable, meaning you don't have to power down to replace) and it rebuilt successfully
b) found a supposed 'dead' drive and simply reseated it (unplugged and plugged back in - much like what you've done).  Mind you, this was only until I could get the replacement on order and swap it.  Sometimes a hard drive will generate enough alerts to cause it to deactivate to prevent corruption.  While you 'can' sometimes reseat it, it's certainly not the best route - not really even a good one...
c) I had one (horrible) instance where a drive was reported failed.  When I replaced it, it began the rebuild process - but never came back with a 'rebuilt' status.
Ended up having to run a Advanced Diag procedure against it for our vendor to determine that the RAID incorrectly reported the drive as bad, when it was actually the next drive in the array.  Well, as you know - two dead drives in a RAID 5 is the same as no drives in an array. :D

Are these drives hot-pluggable by chance?

thanks for shortening that for me bounty...

the problem i had is that i did not have a extra hard drive to just replace it, so i had no choice but to rebuild the data untl the failed drive....i know that with software RAID you can also do this...you can jsut "Repair" the failed drive and use it again and then at that point get a new hard drive ahd reeplaced it then.............i did the reapir into the failed drive using hardware raid and i figured it would work since hardware raid is better than software raid....now im trying to find a lpce that sells the SEAGATE ST318406LC SCSI 3 Harddrive that can ship it to us overnight .......that will be my lady try to fix this and to be honest i dont think it will work but i will pray...........if it doesnt work ill have to rebuild everything from scratch which will suck.........that server has all kids of aplication im glad at leasdt it wasnt a domain controller.........but it hard CITRX Terminal SErvices etc.............Experts if u know of ap lce where i can get that hard drive please let me know....thank you very much

Try www.pricewatch.com
They've got a listing of numerous sites that can get you what you need - usually overnight..
You may want to get two, so this doesn't happen to you again...

thenkas sirbounty i found one for 150 and i will get it tomorrow.im parying to god this will fix it.......ill let u guys know tomorrow morning what happenned....

<fingers crossed>

in a RAID 5 config also the operating system files are spread across all 3 drives??

In a hardware array - it's however you partition it.
Consider this...
If you've got 3 40GB drives in a RAID 5 array.
You can create a logical partition of about 80GB (one drive equivalent used for overhead).
You can further partition that anyway you'd like via your operating system.
So, you could have a 20GB boot partition and a 60GB data partition (roughly, of course), but the data is still striped across the drives...

So, the short answer is "yes"

how could i find out how mine is setup using the raid configuration utility?

File/Read System Config - should provide that information..

i went there but all i see is the 3 drives and each is 17.5 gb and in optimal status..........am i looking for sometthing in particular??

Hmm - it's been a while since I've worked with Adaptec...maybe it's not as configurable or at least not as informative as I gave it credit for.
But, the bottom line is that all your data is striped across this array.
You only have 3 disks which is the minimum for a RAID 5 array, so there's no where else it could be. :D

so that means the operating sytem files are all over the drives right?

Yes - striped.
You see, my initial confusion was relating to my environment.  Sometimes we'll have 10 drives.  Spread the OS across 3 of those (RAID 5) and the data across the remaining...but in your case - you've got no where else for any of your data to go - unless you've got a standalone drive you haven't mentioned...

Yes if you only have 3 drives in your server, then your OS files are part of the RAID.

ok guys thanks so much for all of your help, when i get the drive in the morning ill try and let u know.

hi experts i got the new hard drive in i replaced it and still does not work..........windows crashes right before the login screen suppose to come up....... the screen turns black...if i hit reset it wont reboot...if i hold the power button for 5 seconds it wont reboot........i have to physically unplug it from the wall to reboot..i dont know what do do

Did you read the document I sent you about doing a repair of Windows 2000?

The failed drive more than likely corrupted some of the OS files, a repair goes through and replaces all the files.

You might also want to try doing a parallel install of windows 2000.  (e.g. do an install, but when it prompts you for what directory to install to, instead of WINNT, do WINNTNEW or something.)

B

im doing a repair and im getting allot of :

value 0 on the line in section [sourcedisksfiles] with key file.exe

errors what is that??

Sounds like a bad or dirty CD to me.

after i do the parallel installation what should i do??

after i got those errors i was able to get to the desktop.......its up and running now!!!..........something wierd thought..when i choose start/..log off administrator........it goes right back to the desktop with out logging me off...

if you did the repair, you are probably back to pre windows 2000 SP1 (depending on how old your CD is)

Try applying all Service Packs, and make sure you have the correct drivers loaded