Problem with a failed intel sata raid 1 array on SBS 2003 server
Here's what I have so far:
Intel 82801ER SATA RAID with (2) Maxtor 160gb sata drives.
Intel bios states that raid is degraded with drive 0 in error and drive 1 normal and the raid is bootable.
When it tries to boot up it gets 5 seconds into the Windows 2003 SBS boot screen and then reboots and does that in a loop.
I have tried to boot into Recovery console mode using W2003 SBS install disk and after loading the intel sata driver the raid array is not available.
I then tried to run Diskpart from the recovery console and both partitions are listed as dynamic.
After some research it appears that dynamic partitions may be the reason it is not able to see the partitions correctly.
I have not tried to replace the failed drive since I cannot even boot the system and now cannot even attempt to reinstall it either.
What can I do to either figure out why it will not boot and/or get it to allow me to reinstall without losing the data?
Intel 82801ER SATA RAID with (2) Maxtor 160gb sata drives.
Intel bios states that raid is degraded with drive 0 in error and drive 1 normal and the raid is bootable.
When it tries to boot up it gets 5 seconds into the Windows 2003 SBS boot screen and then reboots and does that in a loop.
I have tried to boot into Recovery console mode using W2003 SBS install disk and after loading the intel sata driver the raid array is not available.
I then tried to run Diskpart from the recovery console and both partitions are listed as dynamic.
After some research it appears that dynamic partitions may be the reason it is not able to see the partitions correctly.
I have not tried to replace the failed drive since I cannot even boot the system and now cannot even attempt to reinstall it either.
What can I do to either figure out why it will not boot and/or get it to allow me to reinstall without losing the data?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
No, the person that owns the server does not have a backup.
I have Ultimate Boot CD and it also has lots of partition tools, but I don't want to mess up the raid.
The Intel bios gives an option to change the raid to a non-raid set of drives. If I do that I am hoping that since it is a mirror set and not a multi-drive raid 5 it won't destroy it. Am I correct?
The one thing that I can't find an answer for is the dynamic partition issue. What I have read says that because it is a dynamic disk I am hosed.
Which partition tool would you suggest I use to fix the problem?
I have Ultimate Boot CD and it also has lots of partition tools, but I don't want to mess up the raid.
The Intel bios gives an option to change the raid to a non-raid set of drives. If I do that I am hoping that since it is a mirror set and not a multi-drive raid 5 it won't destroy it. Am I correct?
The one thing that I can't find an answer for is the dynamic partition issue. What I have read says that because it is a dynamic disk I am hosed.
Which partition tool would you suggest I use to fix the problem?
ASKER
Also, I went to the site you mentioned for the boot Cd and there is no download link for the boot cd.
Any idea where he put the link?
Any idea where he put the link?
ASKER
I decided to break the raid 1 in the intel bios raid setup and the server booted fine. I then shut it down went back into the intel bios and told it to create a raid and it wouldn't boot.
I ran some diagnostics on the drives and what looks like happened is that the raid re-did the partitions so that instead of (2) partitions-1 for system and 1 for data I now have 1 partition of the whole drive. What happened?
I broke the raid again so that now I have 2 drives. The tool Active partition was able to see the two removed partitions, but I am skeptical about recovering them because I don't want it to get messed up any further.
Any help?
I ran some diagnostics on the drives and what looks like happened is that the raid re-did the partitions so that instead of (2) partitions-1 for system and 1 for data I now have 1 partition of the whole drive. What happened?
I broke the raid again so that now I have 2 drives. The tool Active partition was able to see the two removed partitions, but I am skeptical about recovering them because I don't want it to get messed up any further.
Any help?
If you already have the UBCD4WIN, use that and back up your drives in their entirety. Then, you need to break the RAID, see this article regarding that:
http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-022836.htm
Jeff
TechSoEasy
http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-022836.htm
Jeff
TechSoEasy
By the way, I'm assuming that you don't have a full backup that you wanted to restore instaed of trying recovery? If you do, you should follow the instructions in http://sbsurl.com/backup
Jeff
TechSoEasy