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geoffmgreen

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Change system SCSI disk (dynamic type/ simple volume)

Hi.

[2] identical SCSI drives on Adaptec 2940U2W card (LUN0, 1).  Both are "dynamic".

System runs XP Pro SP2...everything updated (critical, security, software, drivers, etc.)

Wanted to break up boot/ system disk to a sytem and data volume (this wil be striped with 2nd SCSI drive equal volume), however can not do that on the fly since dynamic and 3rd party products like Acronis Disk Director will not work.  Want to avoid destroying volume and reinstalling everything.

What I can do and did is clone XP Pro volume to 2nd SCSI drive, with hope to boot from that, use Disk Management to recreate first SCSI disk into 2 volumes, copy back, and establish as original boot drive.

Problem: can't get 2nd drive to be system/ bootable temporaily.  I suppose if I could, I could just change LUN numbers and make that the primary/ bootable.

Changed SCSI adapter BIOS bootable drive to LUN 1 but does not boot.

Boot.ini file

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP Professional Safe Mode" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /safeboot:network

Thanks.
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SysExpert
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What did you use to close the Drive ?

DId you check that the Partition is set to active ?

You may have issues with a Dynamic drive.

Acronis may be able to handle this better.

I hope this helps !
Avatar of geoffmgreen
geoffmgreen

ASKER

Hi.

Acronis will not repartition on the fly with "dynamic" volumes and you can't convert back to basic without destroying data, hence negating intent of preserving original "C" drive.

Let me simplify this:  assume I want to take a 2nd SCSI drive that has all the files, etc cloned from 1st drive by Norton Ghost or copied using a recovery point, and make that the primary active drive in the computer to be sytem/ bootable volume?

For some reason whe I try to boot from this new SCSI drive I get after POST:

'Searching for Boot record from SCSI...OK'
'Boot failure from previous device'

Boot LUN:0
Boot SCSI ID is 0 for current drive and target drive is 1 (and I get that error message above when I try to adjust bootable device in SCSI BIOS to ID: 1)

Thanks.



I would remove both old drives, set the scsi to LUN 0 and try to boot with the cloned drive

Other options are to add Lines into the Boot.ini file


more info

Then you will need to edit your boot.ini file.
so first remove the system /hidden attributes.

from a Dos prompt
do c:
attrib -s -h -r boot.ini

then edit the boot.ini file and change the following :

In Control Panel \ System \ Startup/Shutdown, you can set the default instance and the default timeout. To
 add/delete or change entries, you must edit C:\BOOT.INI. This is a Read-only, Hidden, System file so in a command
 prompt you must type

 attrib -r -h -s c:\boot.ini

 Now you can edit the file in any text editor such as notepad. You can delete unwanted entries (don't delete the "VGA
 mode" entry for an active instance), change the text (from "Windows NT Server Version 4.00" to "MyCompany Server")
 or add a missing entry. When adding entries, you must understand the ARC path:

 multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(Z)partition(W)\
 or
 scsi(X)disk(Y)rdisk(Z)partition(W)\
 where Z is the disk number (starting at 0) and W is the partion on that disk (starting at 1). If you look at the "Target
 Device" entry in %windir%\repair\setup.log you will see the "Z" and "W" entries for your booted instance of NT. The "X"
 and "Y" entries for "SCSI" are more complicated and are beyond the scope of this "Tip". For addition information, see KB
 article Q102873.

I hope this helps

Hi.

Ended up reloading from scratch, then was able to partition 2 SCSI drives during setup providing striping on [2] nonsystem partitions...System partiion on SCSI drive 1 and SCSI drive 2 first partition used for paging file/ other.

Too distant from issue but never could boot off original drive despite changing BOOT.INi file, modifying, changing SCSI adapter boot drive, ID change, etc.

The original "C" system drive was locked in and could not be changed on fly, drive letter fixed, diskpart.msc plug-in did not work, etc.

Making changes to "dynamic" drives is very limited to impossible- can't go backwards without destrying data.

You can end issue.

Thanks.

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Computer101
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