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Recovery of a Windows 2000 Mirror Partition - Help?
I had two 40 GB IDE drives configured as dynamic disks in a software mirror (I know...not a good thing) on a Windows 2000 Server. I lost the primary disk 0 yesterday, and had it replaced by the manufacturer.
When the new unit was installed, I started the server (using a boot disk I had created) to boot from the mirror. The problem at first was that I was unable to login to the server, as it not appeared that the C: drive had become Drive E:. I was unable to log on to the machine as the registry information for everything including the swap file were referencing drive C. This was not a big deal as I was able to correct this via the network registry.
I restarted the server, and then continued to rebuild the mirror back to the disk 0. The mirror completed successfully, and I restarted the server. However, the server would not restart on it's own. I again, had to use the boot disk to start the server.
So I figured the MBR was messed up.
I restarted the server in to the Windows 2000 Recovery Console, and ran FIXMBR. This did not work. I also tried the FIXBOOT option, and again this did not work. Each time, a flashing underscore cursor is displayed in the upper left hand corner of the screen when attemping to boot. However, if I use the boot disk, I can start the server with no issues.
I broke the mirror again, and tried using diskpart.exe to set the disk 0 as active but it complained that it was not an MBR basic disk. I have since re-established the mirror again, just for redundancy of data.
Is there anyway to correct this and make the drive (disk 0) bootable again?
When the new unit was installed, I started the server (using a boot disk I had created) to boot from the mirror. The problem at first was that I was unable to login to the server, as it not appeared that the C: drive had become Drive E:. I was unable to log on to the machine as the registry information for everything including the swap file were referencing drive C. This was not a big deal as I was able to correct this via the network registry.
I restarted the server, and then continued to rebuild the mirror back to the disk 0. The mirror completed successfully, and I restarted the server. However, the server would not restart on it's own. I again, had to use the boot disk to start the server.
So I figured the MBR was messed up.
I restarted the server in to the Windows 2000 Recovery Console, and ran FIXMBR. This did not work. I also tried the FIXBOOT option, and again this did not work. Each time, a flashing underscore cursor is displayed in the upper left hand corner of the screen when attemping to boot. However, if I use the boot disk, I can start the server with no issues.
I broke the mirror again, and tried using diskpart.exe to set the disk 0 as active but it complained that it was not an MBR basic disk. I have since re-established the mirror again, just for redundancy of data.
Is there anyway to correct this and make the drive (disk 0) bootable again?
ASKER
I have checked both the boot.ini on the boot floppy and on the C: drive and they are identical.
DId you look at the boot order in the BIOS ?
If the disk is not set as an active partition, then you may have issues.
have you tried breaking the mirror and see if it boots the primary ?
I hope this helps !
If the disk is not set as an active partition, then you may have issues.
have you tried breaking the mirror and see if it boots the primary ?
I hope this helps !
ASKER
I have broken the mirror, and was left with a C: and E: drive. I rebooted the server, and still nothing. A flashing underscore cursor at the top left.
I tried using DiskPart.exe to set the Disk 0 (C:) as active, but it comes up with the following message.
The disk is not a basic fixed MBR disk.
Please select a basic fixed MBR disk to use this command.
I tried using DiskPart.exe to set the Disk 0 (C:) as active, but it comes up with the following message.
The disk is not a basic fixed MBR disk.
Please select a basic fixed MBR disk to use this command.
Dynamic disks are such a pain sometimes.
see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816307
and
http://labmice.techtarget.com/windows2000/diskmgmt/dynamic_disk.htm
It seems that you can not break the mirror of Dynamic disks and use it to boot.
The second link has a bunch of articles tat may be relevant to your issues.
I hope this helps !
see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816307
and
http://labmice.techtarget.com/windows2000/diskmgmt/dynamic_disk.htm
It seems that you can not break the mirror of Dynamic disks and use it to boot.
The second link has a bunch of articles tat may be relevant to your issues.
I hope this helps !
ASKER
Unfortunately, these links are of no use to me to correct my problem. Thanks for your efforts.
I will have to rebuild the server on another box, and then migrate my data and applications over to the replacement. It is not the desired outcome, but at least I had the boot disk, and was able to at least get the server up and running with it.
The sad thing about this is, I have at least 3-4 other servers set up this way. Guess I better make sure I have boot disks for those as well.
I will have to rebuild the server on another box, and then migrate my data and applications over to the replacement. It is not the desired outcome, but at least I had the boot disk, and was able to at least get the server up and running with it.
The sad thing about this is, I have at least 3-4 other servers set up this way. Guess I better make sure I have boot disks for those as well.
I have the same issue. Have you found an answer yet?
Alos, do you know if instead of using a floppy to boot, can you do the boot from a CD with the proper boot.ini?
I also found this KB Q120227
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/120227/EN-US/
I though this would work for me, however, on step 3, "mark the primary system partition on Disk0 as Active " ... The mirror does not have a primary partition!!!! So, is the answer to first prepare the mirror drive by formating it and creating a primary partition, then set it as the mirror? It seems that the issue is that there is no MBR on the mirror. Anyone find an answer to this issue yet?
1. If the hard disk drive with the primary system partition has failed and you have a single controller mirror set established, set the physical SCSI ID on the mirror drive to zero. If you have a duplex mirror set, swap the drive from the primary controller to the secondary controller.
2. Use a Windows NT Fault Tolerance (FT) boot floppy disk to point to and boot the system/boot partition. Make sure the BOOT.INI file points to the partition with the Windows NT system files.
3. Open Disk Administrator, break the mirror set and mark the primary system partition on Disk0 as Active so that the Windows NT FT disk is not necessary for the next startup.
4. If the failed drive has been replaced, establish the mirror set and allow data regeneration during the next system boot.
Alos, do you know if instead of using a floppy to boot, can you do the boot from a CD with the proper boot.ini?
I also found this KB Q120227
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/120227/EN-US/
I though this would work for me, however, on step 3, "mark the primary system partition on Disk0 as Active " ... The mirror does not have a primary partition!!!! So, is the answer to first prepare the mirror drive by formating it and creating a primary partition, then set it as the mirror? It seems that the issue is that there is no MBR on the mirror. Anyone find an answer to this issue yet?
1. If the hard disk drive with the primary system partition has failed and you have a single controller mirror set established, set the physical SCSI ID on the mirror drive to zero. If you have a duplex mirror set, swap the drive from the primary controller to the secondary controller.
2. Use a Windows NT Fault Tolerance (FT) boot floppy disk to point to and boot the system/boot partition. Make sure the BOOT.INI file points to the partition with the Windows NT system files.
3. Open Disk Administrator, break the mirror set and mark the primary system partition on Disk0 as Active so that the Windows NT FT disk is not necessary for the next startup.
4. If the failed drive has been replaced, establish the mirror set and allow data regeneration during the next system boot.
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I hope this helps !