W2K Server Mirrored Backup - How to Slave to Regular PC

novachild · 07-26-2004, 10:35 AM

Problem - W2K Small Business Server will not boot.

Had a power outage as I was rebooting server, and now it sticks at the 'full white horizontal line.' Have a mirrored drive that is supposed to be a backup in case of hardware failure. Switched it to be the primary drive - it won't boot either.

Tried to restore (using both emergency restore disc and console), even tried manually copying potentially corrupted directories. Still no luck, so assuming hardware failure - some terminal sectors, or else the HD is locked in the start position.

Trying to slave the mirror to my workstation, but it shows as a disconnected network drive that I cannot access (because there is no domain controller?). Is there any way to access this data by slaving it to my workstation?

Urgent response would be highly appreciated.

GICodeWarrior · 07-27-2004, 08:19 AM

If you are talking about a RAID mirror, you can't simply separate the drive from the array and expect it to work in another computer. These drives are specially formatted to work in the RAID array. Besides, data is written to the two drives simultaneously.

The mirror only protects you against a drive hardware malfunction. Essentially if one drive is cooked you can put in a new one and have the RAID controller rebuild the array by mirroring back over to the new drive, but if the data written to the drives is bad it is on both drives anyways. In the latter case you should recover your data from your tape or other external backup.

If you don't have a backup or it is too old you should be able to recover the data by booting from a CD based OS that has RAID and network support (perhaps knoppix), or install a third HDD to put windows on and copy your data off of the array.

Hope something there helps,
GICodeWarrior

07-26-2004, 10:35 AM	#1 (permalink)
novachild Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 2 OS: 2K and XP	W2K Server Mirrored Backup - How to Slave to Regular PC Problem - W2K Small Business Server will not boot. Had a power outage as I was rebooting server, and now it sticks at the 'full white horizontal line.' Have a mirrored drive that is supposed to be a backup in case of hardware failure. Switched it to be the primary drive - it won't boot either. Tried to restore (using both emergency restore disc and console), even tried manually copying potentially corrupted directories. Still no luck, so assuming hardware failure - some terminal sectors, or else the HD is locked in the start position. Trying to slave the mirror to my workstation, but it shows as a disconnected network drive that I cannot access (because there is no domain controller?). Is there any way to access this data by slaving it to my workstation? Urgent response would be highly appreciated.

07-27-2004, 08:19 AM	#2 (permalink)
GICodeWarrior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Grand Island, NY Posts: 187 OS: WinXP Home/Pro, Gentoo, FreeBSD, Debian, Solaris	If you are talking about a RAID mirror, you can't simply separate the drive from the array and expect it to work in another computer. These drives are specially formatted to work in the RAID array. Besides, data is written to the two drives simultaneously. The mirror only protects you against a drive hardware malfunction. Essentially if one drive is cooked you can put in a new one and have the RAID controller rebuild the array by mirroring back over to the new drive, but if the data written to the drives is bad it is on both drives anyways. In the latter case you should recover your data from your tape or other external backup. If you don't have a backup or it is too old you should be able to recover the data by booting from a CD based OS that has RAID and network support (perhaps knoppix), or install a third HDD to put windows on and copy your data off of the array. Hope something there helps, GICodeWarrior