johnej

Hi All and thanks for any help you can provide in advance.
Here's the deal:
I have 2 dell pe 1800's running windows 2000 server.
Both have exact identical hardware.
Each of them run a hardware raid configuration on 3 disks which are set up as follows:
Raid 0 running on HDD 0.
RAID 1 on HDD 1 and 2.
HDD 0 has the primary partition on it.
Here's what happened:
HDD 0 Operating System on one of the servers (A) got corrupt but the drive itself was fine. So I took that drive out and put it into server (B). I then went ahead and mirrored server A's HDD 0 to it. It rebuilt it and when it was done I went ahead and put it back into server A. However it would not boot so I did some research....I found this:

To boot the server from "Disk 1" (the remaining mirrored drive), use a bootable disk to access the boot partition on "Disk 1". You will need to create this bootable floppy.
This disk must contain three files (all of which are hidden on the root of the C:\ drive on a Windows 2000 Pro or Server computer)
ntdetect.com
ntldr
boot.ini

I found this custom boot.ini file and used this instead of the generic one off the C drive. It reads as follows:
[boot loader]
timeout=-1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="W2K, First harddisk, first partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="W2K, First harddisk, second partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT="W2K, First harddisk, third partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINNT="W2K, First harddisk, fourth partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="W2K, Second harddisk, first partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="W2K, Second harddisk, second partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINNT="W2K, Second harddisk, third partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINNT="W2K, Second harddisk, fourth partition" /sos

So I put the floppy in and the machine booted right up with no problems. So my question is this: I have to boot the machine everytime with the floppy in, then choose the one I want to boot from. If I choose either the first harddisk first partition, or first harddisk second partition the machine boots. Any of the other choices results in a hardware error. Is there a way to boot this machine up without using the floppy, or do I have to use it all the time now?

Sorry for the long post and I hope it's not too confusing. Any help would be appreciated...

bilbus

You put the OS on Raid 0? Wow sweet! Something i have never seen before.

Am i reading it wrong?

How did you take a single raid 0 out and move it to another server?

johnej

Let me clarify...the servers each have a RAID card. On the cards are 6 SATA ports. They are labeled 0-5. So disk 0 is attached to SATA port 0, disk 1 to SATA port 1, and disk 2 to SATA port 2.

So in reality its really not a RAID 0. However on boot it thinks it is part of an array. So array 0 is disk 0. And array 1, which is a RAID 1, is disk 1 and 2.

I am not quite sure if your post was comically condescending or not...however, my question was really about the boot process. It has nothing to do with RAID.

bilbus

I did not think 1800's came with SATA ports .. i thought it was all SCSI, and 1 IDE.

I would make the OS raid 1, or all the drives raid 5.

Anyhow you should be able to move the single boot HD to the new computer.

The problem is you took a non raid disk out of one server, and put it in another identical server and added it to the raid set. the bluescreen is completely normal.

If you took the single drive from that server, and move to a identical server, on the raid or scsi card it would have booted just fine. when you added it to raid, you went from a SCSI card, to a raid card (LSI Megaraid / Perc5I)
Backup your data, and move it back to scsi ... or go buy acronis server, backup data and do a bare metal restore (universal restore) to the raid array

johnej

This thing was setup like 4 years ago by someone else and I just happened to be the lucky one working there now to fix it. With all that being said, the 1800's came with 2 onboard SATA ports (SATA0 and SATA1). There is a RAID card in the machine and all the drives are connected to the card.

Why is the machine able to boot with the floppy disk in? Is it because when I mirrored the drives and put it back into the server Windows can't locate the boot partition on the hard disk anymore? I read something about an EISA partition too...actually here is the link that I used to get the machine up and running: I am sure you are busy as we all are...but if you could comb that over maybe it can give you better insight on what I did.

http://computing.fusion13.com/Misc/R...q-Server.shtml

There's a part towards the middle that talks about booting without the floppy...I am just not sure if that would work and after all I went through to finally get this sucker up and running I don't want to screw it up.

Bottom line is when the floppy is in with the 3 files I copied onto it, 1 of which is the modified boot.ini file with these 2 lines added to it:

[boot loader]
timeout=-1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="W2K, First harddisk, first partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="W2K, First harddisk, second partition" /sos

the machine boots fine...no matter which of the above choices I make...it boots from either partition 1 or 2. But if I take the floopy out, the machine will not boot. I got to be honest with you, I am a little confused.

Thanks for taking the time to try and help...I just want the thing to boot with no floopy, if it can't then oh well, at least it works.

JJ

bilbus

You dont have a bootable C drive .. perhaps one of the mirrored drives are marked active / boot goto dismanager (after you boot with floppy) and see what drive is system / boot / active

If no drive is all 3 there is your problem.

Need to get the drive with windows on it marked as that. The floppy is maked as bootable / system (those 3 files are what controls the NT bootloader)

johnej

So when I find the one that is active...do I go to the boot.ini file and set it to point to there?

Do I need to don anything to the other files....ntdetect or ntldr?

JJ