Booting from a disk other than c: on Proliant 8000

[Newsworthy]

How do we boot from a disk drive other than c:?

We have a Proliant 8000 with three configured arrays. We have installed Windows 2003 on drive "g:" and we believe we have properly configured it to be bootable. How do we boot from a drive other than A:, C:, or D:. Which seem to be the only options?

 

[TheLad]

The boot configuration is not tied down to particular drive letters, the options are specified by the device type. So in SmartStart, your boot order will be defined as something like Floppy Disks, CD-ROM, RAID Card etc... and as long as you have installed W2K3 properly, it does not matter what drive letter you defined as the drive letter will be defined as the active partition and will therefore boot accordingly.

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[Newsworthy]

Thank you TheLad, but I have not been very clear. We have a C: drive (first drive array) with W2K3 on it, an e: drive with data, and a new G: drive (third dirve array) that also has W2K3 on it. We need to boot from the G: drive and make that our OS drive for several reasons.

We did not think that we could simply rename C: to F:, for instance, and rename G: to C: and reboot. And, frankly, were affraid to try that. Of course we would like to somehow rename G: to C: at some point.

 

[TheLad]

In that case, you need to ensure that the raid controller cointaining the G: partition is set as the first boot option in SmartStart. If it is and you still cannot boot off your G:, you may need to amend the C:\BOOT.INI file to include the details for the install on the G: and then set it as the first option to boot from.

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[Newsworthy]

TheLad, we have a Smart Array 4250ES Controller in Slot 10 with three arrays. Array A is the current C: drive, Array B is the E: drive, and Array C is the G: drive from which we want to boot the OS. We also have a Smart Array 532 in slot 11, but there are no drives in it.

We don't recall seeing an option in SmartStart to set which array or controller is the first boot option. Will this let us set Array C as the first boot array and if so, can you point us where it is set.

Thanks for your guidance.

 

[TheLad]

As already stated, you specify the the raid controller to boot from in SmartStart, not the partitions or array on the controller. If your 4250ES controller is already set as the first to boot from, you will have to amend your C:\BOOT.INI to include the required partition information to boot from.

Check out the TID below from Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323427/en-us

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[nsanto17]

why didn't you just make the server a dual boot?

 

[TheLad]

You still have to amend the BOOT.INI to do that

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