booting problem

[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...

 

[GrimR]

what if you create a boot.ini file from this and copy it to the c:\ of the server

[boot loader]
timeout=5
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


page for boot.ini switches

http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1268/