How to boot from a Mirrored HDD ?

[raminriahi]

Hi. I am involved in a truely disaster happened few minutes ago. I'm a software developer and not a hardware guy.
Our server has two identical scsi hdd(80 gb). we're using the second one as mirror disk. 10 days ago the primary hdd went bad and it was running on Mirrored disk. This morning we had a power outage and since then it doesn't boot(The error message is "Inaccesssible_Boot_Device" ). we're running win2000 server OS.

Please advise me ASAP what can i do!
Can i physically switch the disks or swap the scsi control connections to the disk?

Thanks in advance,
Ramin Riahi

 

[michigan]

This may be a little too late for any help.

Usually if you're running a true mirror (RAID1), your server/BIOS will have a RAID controller. There will be a setup program or config program that is accessible at startup of the server. If you can access this area, you can reconfig which mirror (HDD) is primary. This will allow the other drive to operate as the main HDD until you can replace the bad one. However, some servers may require that 2nd HDD for mirror setup. In which case you may have to temporarily set the working HDD as stand alone/primary. This will at least allow you time to replace the HDD. Once you have your new HDD, you enter the setup/config area again, and reset your mirror. Your brand new HDD's data will then be built from the data of the working HDD.

Good Luck.

 

[TechMerlin]

Ramin,

I have seen on a number of instances with some of our Compaq/HP servers where after a power outage the boot order in the SCSI BIOS will have changed back to default. you may just need to ensure the SCSI BIOS is setup correctly for your needs and using the correct boot devices.

Thanks

Mark Morton, MCSA, MCP, SNA, CCA

 

[CharlieJax]

Hello raminriahi,

You can boot to the second hard drive by creating a boot disk that functions like the Windows OS Boot software. Try punching into Google "Windows <version> boot disk" - example "Windows 2000 Server boot disk" and once you get it you will have to adjust the boot.ini file to find the second hard drive (the scsi and the partition sections).

But that will allow you to boot the machine.

It takes a little work, but in the end you can get a working book disk.

I would recommend that you switch from software raid to hardware raid on future machine purchases. That will allow you to avoid this issue because the hardware will handle the drive accessing for you.

CJ

Don't drink and post, save that for driving home!