NT boot problem 1

[westgate]

Hi - I'm sure I'm missing something really simple but this one has me tearing my hair out (and these days there isn't much left!) I lost the primary HD in a Poweredge 2300 , I got a new disk , and tried to boot from the mirror , no joy. I created a boot disk with boot.ini , ntdetect and ntldr , it boots fine. Check disk admin and C: is active , the boot.ini file is identical but if I try to boot without the floppy I just get 'ntldr is missing' , I've also tried changing the partition info in the boot.ini file but that doesn't seem to make any difference. Oh , and I tried an NT repair but that refuses to see the HD's at all.
Can someone please point out my (probably) stupid mistake!
cheers
Ed

 

[SjrH]

If your boot.ini file looked like this when the system was operating normally -

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT

Then, when the faulty drive is removed, to enable booting from the mirror drive the boot.ini must be changed -

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT

It is the rdisk value that determines the disk that the o/s boots from, not the partition. This is only true if you are using the scsi bios enabled, or you are using non scsi drives.



SjrH - Data Security Storage & Availability Specialist

http://www.sjrh.co.uk

 

[westgate]

Hi - Thanks for your time , I had removed the dead disk and moved the mirror to where it was. So scsi id 0 , drive 0 , the new one is scsi id 1, drive 1. I've tried various permutations of rdisk and partition no's but no joy. The messages change slightly , either 'Boot: couldn't find ntldr' or 'ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt'. This thing is driving me crazy!
Thanks again
Ed

 

[Jump1ng]

If its nt4 soft mirroring you are using it doesnt mirror mbr.
Look here for more info

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q141/7/02.asp&NoWebContent=1

Hopefully it will give you enough information to recover your data.

 

[wolluf]

I think you need to create/repair the boot sector on the disk. The NT repair feature can do this - its one of the 4 options available. As you CAN boot from the floppy, you can also run rdisk to produce an ERD. With which you should be able to effect a repair after booting from NT server install CD. Makse sure you only leave the boot sector repair option checked - or you'll likely ruin the installation (assuming install CD service pack somewhat less than the installation).

If you've a 2k/XP install CD, an alternative might be to boot from that & run recovery console (it works with NT installations too) - then fixboot. You'll need the Administrator password to get into recovery console.

 

[westgate]

Well , I kept flailing around changing boot.ini , the physical pposition of the drives , the scsi boot order etc and finally......it works! many thanks for your time
cheers
Ed

 

[wolluf]

westgate - for other readers of this post, could you please enlighten us as to how the problem was finally solved?

Thanks