We have a Dell poweredge 850 that was running Windows 2003 Server (standard) SP1.
The RAID controller failed (always hung during its post).
Dell replaced the raid controller, and it saw the RAID set (raid-1) immediately.
However, on boot we recieve the error "NTdetect failed."
I ran a verify of the array in the perc bios utility, which completed successfully.
If we hit F8, we get the windows boot menu, so I am (hoping) the drives have the data on them still, and maybe just a few files the OS needs were damaged when the controller failed, or while trying to reboot on the damaged controller.
I tried booting from a floppy with the following files on the disk: (per a MS knowledge base article)
boot.ini
Ntdetect.com (copied from another Windows 2003 Standard SP1 server that is operational)
Ntldr (copied from another Windows 2003 Standard SP1 server that is operational)
Ntbootdd.sys (the driver for the scsi controller, renamed)
The boot.ini file I created contains the following lines:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
Default= scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003"
When I try to boot from the floppy, I get the error:
NToskrnl.exe missing or corrupt
I am waiting on the company that performed the initial set up of the server to bring us a copy of the windows 2003 server disks.
If I can't get the disks to boot, would it be resonable to throw a sata drive in the server and install a copy of XP (letting XP find the SCSI array as additional storage) on it to try to at least copy some of the more important data files from the drive? Or will I just run into permission problems (or could windows xp damage the file data this is still intact!?)
My primary focus is getting data off of the drive. Secondary is getting the system to boot. (I must say, I am missing the simplicity of FAT32 right now!)
Any helpful information would be much apprecciated.
The RAID controller failed (always hung during its post).
Dell replaced the raid controller, and it saw the RAID set (raid-1) immediately.
However, on boot we recieve the error "NTdetect failed."
I ran a verify of the array in the perc bios utility, which completed successfully.
If we hit F8, we get the windows boot menu, so I am (hoping) the drives have the data on them still, and maybe just a few files the OS needs were damaged when the controller failed, or while trying to reboot on the damaged controller.
I tried booting from a floppy with the following files on the disk: (per a MS knowledge base article)
boot.ini
Ntdetect.com (copied from another Windows 2003 Standard SP1 server that is operational)
Ntldr (copied from another Windows 2003 Standard SP1 server that is operational)
Ntbootdd.sys (the driver for the scsi controller, renamed)
The boot.ini file I created contains the following lines:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
Default= scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003"
When I try to boot from the floppy, I get the error:
NToskrnl.exe missing or corrupt
I am waiting on the company that performed the initial set up of the server to bring us a copy of the windows 2003 server disks.
If I can't get the disks to boot, would it be resonable to throw a sata drive in the server and install a copy of XP (letting XP find the SCSI array as additional storage) on it to try to at least copy some of the more important data files from the drive? Or will I just run into permission problems (or could windows xp damage the file data this is still intact!?)
My primary focus is getting data off of the drive. Secondary is getting the system to boot. (I must say, I am missing the simplicity of FAT32 right now!)
Any helpful information would be much apprecciated.
