Server restore different hardware "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE" 1

[bludbunny]

Hi guys

I have had a (non critical) server crash on me (hardware failure), and I have attempted to restore the image onto a different server - different hardware.
I have been hunting around the net trying to find a way to get this to work, but have had no luck so far.
When the server reboots after the restore, I get a BSOD with "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE" - obviously due to the "new" setup having SATA and not a SCSI raid controller as per the original server.
Is there is 'trick' I am missing with this that would get me going. I did find a walkthrough for this same problem under win 2003svr, but the same process does not work for me.
I have tried installing a parallel install of W2K svr, and copying the SATA drivers over, but it does not seem to like that either.

Any help would be appreciated. Worst case scenario is that I rebuild the server and reinstall the data.
regards,
Brett

 

[LWComputingMVP]

Restoring to different hardware, in my opinion, is a huge waste of time unless the disk subsystem and motherboard chipsets match.

I would suggest you stop wasting time and reinstall. MAYBE you'll get it working - MAYBE. But the amount of time will more than likely be FAR greater than if you just reinstalled normally and restored the data.

The one trick MAYBE you can try - install the drivers for the controller BEFORE you try restoring it. Just putting the driver in the folder won't do it - parameters and other settings need to be registered in the registry. I'm not sure where I'd begin if you held a gun to my head and said do it, but that's the only way I'd try it.

 

[bludbunny]

I agree with you.
As I said this is not mission critical - so I thought I would use it as an exercise in restoration - but I did not want this to take up days of work.
As you point out, I think at this stage I would be better off just moving this little used older software to a 2003 server - also reduces the number of servers I look after here (we have 8 on site)

 

[lb63640]

We had a mission-critical server die, and the replacement box was completely different hardward all around. We used Acronis Universal Restore to transfer the image.

Upon booting, of course we got the INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. We had to go into recovery console and insert the PERC drivers into the boot.ini, then all was well.

 

[jaymehall]

I have also seen this in both servers and workstations - if you do a repair on the Windows Build it will also work....

 

[bludbunny]

Thanks for the responses.
I have tried doing a w2k svr repair, and also a chkdsk /r. Both did not work.
lb63640 - what process did you use to place the drivers into the boot.ini. I am not sure what you mean...
It would be good to get this working - as i would love to know how it works.

 

[LWComputingMVP]

He's probably talking about the ARC path - that defines the controller, disk, and partition the Windows installation is installed on. I don't quite know how Windows determines that information so I would either put several entries to "guess", or do a parallel install (you don't even need it to complete, you just need the install process to modify the boot.ini to see what it would be set to), then you could try it. But again, I doubt it would work properly without preinstalling the drivers. When upgrading to 2000 from an NT4 system, you had to preinstall the drivers because 2000 didn't have the correct ones. And Repair installs have usually proven a waste of time in my experience - I have had OCCASIONAL success, but the odds of success are outweighed by the likelihood of failure in my opinion.

 

[bludbunny]

lwcomputing - in that case I had tried that (parallel install - copy and mod boot ini) - still failed - I believe it is due to lack of drivers / looking for old controller.
As for repair installs, I have had sucess with 2K3 svr, but not usually with w2k.
I am in the process of taking the data from the machine that we need, and archiving the rest. While I do have an image, I find it easier to get what i want from within the parallel install.
cheers,
Brett

 

[PaulGillespie]

Do you have another server with the same hardware? if you do, i would try inserting the restored disk into is and boot off it. Then install the drivers for the new server. now put the drive in the new server and see what happens. Nice to have this happen on a non critical server.

 

[ADB100]

I have done this several times when moving a server from a SCSI platform to an IDE one and it's worked every time so far:

1: Restore image or install new hardware
2: Put Windows 2000/XP disk into the CD and boot machine
3: Press a key to boot from the CD and let Windows setup start
4: If you have a non-standard disk controller (Like I did) press F6 and have the driver disk ready
5: Don't select recover when prompted initially, let Windows setup assume it is a new install
6: When Windows searches for a previous installation select repair and let it 'upgrade' this installation
7: Windows will install any new devices you have as well as keeping the settings and applications from the previous install.

HTH

Andy