[AccessD] OT: make volume bootable

So you probably installed your current OS with the 'old drives' online,
so Windows wrote the MBR to those drives.

Hmmm, I'd say the fastest way to fix this would be to run the repair
from the Windows 2003 CD.  Put it in.  See if it finds your existing OS.
Let it run the repair options. (Do this with the old drives out).  If it
still won't boot, don't panic, there is a 'hidden' repair option that
most people don't use.  Boot to the CD again, this time, tell it to
install the OS.  Go past the F8 licensing thing..... it will scan for
existing OSes before it installs the new one.  If it finds the OS on
your existing RAID controller, use the repair option at this step, and
it should do the trick.  This repair option literally reinstalls the OS,
while leaving the partition and installed software alone.  Had an
'imaged' system I was trying to restore in Virtual PC, wouldn't boot,
kept hanging.  Normal 'repair' options did nothing. Ran this repair
method, and about 30 minutes later, it was up and running.

Drew

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:29 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: make volume bootable

Michael,

I am not sure I understand.  I have a system with the OS itself on a
raid
drive, running on a dedicated raid controller card.  That works exactly
as
expected and I like it - raid 6 protection etc.  I also have a pair of
older
drives which probably (the details are hazy now) had the OS on them
originally, which run off of the raid controller on the motherboard.
These
two disks form a raid 1 array (mirrored) with nothing visible on it, and
yes
I have told windows explorer to show system and hidden files.  However
if I
disconnect these two older drives from the motherboard (remove power or
remove the SATA connector) windows does not boot.  

IIRC there is a master boot record that is written to a drive that is
where
windows goes for the very first "bootstrap" code.  It then tells windows
where the rest of the OS is located.  I thought there was a "sys"
command
(in the old days anyway) that would write this master boot record and
perhaps a couple of other files to a hard disk and that you could just
"sys"
a drive to make it the drive with that MBR stuff.  If I can do that to
the
C: drive on the Areca dedicated raid card then I could boot directly off
of
that C: drive and get rid of these two older drives.  If they ever fail
I am
doomed.  Yea they are raid one but I do NOT want to be trying to rebuild
a
mirror just for some hidden MBR that should have been moved long ago.

Unfortunately I do not know as much about that stuff as I once did and
have
so far been unable to discover how to change from "booting" off these
older
drives to booting off the new.


John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com 
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