jwcolby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Wed Nov 21 08:55:12 CST 2007
I tried that. It did not offer to repair an existing OS install. It did find the drive (I have a slipstream disk with the raid drivers on it) and asked if I wanted to format it etc, but when I answered no it started a new install. When it was done, there was an entire NEW copy of Windows 2003 in it's own directory, but even that wouldn't boot without the old drives or the slipstream CD disk in. And yes, I disconnected the old drives before doing the new install. I hooked up the old drives and can get back to my original 2003 install (it gives me a boot menu). PITA really! I ended up just giving up (real work to do). Will go back there someday. Sigh. John W. Colby Colby Consulting www.ColbyConsulting.com -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Drew Wutka Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 9:34 AM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [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 The information contained in this transmission is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain II-VI Proprietary and/or II-VI BusinessSensitve material. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately and destroy the material in its entirety, whether electronic or hard copy. You are notified that any review, retransmission, copying, disclosure, dissemination, or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com