Boot sector problem in Server 2003

[brad8266]

We lost the partitions on our RAID 1 drives on server 2003 today while attempting a raid rebuild. I rebuilt the partition tables and supposedly the MBR is ok according to Disk Patch, which is what i used to build the partition table and check the MBR.

Now when I plug the drive as a slave drive into another machine i can go to "my computer" and see the 2 partitions on the server drive and all the data that I needed is there and all looks fine until i try to use the drive to boot. it just wont boot. I get the "disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter" message.

My next thing is going to be to boot to the server 2003 CD and go to the repair console and run fixboot and fixmbr. Is this the right thing to do or are there any other ideas?

It is not the BIOS or a disk in a floppy drive or anything like that, it is indded the hard drive. I have come a long way with this problem and I am so close to getting it done and getting this server back up with no data loss, all i got to do is get it to boot.

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

That would be the next step. To do a fixboot and fixmbr to rewrite the boot records for the OS.

Other than that rebuilding the boot.ini would be your only next logical step.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[brad8266]

Hello,

That would be the next step. To do a fixboot and fixmbr to rewrite the boot records for the OS.

Other than that rebuilding the boot.ini would be your only next logical step.

Cheers,
Mak

Thanks for the quick reply. The disk has 2 partitions, one with all the local system stuff and the other with all the shares in it that the clients use. The boot sector should be on the system partition correct? Also can I use my XP Pro disk to run the fixboot and fixmbr or do I need the Server 2003 disk? I would think the console prompt would be the same. I mention that because I dont have the server disks with me at the moment but I have my XP disk. If its the same prompt then I could get this done tonight and install the drives back in the server machine in the morning.

Here is my boot.ini, looks ok to me

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, Standard" /noexecute=optout /fastdetect

EDIT- The boot.ini posted above has a few gaps in it on this post but it doesnt in notepad so ignore any spaces that got in there somehow.

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

I do not think that the XP disc would work. But you can try. The boot sector should be on the drive that is labeled as the system active drive. Since you cant check that without booting i would say that yes it shoudl be on the system partition.

If the system partition is the first one then that should be correct. I dont see anything wrong with that boot.ini layout.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[brad8266]

Hello,

I do not think that the XP disc would work. But you can try. The boot sector should be on the drive that is labeled as the system active drive. Since you cant check that without booting i would say that yes it shoudl be on the system partition.

If the system partition is the first one then that should be correct. I dont see anything wrong with that boot.ini layout.

Cheers,
Mak

Thanks for the quick reply.

Ill give it a try with the XP disk since my XP disc did perform chkdsk on the partition and it fixed the entire thing and allowed me to get all my data back. Hopefuly the fixboot and fixmbr works.

 

[brad8266]

Ok I ran fixboot and fixmbr and it is strating to boot but it lockes up during the windows server screen so I started in safe mode and it locks up on the windows\system32\acpitabl.dat file.

Anyone know what thats all about?

 

[ECTech]

can you post the specs of this machine?

uhh, where did that post come from?? ^_^

 

[brad8266]

Intel Se7221Bk1-E board with MegaIDE embedded RAID. Drivers installed.
Server 2003 r2 standard
Intel pent 4 processor

Need anything else?

 

[Kharn]

it was a drive by spammer, just ignore posts like that an report them.

 

[ECTech]

try disabling HyperThreading in the BIOS.