(Windows 2003 R2 software Raid mirror 2x SATA HDD 160GB) I have a problem. I removed a faulty mirrored Dynamicdrive in softwarethinking I didn't need a "missing Disk 0 failed redundancy HDD".It wasn't avaliable in "system manager" so OK it's a DUD hdd.....I removed it by taking it out of the Disk management and was going tomodify the "Boot.ini". (See Below) before rebooting the server.***************************************************[boot loader]timeout=30default=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 multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Boot Mirror C: - secondary plex" ************************************************************************What I need to know for editing the "Boot.ini" is.... Can I just delete the bottom line??? Do I need to change the rdisk(0) tordisk(1) if the "Disk management" (in Computer management) says at the moment the working drive is labeled as Disk 1 or will it change after I reboot and become 0 so rdisk(0) is OK??Also"AFTER" I had removed the drive in Disk management I read aMicrosoft white paper thathas warned not to break the mirror and remove the copy of the drive (See below below). What should I do???Thanks!!Signed "the one who doesn't want to reboot the server due to the consequences"http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816307/en-usMissing dynamic disks If Disk Management shows a missing dynamic disk, this means that a dynamic disk that was attached to the system cannot be located. Because every dynamic disk in the system knows about every other dynamic disk, this "missing" disk is shown in Disk Management. Do not delete the missing disk's volumes or select the Remove Disk option in Disk Management unless you intentionally removed the physical disk from the system and you do not intend to ever reattach it. This is important because after you delete the disk and volume records from the remaining dynamic disk's LDM database, you may not be able to import the missing disk and bring it back online on the same system after you reattach it. Text-mode setup and Recovery Console Never delete or create a partition on a dynamic disk during Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003 text-mode Setup or when you start the computer by using the Recovery Console. If you do so, permanent data loss may occur. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 236086 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/236086/ ) System or boot disk listed as Dynamic Unreadable in Disk Management The mirrored drive Never break a healthy system disk or boot dynamic mirrored volume and expect the mirrored drive to replace the original primary drive if it fails. The manually broken mirrored drive is assigned the next available drive letter, and this is updated to the permanent record in the LDM database. This means that regardless of what position that drive takes in the boot process, it is assigned the new (and incorrect) drive letter, so the operating system cannot function correctly.Note Windows software mirroring is a fault-tolerant solution that makes sure you can maintain access to data if you have a hardware disk failure. Software mirroring is not intended to be used as an offline backup mechanism.

Hello WinWatson, During the creation of the mirror, the OS will add an entry to the system's Boot Manager that allows us to boot the secondary mirror disk (multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Boot Mirror C: - secondary plex")Generally speaking, resolving a primary mirror failure is much easier with this entry in Boot Manager file than without it because all you need to do is select the entry boot to the secondary mirror. If the system fails to boot to the primary system volume, restart the system and select the Boot Mirror Secondary Plex option for the operating system you want to start. The system should startup normally. After you successfully boot the system to the secondary drive, you can schedule the maintenance necessary to rebuild the mirror if desired.Thanks and Regards,ScorprioMCTS: Windows Vista | Exchange Server 2007 MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician | Server & Enterprise Admin

Fixed. If you delete the DUD drive in the OSbefore shutting down theserver and taking the HDD, the second drive ends up with a faulty bootsector andmaster boot record.If you need to fix it ASAP/ULTRA urgentto get it upyou can copy"NTLRD ,ntdetect.com and boot.ini toa USB stick and make that bootable in yourBIOS. OR Shut down theserver remove the DUD HDD but keep the good one in and boot of you windows 2003 disk and go into your system recovery console andrun FIXBOOT and then FIXMBR (in this order) on the working drive. This will make it drive(0) in disk management and boot up OK.