Using the simple Disk Management to create a mirror set of disks on Windows 2003 Server, my boot.ini gets updated to be able to boot to either disk - provided the main disk is not the disk that fails - meaning that if disk 1 fails I cannot just move the disk from bay 1 to bay 0 and boot, nor can I boot and tell it to boot to the mirror, since the server is looking for disk 0... I suppose this is the real downside of doing soft raid. I am not so concerned about this.My question is this - in a RAID1 configuration where you lose the ability to boot from disk 0 or disk 1 on a cold boot, but are are able to use a USB boot device with boot.ini that can boot to either mirror... HOW CAN I REBUILD THE BOOT TABLE SO THAT I CAN BOOT FROM THE LOCAL STORAGE AGAIN, and not longer the usb device.In summary - server will not boot from disk0 or disk1 in a RAID set, just sits there saying attempting to boot from C:, but if I boot from USB bootable device, I can select either mirror drive to boot from. I want to fix I presume the MBR so that this dependancy is gone.ThanksJ

Hello smurfman, Can you please check to see if the following KB article can be helpful for you? Steps to Recover a Failed Mirrored System/Boot Partition http://support.microsoft.com/kb/120227/EN-US/ How To Mirror the System and Boot Partition (RAID1) in Windows 2000 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/302969 Best Regards, David ShenThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi smurfman,I want to see if the information provided was helpful. Please keep us posted on your progress and let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns. Best Regards, David ShenThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

I looked at the KB and KB113977Similar issue - I had a mirror set - could not boot to disk0 and could not just move disk1 to slot 0 on the controller either.I created a Bootable USB drive with boot.ini and was able to boot to second drive.Re-created the mirrorBut was still unable to boot without USB device pointing to drive 0 (I suspect no mbr or something)Rebooted with USB device this time picked disk0 as boot, boots up just fine.tried to break mirror - re-mirror - still cannot boot without USB device.Somewhere in all of this, I lost my mirror set/dynamic disk config and was left with basic disksI managed to get everything back up - Here is where I am stuck;1) disk0 - has C drive, S drive, U drive, W drive (C is what I booted to using usb drive)2) disk0 - has F drive, that is it, used acronis to move / repair my partitions, since somewhere in all of this the partition table was lost and could not see my other disks just c drive.3) CAN ONLY BOOT OFF USB DRIVE pointing to C Drive4) No more fault tollerance5) Both Disk0 and Disk1 are labeled as basic disk in Disk Administrator6) Cannot move F on disk1 to disk0 - acronis software cannot / will not do it. (least of my worries).Tried Windows 2003 Server boot CD, used recovery console, logged in, ran fixboot and fixmbr, typed exit and rebooted. Still would not boot to C drive on disk0, had to put USB drive back in.Suggetions?J

David, I posted a reply - and forgot to update the answer thread. I have posted some more info, and I am hoping that you give me some assistance.ThanksJ

Hi smurfman, Sorry for my late reply. As you mentioned, you were unable to boot without USB device point to drive 0. Did you see any error or warning message when you cannot boot? For test purpose, please test with copying the boot.ini from the USB drive to overwritethe boot.inion the first disk, and then test to see if you can boot the system without USB drive in this condition. If not, please remove the mirror volume, and only leave first hard drive to try running fixboot and fixmbr in Windows Server 2003 recovery console for a try. How To Use the Recovery Console on a Windows Server 2003-Based Computer That Does Not Start http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326215 Hope it helps. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

So currently there are no mirrors. I have 2 disks in the server, C is located on Disk0 no mirror.I think the issue is related to the boot sector specifically. Since with no USB device at boot time, the server just skips trying to boot from harddisk at all, no Boot.ini options are presented.I have already tried to boot with Windows 2003 server disk, to recovery console and was able to log in and ran both the fixboot and fixmbr, but to no avail.Years ago, I ran into an issue with a "c" disk losing the data in the mbr that tells if it is bootable. I thought the fixboot and fixmbr would have done the trick but it did not. In that experience years ago, we used a program called Disk Probeto edit the boot table manually and that resolved everything.J

I just had this problem myself, with the mirrored drives no longer booting and the POST jumping straight to boot to CD. The fixmbr and fixboot tools in the 2003 Server recovery console did not work for me. I ended up using the Ultimate Boot CD, going to the Partition Tools section and running TestDisk. From here it was able to detect the Windows installations and recover my boot records. The one downside was that once in Windows both my drives were showing up in Disk Management as Basic disks, with no mirroring set up at all, but it was easy enough to recreate the mirror and now I'm back up and running. Hopefully this could work for you, too.

RobbapI have seen the testdisk toolTalk me thru what you did to fix the mbr?J