how does my 2003 server Boot??

  • Thread starter Thread starter steve
  • Start date Start date
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steve

Im trying to experiment a little with a test machine.

Im trying to understand the basics boot process. I have read several
articles but still have some questions, and dont understand some
things.

I guess the most basic question is must the boot drive be drive 0 if
in a sata set up I have drive 0 and 1.

Lets say I have two drives. NOrmally the system boots nicely.
0 being the boot drive. 1 being just a second drive.

However lets say I swap the drives. Now the old boot drive is 1 and
the second drive is now 0.


I though that if I put ntldr and ntdetect.com on the drive that is not
the boot drive. And put boot.ini on this drive as well. Change the
boot.ini so that it point to the second drive (1) first partition 1.
That the system will boot and look at drive 0, then it will display
the boot init and then I can select the right partition and it will
now boot from the second drive.

However I have found that while I get the boot ini and the display of
the windows OS's installed, depending if I slect the first windows
installed or the second windows installed. eg disk 0 or disk 1 I get
two different messages.

File missing or corrupt <widnows Root> \system32\ntoskrnl.exe please
re-install a copy of the above file
OR
Windows could not start becasue of a computer disk hardeware
configuration problem ... could not read from slected boot disk ..
check for disk hardware

So I repeat the question.

Can you boot from disk 1 in a two disk sytem and if so how (without
using bios or lilo or something like that, just windows.)

Thanks a lot.
 
steve said:
Im trying to experiment a little with a test machine.
Click to expand...
Im trying to understand the basics boot process. I have read several
articles but still have some questions, and dont understand some things.
Click to expand...
I guess the most basic question is must the boot drive be drive 0 if
in a sata set up I have drive 0 and 1.
Click to expand...

Nope, most systems will boot from almost anything now.
Lets say I have two drives. NOrmally the system boots nicely.
0 being the boot drive. 1 being just a second drive.
Click to expand...
However lets say I swap the drives. Now the old boot drive is 1 and
the second drive is now 0.
Click to expand...
I though that if I put ntldr and ntdetect.com on the drive that is not
the boot drive. And put boot.ini on this drive as well. Change the
boot.ini so that it point to the second drive (1) first partition 1.
That the system will boot and look at drive 0, then it will display
the boot init and then I can select the right partition and it will
now boot from the second drive.
Click to expand...
However I have found that while I get the boot ini and the display of
the windows OS's installed, depending if I slect the first windows
installed or the second windows installed. eg disk 0 or disk 1 I get
two different messages.
Click to expand...
File missing or corrupt <widnows Root> \system32\ntoskrnl.exe please
re-install a copy of the above file
OR
Windows could not start becasue of a computer disk hardeware
configuration problem ... could not read from slected boot disk ..
check for disk hardware
Click to expand...
So I repeat the question.
Click to expand...
Can you boot from disk 1 in a two disk sytem
Yes.

and if so how (without using bios or lilo or something like that, just windows.)
Click to expand...

You just have to setup whats on the drive the bios has been
told to boot from to boot from the drive you want to boot from.

Gets a bit complicated but it certainly is doable.

Its easier to use a boot manager tho.
 
Ok I seem to have solved my problem.

Your right when you say "You just have to get the settings right"

I had all the right details but I had the boot.ini wrong. I always
find it obtuse.

Normally this is how sytems boots if the 0 is the first bootable drive
on the first partiion.
[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" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

To boot from the 1 drive (eg second drive) first partion You need to
change the rdisk from 0 to 1.

I orginally had changed the disk() setting. to 1 This was wrong.
Properly to boot from the second disk first partition it should be
then ....

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003,
Standard" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

This worked for me.
Thanks all.
 
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