Something nice to say about Microsoft Server 2003...

[Ben Scott]

On 7/11/06, hewitt_tech <hewitt_tech at comcast.net> wrote:
>>  Be sure you create the "Fault Tolerant Boot Disk" floppy or whatever
>> it's called, so you can boot from the second hard drive if the first
>> malfunctions.
>
> It may not be necessary with Server 2003. The system asked me if I wanted to
> boot from the second drive after a cold boot.

  Another possibility is that it's coming from the boot loader on the
first disk.

  Now, my experience with Win 2000 and FT (Fault Tolerant) disks is
limited, but I believe Windows 2000 (AKA NT 5.0) is pretty much the
same as NT 4.0 in this regard.  And here's how it worked in NT 4.0:

  NTLDR reads the BOOT.INI file from the same partition NTLDR is on.
NTLDR then presents you with the choices listed in that file.  Once
you've picked a boot choice, NTLDR loads the system files from that
partition and boots the NT kernel.

  NTLDR knows nothing about FT disks.  It can only see BIOS physical
disks.  (Strictly speaking, that's inaccurate, but it will do.)  It
isn't until the NT kernel is running that FT disks become available.
But NTLDR is read-only, and it can read from a mirror set member as if
it was a regular disk, and that good enough to get the kernel running.
 (This is the same way Linux boots off RAID, BTW.)

  Now, BOOT.INI can list both mirror set members as boot choices.
NTLDR will load from either mirror set member that way.  This is
useful is the first member is damaged and fails to start successfully.
 You pick the other member at boot time and the system comes up with
one working disk.

  However, NTLDR itself is loaded by the BIOS, and many BIOSes only
support booting from the first hard disk.  If the first hard disk is
damaged, that can prevent NTLDR from coming up, which prevents you
from even getting the choice to boot NT from the other disk.

  So, the "Fault Tolerant Boot Disk" is basically a copy of NTLDR on
floppy disk (just like GRUB or LILO on a floppy), with a copy of the
BOOT.INI from the Windows system partition.  If the first hard disk
goes dead, you pop the floppy in the drive, hit RESET, and pick the
second boot option.  Or, more likely, you tell the frantic customer
this over the phone at 3 AM on a Saturday.  :-)

  Google finds more information:

Overview of Disk Mirroring (RAID Level 1) in Windows NT
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=114779

Booting From Mirror After Primary Partition Is Lost
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=113977

Reasons why Windows NT does not boot from a shadow mirror drive
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=167045

How to Recover From a STOP 0x00000058 FTDISK_INTERNAL_ERROR
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=128630

How to Recover Mirroring Windows NT Using IDE Devices
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=141702

Master Boot Record Not Written to Mirrored Shadow Partition
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=117131

  HTH,

-- Ben "I can't believe I remember this crap" Scott