Guest Mike Schumann Posted October 7, 2007 Posted October 7, 2007 I created a mirror on my new Windows 2003 Server system. Both disks are identical 160GByte IDE drives. When I created a mirror, I got the following error message: "Logical Disk Mgr could not update boot file for any boot partitions on the target disk. Verify your arcpath listings in file boot.ini or through the bootcfg.exe utility" I'm a novice at this and am quite clueless on what to do to make sure that if my primary disk fails, I can still boot from the mirrored drive. Any help would be appreciated. -- Mike Schumann
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted October 7, 2007 Posted October 7, 2007 Re: Error Creating Mirror on Windows 2003 Server "Mike Schumann" <mike-nospam@traditions-nospam.com> wrote in message news:O9zphbQCIHA.4176@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... >I created a mirror on my new Windows 2003 Server system. Both disks are >identical 160GByte IDE drives. > > When I created a mirror, I got the following error message: > > "Logical Disk Mgr could not update boot file for any boot partitions on > the target disk. Verify your arcpath listings in file boot.ini or through > the bootcfg.exe utility" > > I'm a novice at this and am quite clueless on what to do to make sure that > if my primary disk fails, I can still boot from the mirrored drive. > > Any help would be appreciated. > > -- > Mike Schumann You need to examine the hidden file c:\boot.ini. I suggest you also have a good think about your aim in this exercise. If you're installing a mirror because you need to run your server with a very high availability, even in case a disk should fail, fine (although a RAID array would probably be far superior). However, most problems that bring down a server are caused by operator mistake, file corruption, an update that's gone wrong or some software incompatibility. Have a look at a few posts in this newsgroup, e.g. at this one: "URGENT - Server 2003 lost almost everything". In all of these cases a mirror will not help you at all but a good backup process or imaging process will, e.g. Acronis DriveImage. Note also that your backup schemes, including mirrors, are largely useless unless you test them immediately after you have configured them, and then again twice each year. There are many posts here from server admins who are utterly baffled when one of their mirror disks fails and they have to boot the server from the other disk, with the boss breathing down their neck. They have never done it before and their boss wonders why he spent the money on a redundant system that involves a lengthy downtime the first time there is a problem.
Guest Mike Schumann Posted October 7, 2007 Posted October 7, 2007 Re: Error Creating Mirror on Windows 2003 Server I definitely agree with you on backups, etc. I'm only mirroring to minimize a potential problem caused by a drive failure, and hopefully to get some performance advantage on disk reads. Mike Schumann "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com> wrote in message news:ueWquERCIHA.3940@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl... > > "Mike Schumann" <mike-nospam@traditions-nospam.com> wrote in message > news:O9zphbQCIHA.4176@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... >>I created a mirror on my new Windows 2003 Server system. Both disks are >>identical 160GByte IDE drives. >> >> When I created a mirror, I got the following error message: >> >> "Logical Disk Mgr could not update boot file for any boot partitions on >> the target disk. Verify your arcpath listings in file boot.ini or >> through the bootcfg.exe utility" >> >> I'm a novice at this and am quite clueless on what to do to make sure >> that if my primary disk fails, I can still boot from the mirrored drive. >> >> Any help would be appreciated. >> >> -- >> Mike Schumann > > You need to examine the hidden file c:\boot.ini. > > I suggest you also have a good think about your aim in > this exercise. If you're installing a mirror because you > need to run your server with a very high availability, even > in case a disk should fail, fine (although a RAID array > would probably be far superior). > > However, most problems that bring down a server are > caused by operator mistake, file corruption, an update > that's gone wrong or some software incompatibility. > Have a look at a few posts in this newsgroup, e.g. at > this one: "URGENT - Server 2003 lost almost everything". > In all of these cases a mirror will not help you at all but > a good backup process or imaging process will, e.g. > Acronis DriveImage. > > Note also that your backup schemes, including mirrors, > are largely useless unless you test them immediately > after you have configured them, and then again twice > each year. There are many posts here from server > admins who are utterly baffled when one of their mirror > disks fails and they have to boot the server from the > other disk, with the boss breathing down their neck. > They have never done it before and their boss wonders > why he spent the money on a redundant system that > involves a lengthy downtime the first time there is a problem. >
Guest Mike Schumann Posted October 7, 2007 Posted October 7, 2007 Re: Error Creating Mirror on Windows 2003 Server I solved the problem and thought that I would post the answer here for others who run into the same situation. From researching various on-line postings, I suspected that the problem was either caused by the boot.ini file being read only, or the fact that the mirror disk drive had never been set up with a boot sector (I initially tried to mirror to this drive when it was a virgin drive). I did two things (I'm not sure which fixed the problem): 1. I unlinked the mirror. 2. I executed "attrib -s -h -r \boot.ini" 3. I created a primary partition on the drive that I wanted to use for the mirror 4. I deleted the primary partition 5. I created the mirror - VOILA - NO ERROR msg 6. I reset the default attributes on boot.ini by executing "attrib +s +h +r \boot.ini" (The boot.ini file had a new entry for the mirror drive). After the mirrors sychronized, I was able to power down each drive seperately and still boot (restoring the mirror between tests). I hope this helps anyone else with the same issue. Mike Schumann "Mike Schumann" <mike-nospam@traditions-nospam.com> wrote in message news:O9zphbQCIHA.4176@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... >I created a mirror on my new Windows 2003 Server system. Both disks are >identical 160GByte IDE drives. > > When I created a mirror, I got the following error message: > > "Logical Disk Mgr could not update boot file for any boot partitions on > the target disk. Verify your arcpath listings in file boot.ini or through > the bootcfg.exe utility" > > I'm a novice at this and am quite clueless on what to do to make sure that > if my primary disk fails, I can still boot from the mirrored drive. > > Any help would be appreciated. > > -- > Mike Schumann >
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted October 7, 2007 Posted October 7, 2007 Re: Error Creating Mirror on Windows 2003 Server I doubt whether creating/deleting a partition had any effect. On the other hand the boot.ini is not write-protected by default, so this would be a more likely cause. If it is then Microsoft were sloppy: The mirroring tool should take appropriate action if it encounters a write-protected file. "Mike Schumann" <mike-nospam@traditions-nospam.com> wrote in message news:eLmQR9SCIHA.2324@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >I solved the problem and thought that I would post the answer here for >others who run into the same situation. > > From researching various on-line postings, I suspected that the problem > was either caused by the boot.ini file being read only, or the fact that > the mirror disk drive had never been set up with a boot sector (I > initially tried to mirror to this drive when it was a virgin drive). > > I did two things (I'm not sure which fixed the problem): > > 1. I unlinked the mirror. > 2. I executed "attrib -s -h -r \boot.ini" > 3. I created a primary partition on the drive that I wanted to use for > the mirror > 4. I deleted the primary partition > 5. I created the mirror - VOILA - NO ERROR msg > 6. I reset the default attributes on boot.ini by executing "attrib +s +h > +r \boot.ini" (The boot.ini file had a new entry for the mirror drive). > > After the mirrors sychronized, I was able to power down each drive > seperately and still boot (restoring the mirror between tests). > > I hope this helps anyone else with the same issue. > > Mike Schumann > > "Mike Schumann" <mike-nospam@traditions-nospam.com> wrote in message > news:O9zphbQCIHA.4176@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... >>I created a mirror on my new Windows 2003 Server system. Both disks are >>identical 160GByte IDE drives. >> >> When I created a mirror, I got the following error message: >> >> "Logical Disk Mgr could not update boot file for any boot partitions on >> the target disk. Verify your arcpath listings in file boot.ini or >> through the bootcfg.exe utility" >> >> I'm a novice at this and am quite clueless on what to do to make sure >> that if my primary disk fails, I can still boot from the mirrored drive. >> >> Any help would be appreciated. >> >> -- >> Mike Schumann >> > >
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