[WinMac] NT not booting from backup boot drive

Dan Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Sun, 28 Feb 1999 11:55:18 -0500

        You can check out <<http://www.ntfaq.com> for more info; but essentially
you could be bumping up against BIOS limitations of 1024 cylinders for
the system/boot partition.

        If you want to break a mirror boot partition, you need to re-run setup
and check "Inspect Boot Sector" so that it can boot again.

        Lastly, I would avoid HP servers like the plague: At least here in the
U.S. their so-called "enterprise level" server support shuts down after
8PM on weekdays and is closed up completely on the weekends. I don't know
about you, but I wouldn't depend on H-P for enterprise level servers...
There are other manufacturers that offer better (24/365) support, such as
IBM, Compaq, Dell, etc...

At 01:54 PM 2/28/99 +0000, Michael wrote:

>>>>

<excerpt>

<fontfamily><param>Courier_New</param>I have an HP LCIII with 512mb of
ram and two processors running NT & sp4. I

have this very strange fault. I was hoping someone might know the answer
to.

I have 2x 4GB drives in my server and normally I set the boot partition
at

1024mb, install all my software as required and then mirror the drive to
the

backup drive. I then break the mirror and write the boot.ini so I can

choose which drive I want the server to boot from. This has worked
without

problems on 12 other HP servers.

On this one I did the same thing, but then realised that the boot
partition

wasn't big enough. I normally install NT straight on to the drives as
they

come out of the box from HP and the setup program only gives me the
option

of a 1024mb partition.

I managed to get around this problem by formatting the disk in NT first
as

4GB partition and then installing NT as usual. This worked fine until I
mirrored the drive and broke it. It wouldn't boot from the back up
drive.

After selecting the backup system it would say the NTKernal was missing
and I should re-install the file. This drive would also not boot if I put
it in the place of the working boot drive. Considering it is a broken
mirror why doesn't it boot? On my 1024mb boot partition machine I could
swap the drives around to my hearts content and it would boot fine.

I decided to rebuild the server again and make it a 2048mb boot
partition

and see if that helped. This time when trying to install I would eject
the

cd after the first part of the setup process and reboot as usual. The

setup would get to the boot.ini blank the screen as usual, but just hang.
I

tried it a few times. I tried it from the floppies with the latest
drivers

and booting from the cd using the NT4

drivers. It made no difference.

I went through the exact same setup and made the partition 1024mb and
it

worked no problem!!! It seems I can have 4g partition or a 1024mb

partition, but nothing in between.

I thought I had a drive problem, but as the server stands now, it has a
4g

boot partition working fine, and a 1024mb partition on the second drive

with a clean install of NT4, sp4 on it and I can boot it from my
boot.ini

no problem.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this happens?

I would welcome any ideas.

Thanks in advance

Michael

</fontfamily>

</excerpt><<<<<<<<

        Yours truly,

        Daniel L. Schwartz,

        Electrical Engineer.

        Dan's Macintosh Consulting

        239 Great Road

        Maple Shade, NJ 08052

        609-642-7666

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