Full Version: install repair Windows 2008?
Recently I did a change to my RAID volume for a Proliant DL360 G5. The server was configured with 4x72GB SAS in RAID-5. I broke this RAID, made an image of system partition using ImageX. I then created a 2x72GB SAS in RAID-1, and 2 of 2x147GB SAS in RAID 1. I applied back the wim image to the newly created system partition. Unluckily, when the server stated up, it said "ntldr is missing". In Windows 2000/2003/XP I can boot up using Windows source media and do a repair install to repair such corrupted installation but I couldn't find such an option in Windows 2008. It does have a repair option but only allows restoration from a backup. When it detects a previously installed Windows it will only rename the Windows to Windows.old and install a fresh Windows 2008. How to make it possible to do 'repair install' for Windows 2008? anyone?
Why don't you reinstall fresh in the first place, wouldn't this be simpler and quickier? 
Never tried myself to repair a windows install after moving from a Raid 5 to Raid 1 (why bother to use Raid 1 in the first place..), but a reinstall might save you a lot of time - trust me.
Sounds like you broke something rather than the fault of Windows 2008..
Reading the hardware specs for your machine I see that it is using embedded RAID so windows ought interpret the disk array as a single unit in transparent mode, if this is not the case then your array configuration might require some fine tunning on the BIOS setup - I know from my own experience that it's easy to get confused with so many options sometimes..
Try using just a single RAID1 array instead of bulking up several arrays on the same machine and see how it goes.
It appears that the boot loader is working but it fails to find the right path to the windows files so perhaps one could assume that they are now in a different partition?
One other idea would involve restoring windows back to the original Raid 5 and then try to convert to single disk (no array) to later convert/rebuild to Raid 1 would help - but then again, it's a messy work method and you save way more time with a fresh install and get an identical result.
Never tried myself to repair a windows install after moving from a Raid 5 to Raid 1 (why bother to use Raid 1 in the first place..), but a reinstall might save you a lot of time - trust me.
QUOTE
but I couldn't find such an option in Windows 2008
Sounds like you broke something rather than the fault of Windows 2008..
Reading the hardware specs for your machine I see that it is using embedded RAID so windows ought interpret the disk array as a single unit in transparent mode, if this is not the case then your array configuration might require some fine tunning on the BIOS setup - I know from my own experience that it's easy to get confused with so many options sometimes..
Try using just a single RAID1 array instead of bulking up several arrays on the same machine and see how it goes.
It appears that the boot loader is working but it fails to find the right path to the windows files so perhaps one could assume that they are now in a different partition?
One other idea would involve restoring windows back to the original Raid 5 and then try to convert to single disk (no array) to later convert/rebuild to Raid 1 would help - but then again, it's a messy work method and you save way more time with a fresh install and get an identical result.
Re-installing will work but that avoids the problem instead of tackling it, that's not my first option when dealing with problems.
I've only created 1 RAID, that is a 2x72GB SAS RAID 1, the rest of hard disks are there, but the RAID haven't been created, because I want to created them from within the HP RAID configuration utility in Windows. So, there is just one logical volume now present for Windows 2008 to see. That isn't an issue because when I boot up using XPE I can read the volume and can see the folders being applied back by ImageX, but surely the ntldr isn't there, something not right with the imaging process, it failed to pick up some files (might had skipped).
Fresh installation will also trigger another product activation for Windows 2008, that will make me 'lost' one KMS activation.
I've only created 1 RAID, that is a 2x72GB SAS RAID 1, the rest of hard disks are there, but the RAID haven't been created, because I want to created them from within the HP RAID configuration utility in Windows. So, there is just one logical volume now present for Windows 2008 to see. That isn't an issue because when I boot up using XPE I can read the volume and can see the folders being applied back by ImageX, but surely the ntldr isn't there, something not right with the imaging process, it failed to pick up some files (might had skipped).
Fresh installation will also trigger another product activation for Windows 2008, that will make me 'lost' one KMS activation.
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