re-installing Windows Small Business Server 2003

A couple of days ago our Server went down following a problem (yet to be
completely understood).

Spec: Fujitsu-Siemens Econel 40 Server, 1Gb RAM, 2x76Gb SATA drives
configured as RAID 1 using the onboard LSI Logic RAID controller, Win SBS
2003.

On rebooting the Server, POST indicated RAID in a degraded state and were
attempting to rebuild. This state remained that way for several hours. SMART
indicated the drives were okay. We attempted a further reboot but only got as
far as the SBS 2003 splash screen with the scrolling candy stripe until the
Server rebooted itself to the same place. Having reported the RAID problem to
Fujitsu, they replaced the MOBO assuming a faultiy RAID controller or MOBO.

After replacing the MOBO, the Fujitsu engineer tried to rebuild the RAID but
that remained in the same state as before, however by leaving the system to
continue booting we received a STOP error which was so quick it was hard to
read. After further reboots we eventually got a "load needed DLLs for Kernel"
error. Looking at the RAID via the LSI (Ctrl + M) config utility, one of the
drives ststed "Error not responding", so we took both offline and online and
rebooted the Server. This time both drives appeared to be okay, so we
proceeded to boot, but received the Kernell DLL error again.

I have just proceeded to re-install the RAID software having booted from the
SBS 2003 CD in an attempt to recover, and have progressed to installing
Windows section but am now not sure whethr to re-install over the original
installation or re-install to a new location.

As with all Servers, data on it is precious and I would rather not overwrite
the original and lose all data and User datails. We do have a backup data
from the SBS backup utility albeit old, however assistance in tis matter
would be appreciated.

Thanks
--
Always hands on and keen to learn.

"Tonky" <> wrote in message
news:91DF2753-F7EE-40CA-B3A7-...
>A couple of days ago our Server went down following a problem (yet to be
> completely understood).
> As with all Servers, data on it is precious and I would rather not
> overwrite
> the original and lose all data and User datails. We do have a backup data
> from the SBS backup utility albeit old, however assistance in tis matter
> would be appreciated.
>

Well, the good news is that you had a mirror of everything. My hunch is that
the data is probably fine and just needs to be retrieved.

My course of action would be:

1. Take a disk image of each drive in that mirror: you never know which one
is actually corrupt.
2. Image that onto a virtual drive in VMWare or VirtualPC.
3. Attempt to boot from that virtual drive.
4. Boot from a SBS CD in that VM and choose the repair option.
5. Confirm that the system functions properly and that no data was lost.
6. Repeat steps on a live drive without involving mirroring.
7. Do a soft mirror.
8. Get the hardware mirroring working again, probably with a different
second drive.

My philosophy is to never try to fix problems on the live data drives until
I tested the solution in a virtual environment. In your case, I would have
disconnected the second SATA drive instead of doing the offline/online
dance. A degraded mirror is not a mirror and the appropriate course of
action is to replace the failed drive. After all, SATA drives are cheap.
Virtual environments are far more forgiving and eliminate underlying
hardware as the cause.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov, CEO
Crashproof Solutions, LLC - http://www.crashproofsolutions.com
MCP Exchange 2003/Small Business Server 2003, CCNA, SCSA 8
Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner
510-282-1008

"Tonky" <> wrote in message
news:9FB25EBE-6ABC-418B-ABB1-...
> Thanks Leonid,
>
> 1. How do I make a disk image?
> 2. I have attempted Repair but received a error about couldn't find
> ControlSet in Registry.
> 3. When I get to the install Windows section, I do at least see all my
> partitions (System, Apps, Data)
> 4. Why would the system go down if one drive was still functioning.
> 5. It seems more like a failed Registry, but confusing about the RAID
> degradation!
>
> Appreciate your comments.
>

1. Disk imaging - well the cheapest way is to do it with a Linux boot CD
that is SATA-aware and just use the dd command. Windows tools cost money.
:-) Symantec Ghost is one such lovely but expensive solution. Winimage Pro
8.0 is only $60.
2. You may want to try booting to last known good state from the F8 screen
3. Well, your partition table may be OK on that disk, but that doesn't
guarantee that data is.
4. RAID controllers, when they fail, love to scramble data. That is
precisely why we always remind customers that RAID is not a panacea. In your
case, perhaps a simple CHKDSK would do to recover the disk? Whatever you do,
experiment only on imaged data in a virtual environment.
5. How old is your backup?
--
Leonid S. Knyshov, CEO
Crashproof Solutions, LLC - http://www.crashproofsolutions.com
MCP Exchange 2003/Small Business Server 2003, CCNA, SCSA 8
Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner
510-282-1008