Creating a Boot Disk
With
Windows Server 2003, you can still create a useful boot disk that can
help with recovery in the event something corrupts a critical file on
your hard disk. Although this is less important these days—because you
can add the recovery console to your boot menu or run it from the
Windows Server 2003 installation CD-ROM—we’re the cautious type; we like
to have every possible way to recover available. Although a Windows
Server 2003 boot disk doesn’t get you to a command prompt, as a
Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98 boot disk does, it does
permit you to boot the system under the following circumstances
(provided that your actual Windows Server 2003 installation isn’t
damaged in any other way):
Corrupted boot sector Corrupted master boot record (MBR) Virus infections of the MBR Missing or corrupt Ntldr or Ntdetect.com files
The boot disk can also be
used to boot from the shadow drive of a broken mirror set, although you
might need to edit the Boot.ini file on the boot disk.
|
More
than one person new to Windows Server 2003 has accidentally deleted or
corrupted a key file required to boot the system and tried to recover by
digging out an old MS-DOS or Windows boot floppy disk. Alas, it doesn’t
work.
The files you need to get
your hard disk back to booting condition aren’t even on an MS-DOS
floppy disk. When you install Windows Server 2003, it modifies the
system’s boot sector to look for and run a file called Ntldr. When you
format a floppy disk under MS-DOS, even when you make it a system disk,
this file doesn’t get created, because MS-DOS doesn’t know anything
about Windows Server 2003.
|
As such, a boot
disk is occasionally useful, and because it’s easy to make and floppy
disks grow on trees (although these trees are rarely seen outside of the
Microsoft campus), you might as well make one. The boot disk is not
generic for every Windows Server 2003 machine. However, if you have a
standard configuration across several machines, this disk will work for
all the machines that use the same partition and disk controller as
their Windows Server 2003 boot partition. Follow these steps to create a
boot disk:
1. | Insert a blank floppy disk into your floppy drive.
| 2. | At a command prompt, type the command format a: /u.
| 3. | Copy the Ntdetect.com and Ntldr files from the \i386 folder on the Windows Server 2003 CD-ROM to the floppy disk.
| 4. | Create a Boot.ini file, or copy the file from the boot drive to the floppy disk.
|
Understanding
how the hard disks and partitions are named on your system is not a
trivial task, unfortunately. To provide a uniform naming convention
across multiple platforms, Microsoft uses a fairly arcane designation
for all the disks and partitions on your computer. Called ARC—short for
Advanced RISC Computing—this is a generic naming convention that can be
used in the same way for both Intel-based and RISC-based computers. The
convention describes the adapter type and number, the disk number, the
rdisk number, and finally the partition number. The format is as
follows: <adaptertype>(x)disk(y)rdisk(z)partition(n)
where <adaptertype>
can be either SCSI, multi, or signature. Use multi for all non-SCSI
adapters and for SCSI adapters that use a BIOS—as most adapters used
with Intel-based processors do. The (x) is the adapter number, starting at zero. If <adaptertype> is signature, (x) is an 8-character drive signature. The value for (y) is the SCSI ID of the disk for SCSI adapters. For multi this is always zero. The number for (z) is zero for SCSI, and is the ordinal number of the disk for multi, starting with zero. Finally, the partition number (n) is the number of the partition on the target disk. Here the partitions start at one, with zero reserved for unused space. |
|
Installing the Recovery Console
One
of the most useful recovery features in Windows Server 2003 is the
Recovery Console. This is basically an enhanced, NTFS-enabled, secure
command prompt that can be used to copy files, start and stop services,
and perform other recovery actions if you can’t boot the system using
Windows Server 2003’s safe mode. The Recovery Console is always
available for use through the Windows Server 2003 CD-ROM; however, you
can also install it as an option on the Boot menu for use in those
instances when you can’t boot using Windows Server 2003 safe mode.
You’ll still need to use the boot disk if you can’t get to the Boot menu
or if the Recovery Console is damaged. To install the Recovery Console,
follow these steps:
1. | While in Windows Server 2003, insert the Windows Server 2003 CD-ROM.
| 2. | Close the Autorun dialog box.
| 3. | At a command prompt or in the Run dialog box, type the command d:\i386\winnt32/cmdcons, replacing d with the drive letter of the Windows Server 2003 CD-ROM or network share.
| 4. | Click Yes to install the Recovery Console, as shown in Figure 7.
|
Specifying Recovery Options
You
can specify how you want Windows Server 2003 to deal with system
crashes by changing a few options in the System tool in Control Panel.
To do so, follow these steps:
1. | Open the System tool from Control Panel, and click the Advanced tab.
| 2. | Click Settings in the Startup And Recovery box to display the Startup And Recovery dialog box, shown in Figure 8.
| 3. | If
you have multiple operating systems on the machine, select the
operating system you want to have boot by default from the Default
Operating System list box.
| 4. | If
you want to boot the default operating system automatically, without
waiting, clear the Time To Display List Of Operating Systems check box.
Otherwise, specify how long you want to display a list of options in the
box provided.
| 5. | If
you want recovery options automatically displayed in the event of
problems, select the Time To Display Recovery Options When Needed check
box, and set the time for it.
| 6. | Select
the Write An Event To The System Log check box, if available, to record
an entry in the event log when the system experiences a crash.
| 7. | Select the Send An Administrative Alert check box to send an alert to administrators over the network when the system crashes.
| 8. | Select
the Automatically Restart option to instruct Windows Server 2003 to
reboot the system in the event of a crash. Otherwise, the system remains
at a blue screen until an administrator manually reboots it.
| 9. | Select
how much debugging information you want to record from the Write
Debugging Information list box. Note that if you have a large amount of
RAM you need the same amount of free disk space if you want to use the
Complete Memory Dump option.
| 10. | Enter
the filename for the dump file in the Dump File text box, and select
the Overwrite Any Existing File check box to maintain only a single dump
file.
|
Creating and Using a Recovery Drive
An excellent way to
recycle an old, small drive that’s not good for much else is to use it
as an external recovery drive. This drive needs to be only about 2 GB or
so, smaller than you could even buy today. The recovery drive can even
be used for several servers if you set it up as a portable device. Using
a recovery drive in this way offers a somewhat cheaper alternative to
mirroring the drive.
To create the
recovery drive, perform a minimal install of Windows Server 2003 on the
drive, configuring your paging file to be on that drive. Make sure that
the installation includes the tape driver you will be using for tape
backup. Create a bootable Windows Server 2003 floppy disk, following the
procedure outlined earlier in the “Creating a Boot Disk” section, and edit the Boot.ini file on it to point to the SCSI address of the recovery drive.
When a system failure
occurs, simply cable the recovery drive to the server and boot from the
boot disk that points to the recovery drive. If the recovery drive has
sufficient user accounts and software to keep your system running, you
can run off the recovery drive until you can schedule a full-scale
repair or replacement of the failed drive. When you are able to take the
system down and replace the failed drive, all you need to do is restore
your backup tape to it and restart the server. You can even do the
restore in the background while you continue to run off the recovery
drive if necessary.
Note
Using
a recovery drive in this way presents some interesting licensing and
activation issues. If you have one dedicated drive for each machine,
you’d need to install, license, and activate a copy for each machine.
And if you have only one that you can attach to multiple servers, you’re
going to run up against activation if you plug it into a different
machine. Consult your Microsoft Account Manager or other licensing
resource for information about how to do this most effectively.
|
