Disk errors on OS drive: can't mirror or backup

Neil

I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my Exchange
2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to mirror
this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the process it
aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange DBs are on
a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so worried
about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of it. When
I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow triangle with
an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I believe I may
have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most stable)
approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and then run
Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.

glenn

Reboot and run a check disk. This may resolve the problem and then let you
mirror, although only works about 10% of the time. You could try using
Acronis true image and it will work on a 30 day trial, but due to your
possible problem it may not work. There is another way of running the server
from dos and using xcopy to move everything across but must admit I have
never tried this.

Glenn

"Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C08976C9-C1D7-403C-8768-D974E7D506AA@microsoft.com...
>I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my Exchange
> 2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to
> mirror
> this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the process it
> aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange DBs are
> on
> a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so
> worried
> about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of it.
> When
> I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow triangle
> with
> an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I believe I
> may
> have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most
> stable)
> approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and then run
> Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.
>

dan

"Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C08976C9-C1D7-403C-8768-D974E7D506AA@microsoft.com...
>I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my Exchange
> 2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to
> mirror
> this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the process it
> aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange DBs are
> on
> a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so
> worried
> about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of it.
> When
> I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow triangle
> with
> an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I believe I
> may
> have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most
> stable)
> approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and then run
> Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.

If you right click on the drive in Disk Management, does it give you the
option to Repair Volume?

Pegasus \(MVP\)

"Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C08976C9-C1D7-403C-8768-D974E7D506AA@microsoft.com...
>I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my Exchange
> 2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to
> mirror
> this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the process it
> aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange DBs are
> on
> a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so
> worried
> about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of it.
> When
> I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow triangle
> with
> an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I believe I
> may
> have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most
> stable)
> approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and then run
> Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.

Unless you're happy to reload the OS and Exchange, you
should copy the whole disk to a different disk before attempting
to repair anything. Here are a couple of methods:

a) Using another PC
- Install the flawed disk and a new disk as slave disks in some other
Win2000/XP machine.
- Partition & format the new disk. Take care to leave the old
disk alone . . .
- Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
continue when errors are detected.
- Put the new disk into the server. Do NOT connect the
old disk to the server!
- Test the new disk.

b) Using a Bart PE CD
- Install a new disk as slave disks in some other Win2000/XP machine.
- Partition & format the new disk.
- Install the new disk as a slave disk on the server.
- Boot the server with a Bart PE boot CD. Do NOT boot it into Windows!
- Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
continue when errors are detected.
- Disconnect the old disk.
- Make the new disk the primary master.
- Test the new disk.

Neil

"dan" wrote:

>
> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:C08976C9-C1D7-403C-8768-D974E7D506AA@microsoft.com...
> >I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my Exchange
> > 2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to
> > mirror
> > this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the process it
> > aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange DBs are
> > on
> > a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so
> > worried
> > about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of it.
> > When
> > I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow triangle
> > with
> > an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I believe I
> > may
> > have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most
> > stable)
> > approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and then run
> > Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.
>
> If you right click on the drive in Disk Management, does it give you the
> option to Repair Volume?
>
>
>

I do not have an option to repair the volume. I only have Create Volume and
Reactivate Disk as options. Though reactivating the disk doesn't work
because the mirror was never fully established.

Neil

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>
> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:C08976C9-C1D7-403C-8768-D974E7D506AA@microsoft.com...
> >I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my Exchange
> > 2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to
> > mirror
> > this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the process it
> > aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange DBs are
> > on
> > a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so
> > worried
> > about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of it.
> > When
> > I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow triangle
> > with
> > an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I believe I
> > may
> > have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most
> > stable)
> > approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and then run
> > Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.
>
> Unless you're happy to reload the OS and Exchange, you
> should copy the whole disk to a different disk before attempting
> to repair anything. Here are a couple of methods:
>
> a) Using another PC
> - Install the flawed disk and a new disk as slave disks in some other
> Win2000/XP machine.
> - Partition & format the new disk. Take care to leave the old
> disk alone . . .
> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
> continue when errors are detected.
> - Put the new disk into the server. Do NOT connect the
> old disk to the server!
> - Test the new disk.
>
> b) Using a Bart PE CD
> - Install a new disk as slave disks in some other Win2000/XP machine.
> - Partition & format the new disk.
> - Install the new disk as a slave disk on the server.
> - Boot the server with a Bart PE boot CD. Do NOT boot it into Windows!
> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
> continue when errors are detected.
> - Disconnect the old disk.
> - Make the new disk the primary master.
> - Test the new disk.
>
>
>

Does Windows complain if the hard drive the OS resides on is suddenly
different? And would you recommend running chkdsk first on the troubled
drive before copying to correct any errors it can before the copy process?

Pegasus \(MVP\)

"Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:255546BE-8751-4CA9-B9B2-C13AE05AC1D7@microsoft.com...
>
>
> "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
>
>>
>> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:C08976C9-C1D7-403C-8768-D974E7D506AA@microsoft.com...
>> >I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my
>> >Exchange
>> > 2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to
>> > mirror
>> > this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the process
>> > it
>> > aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange DBs
>> > are
>> > on
>> > a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so
>> > worried
>> > about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of it.
>> > When
>> > I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow triangle
>> > with
>> > an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I believe I
>> > may
>> > have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most
>> > stable)
>> > approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and then
>> > run
>> > Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.
>>
>> Unless you're happy to reload the OS and Exchange, you
>> should copy the whole disk to a different disk before attempting
>> to repair anything. Here are a couple of methods:
>>
>> a) Using another PC
>> - Install the flawed disk and a new disk as slave disks in some other
>> Win2000/XP machine.
>> - Partition & format the new disk. Take care to leave the old
>> disk alone . . .
>> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
>> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
>> continue when errors are detected.
>> - Put the new disk into the server. Do NOT connect the
>> old disk to the server!
>> - Test the new disk.
>>
>> b) Using a Bart PE CD
>> - Install a new disk as slave disks in some other Win2000/XP machine.
>> - Partition & format the new disk.
>> - Install the new disk as a slave disk on the server.
>> - Boot the server with a Bart PE boot CD. Do NOT boot it into Windows!
>> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
>> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
>> continue when errors are detected.
>> - Disconnect the old disk.
>> - Make the new disk the primary master.
>> - Test the new disk.
>>
>>
>>
>
> Does Windows complain if the hard drive the OS resides on is suddenly
> different? And would you recommend running chkdsk first on the
> troubled
> drive before copying to correct any errors it can before the copy process?

No, Windows won't complain when you replace the disk.
And no, I do not recommend running chkdsk.exe before
the copy process. Chkdsk is known to do quite a lot of
damage in its attempt to repair the file structure.

Neil

I want to make sure I use xcopy correctly. I used the information on this
page:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true

to build a command string looks like this (copying the contents of the C:
drive to an F: drive in the same computer):

xcopy.exe C: F: /c /s /e /h /o /x /i

I put the /o and /x parameters in there because they are the only ones that
seem to relate to permissions (since I want to make sure to copy those too),
though that command line does seem somewhat long. Is this correct? Thanks
for your help!


"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>
> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:255546BE-8751-4CA9-B9B2-C13AE05AC1D7@microsoft.com...
> >
> >
> > "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:C08976C9-C1D7-403C-8768-D974E7D506AA@microsoft.com...
> >> >I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my
> >> >Exchange
> >> > 2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to
> >> > mirror
> >> > this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the process
> >> > it
> >> > aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange DBs
> >> > are
> >> > on
> >> > a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so
> >> > worried
> >> > about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of it.
> >> > When
> >> > I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow triangle
> >> > with
> >> > an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I believe I
> >> > may
> >> > have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most
> >> > stable)
> >> > approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and then
> >> > run
> >> > Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.
> >>
> >> Unless you're happy to reload the OS and Exchange, you
> >> should copy the whole disk to a different disk before attempting
> >> to repair anything. Here are a couple of methods:
> >>
> >> a) Using another PC
> >> - Install the flawed disk and a new disk as slave disks in some other
> >> Win2000/XP machine.
> >> - Partition & format the new disk. Take care to leave the old
> >> disk alone . . .
> >> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
> >> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
> >> continue when errors are detected.
> >> - Put the new disk into the server. Do NOT connect the
> >> old disk to the server!
> >> - Test the new disk.
> >>
> >> b) Using a Bart PE CD
> >> - Install a new disk as slave disks in some other Win2000/XP machine.
> >> - Partition & format the new disk.
> >> - Install the new disk as a slave disk on the server.
> >> - Boot the server with a Bart PE boot CD. Do NOT boot it into Windows!
> >> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
> >> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
> >> continue when errors are detected.
> >> - Disconnect the old disk.
> >> - Make the new disk the primary master.
> >> - Test the new disk.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> > Does Windows complain if the hard drive the OS resides on is suddenly
> > different? And would you recommend running chkdsk first on the
> > troubled
> > drive before copying to correct any errors it can before the copy process?
>
> No, Windows won't complain when you replace the disk.
> And no, I do not recommend running chkdsk.exe before
> the copy process. Chkdsk is known to do quite a lot of
> damage in its attempt to repair the file structure.
>
>
>

Pegasus \(MVP\)

Your switches look fine to me.


"Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B2CA1783-B7FC-4D3A-A2E6-F3EB123C0F69@microsoft.com...
>I want to make sure I use xcopy correctly. I used the information on this
> page:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true
>
> to build a command string looks like this (copying the contents of the C:
> drive to an F: drive in the same computer):
>
> xcopy.exe C: F: /c /s /e /h /o /x /i
>
> I put the /o and /x parameters in there because they are the only ones
> that
> seem to relate to permissions (since I want to make sure to copy those
> too),
> though that command line does seem somewhat long. Is this correct?
> Thanks
> for your help!
>
>
> "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
>
>>
>> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:255546BE-8751-4CA9-B9B2-C13AE05AC1D7@microsoft.com...
>> >
>> >
>> > "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> >> news:C08976C9-C1D7-403C-8768-D974E7D506AA@microsoft.com...
>> >> >I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my
>> >> >Exchange
>> >> > 2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to
>> >> > mirror
>> >> > this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the
>> >> > process
>> >> > it
>> >> > aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange
>> >> > DBs
>> >> > are
>> >> > on
>> >> > a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so
>> >> > worried
>> >> > about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of
>> >> > it.
>> >> > When
>> >> > I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow
>> >> > triangle
>> >> > with
>> >> > an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I
>> >> > believe I
>> >> > may
>> >> > have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most
>> >> > stable)
>> >> > approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and
>> >> > then
>> >> > run
>> >> > Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.
>> >>
>> >> Unless you're happy to reload the OS and Exchange, you
>> >> should copy the whole disk to a different disk before attempting
>> >> to repair anything. Here are a couple of methods:
>> >>
>> >> a) Using another PC
>> >> - Install the flawed disk and a new disk as slave disks in some other
>> >> Win2000/XP machine.
>> >> - Partition & format the new disk. Take care to leave the old
>> >> disk alone . . .
>> >> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
>> >> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
>> >> continue when errors are detected.
>> >> - Put the new disk into the server. Do NOT connect the
>> >> old disk to the server!
>> >> - Test the new disk.
>> >>
>> >> b) Using a Bart PE CD
>> >> - Install a new disk as slave disks in some other Win2000/XP machine.
>> >> - Partition & format the new disk.
>> >> - Install the new disk as a slave disk on the server.
>> >> - Boot the server with a Bart PE boot CD. Do NOT boot it into Windows!
>> >> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
>> >> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
>> >> continue when errors are detected.
>> >> - Disconnect the old disk.
>> >> - Make the new disk the primary master.
>> >> - Test the new disk.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > Does Windows complain if the hard drive the OS resides on is suddenly
>> > different? And would you recommend running chkdsk first on the
>> > troubled
>> > drive before copying to correct any errors it can before the copy
>> > process?
>>
>> No, Windows won't complain when you replace the disk.
>> And no, I do not recommend running chkdsk.exe before
>> the copy process. Chkdsk is known to do quite a lot of
>> damage in its attempt to repair the file structure.
>>
>>
>>

Neil

I booted with a BartPE disk and used xcopy to copy the OS drive, but when I
make the new drive the primary and try to boot from it I just get a screen
that says "PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT" after the POST. Is there a way to make it
bootable?

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

> Your switches look fine to me.
>
>
> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:B2CA1783-B7FC-4D3A-A2E6-F3EB123C0F69@microsoft.com...
> >I want to make sure I use xcopy correctly. I used the information on this
> > page:
> >
> > http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true
> >
> > to build a command string looks like this (copying the contents of the C:
> > drive to an F: drive in the same computer):
> >
> > xcopy.exe C: F: /c /s /e /h /o /x /i
> >
> > I put the /o and /x parameters in there because they are the only ones
> > that
> > seem to relate to permissions (since I want to make sure to copy those
> > too),
> > though that command line does seem somewhat long. Is this correct?
> > Thanks
> > for your help!
> >
> >
> > "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:255546BE-8751-4CA9-B9B2-C13AE05AC1D7@microsoft.com...
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> "Neil" <Neil@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> >> news:C08976C9-C1D7-403C-8768-D974E7D506AA@microsoft.com...
> >> >> >I have an IDE drive that hosts the OS (Windows 2000 Server) on my
> >> >> >Exchange
> >> >> > 2000 server. I have another IDE drive installed, and I attempted to
> >> >> > mirror
> >> >> > this drive using Win2k's software RAID but halfway through the
> >> >> > process
> >> >> > it
> >> >> > aborted, stating that the original drive had errors. The Exchange
> >> >> > DBs
> >> >> > are
> >> >> > on
> >> >> > a seperate RAID-5 array and I have backups of my data so I'm not so
> >> >> > worried
> >> >> > about that, but I cannot mirror this drive or get a good backup of
> >> >> > it.
> >> >> > When
> >> >> > I look at the drive in Disk Management it has a little yellow
> >> >> > triangle
> >> >> > with
> >> >> > an exclamation point next to the drive and it says Errors. I
> >> >> > believe I
> >> >> > may
> >> >> > have some physically bad sectors. What would be the best (and most
> >> >> > stable)
> >> >> > approach to recovering the drive? I wanted to use Spinrite 6 and
> >> >> > then
> >> >> > run
> >> >> > Chkdsk on it but I wanted to get some more educated opinions first.
> >> >>
> >> >> Unless you're happy to reload the OS and Exchange, you
> >> >> should copy the whole disk to a different disk before attempting
> >> >> to repair anything. Here are a couple of methods:
> >> >>
> >> >> a) Using another PC
> >> >> - Install the flawed disk and a new disk as slave disks in some other
> >> >> Win2000/XP machine.
> >> >> - Partition & format the new disk. Take care to leave the old
> >> >> disk alone . . .
> >> >> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
> >> >> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
> >> >> continue when errors are detected.
> >> >> - Put the new disk into the server. Do NOT connect the
> >> >> old disk to the server!
> >> >> - Test the new disk.
> >> >>
> >> >> b) Using a Bart PE CD
> >> >> - Install a new disk as slave disks in some other Win2000/XP machine.
> >> >> - Partition & format the new disk.
> >> >> - Install the new disk as a slave disk on the server.
> >> >> - Boot the server with a Bart PE boot CD. Do NOT boot it into Windows!
> >> >> - Use xcopy.exe to copy the old disk to the new disk. Make sure
> >> >> to copy hidden files & permissions. Use the /c switch to
> >> >> continue when errors are detected.
> >> >> - Disconnect the old disk.
> >> >> - Make the new disk the primary master.
> >> >> - Test the new disk.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > Does Windows complain if the hard drive the OS resides on is suddenly
> >> > different? And would you recommend running chkdsk first on the
> >> > troubled
> >> > drive before copying to correct any errors it can before the copy
> >> > process?
> >>
> >> No, Windows won't complain when you replace the disk.
> >> And no, I do not recommend running chkdsk.exe before
> >> the copy process. Chkdsk is known to do quite a lot of
> >> damage in its attempt to repair the file structure.
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
>