Boot files

From: Another Steve (safpol@netscape.net)
Date: 04/02/03 

From: "Another Steve" <safpol@netscape.net>
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 21:41:03 +0200

Hi all,

This has been bothering me for some time. I have XP Pro installed on a
partition on my 2*HD RAID (striped) array, as instructed during the original
install. I have a third HD as master on my second IDE channel - master on
the first channel is a DVD-ROM drive. I stuffed the extra HD on the
secondary channel as it's only use is for backing up the RAID array.

Now here's the issue. For some reason Win XP decided to dump 3 boot files on
my backup HD (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com - not sure about the 3rd as I'm
in the office on a Win2K machine) so that in fact the boot starts from that
HD instead of from the array. I wouldn't be so bothered except that I never
manage to back up these boot files, since I can't include the partition I'm
writing to in the image file created with Drive Image (OK, I could if I
create a new partition on the backup HD, but I don't want to).

I'm irritated because I wanted the backup HD to be just that and serve no
other purpose. Does anyone know how come Win XP decided to dump the boot
files on this even though systemroot is most definitely a partition on the
array? Can I move these 3 files to the array partition & hack the registry
to tell it the new location? Would I also have to hack boot.ini? Is it
simply not advisable/not possible to boot directly from the array (e.g. does
it need to load the Promise driver in order to recognise the array)?

Oh, by the way, BIOS is set to boot from the array, not the backup HD. Does
this mean the process starts from the array, switches to the backup HD &
then switches back to the array to load the rest?

Thanks in advance for any pearls of wisdom.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Boot files
    ... Remove the backup HD ... Then put the backup HD back & delete the unwanted boot files. ... > secondary channel as it's only use is for backing up the RAID array. ... > create a new partition on the backup HD, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: Boot files
    ... the boot partition and the system partition ... The system partition is selected based on what is seen as being ... boot loader on it that bootstraps the whole process, ... > secondary channel as it's only use is for backing up the RAID array. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: Boot files
    ... I moved the 3 files to the array, ... the unwanted files on the backup HD. ... the boot partition and the system partition ... boot loader on it that bootstraps the whole process, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: Proposed enhancements to MD
    ... The attached patch is for the partition ... >, Adaptec, and many others must continue to support new ... >> the partitions on an array and properly boot them as it would boot a ... root fs exists on array, but md didn't see them show up, ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: Adding another Raid - How Best to go about it.
    ... It's _almost_ as easy to create the array at BIOS level. ... so the layout and use(size of parts, %free space, files on it). ... I would adjust the swapfile on the OS partition to RAM+20MB ... Plug in drives, ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
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