RAID 1 will no longer boot

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ninjayar

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Please tell me there's a recovery for this. Please.

My bootable RAID 1 Volume0 array no longer boots and I get the message:
Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

My original configuration was:
Windows 7
Asus P67 motherboard w/Intel RAID onboard
RAID 1, bootable, two 1TB drives [Volume0, C:]
One 1TB data drive [D:]
One 1TB data drive [M:]

I should add that Volume0 has existed and performed without fail for 4 years.

Yesterday, I installed two new 4TB drives to replace the M: drive above. The Intel controller only supports up to 2TB drives and two RAID arrays so I created a virtual mirror for the new drives in Windows, formatted the array and copied what was my M: drive to the new array. After a lot of research and trial and error, that was eventually successful. I now have:
RAID 1, bootable, two 1TB drives [Volume0, C:]
One 1TB data drive [D:]
One 4TB data drive [Windows Virtual Mirror Array, M:]

My next trick was going to be to create a new array Volume1 in the onboard controller using the two 1TB drives [D: and former M:] to replace the non-RAID D: drive. Intel's Rapid Storage Technology utility that comes up in the boot process allowed me to do that and I created a new Volume1 with the two 1TB drives. It gave me no option as to whether that new array should be bootable or not, but it reported it as bootable when it created it so I had:
RAID 1, bootable, two 1TB drives [Volume0, C:]
RAID 1, bootable, two 1TB data drive [Volume1]

In BIOS, the boot sequence was for Volume0 first, so I figured I'd deal with that next, once I restarted the system. That's when I got the "Reboot and Select proper Boot device"
message. Uh-oh.

Reboot, delete the Volume1 array, looks good, same message.

Reboot, physically unplug the two 1TB drives that were going to be the new Volume1, same message.

I built this computer 4 years ago. I cannot locate a bootable recovery disk any longer. I do have the original Windows 7 CD and started to boot from that but I really don't want to reinstall 4 year's worth of applications, utilities and tweaks.

Can I reinstall Windows over the top of itself to recover?

Can I make a recovery or boot disk on another machine to restore access to my main computer?

Since this is RAID 1, theoretically a pair of identical disks, can I remove the RAID configuration and boot off one of the drives?

Nothing should have happened to the Volume0 drives and hopefully, they're still valid if no longer bootable. Please tell mw I can recover from this mess.

Thank you so much.
 
Solution
jimmysmitty
In a Intel RAID both are equal, but I caution against doing this as it might cause the RAID to fail since the drives will no longer mirror. I would instead download HirensBCD:

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

And load what is called "MiniXP". This will load a slimmed down version of XP into memory and run it without messing with your drives. You might have to load the Intel RAID driver but you can do the partitioning from there. That way it is done to Volume) and not to a single drive minimizing your risk of losing the entire RAID array.
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jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

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http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

That is pretty much what you will want. I suggest only having Volume0 plugged in when doing this to make sure nothing else gets messed with.

You will have to reinstall drivers and such and most applications should work but there might be a few with hiccups.

I think what probably happened, just a theory but probably the most likely one, is that somehow when you setup your system and installed Windows the 100MB boot record partition got stored on either your D: or M: drive. Windows 7 has a habit of doing that. If you have two HDDs in and they are formatted it will put the boot record partition on a secondary drive, to make it more secure from virus attacks. However if that drive dies or you wipe it it kills your OS from being able to boot at all.
 
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ninjayar

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Yeah, that backup thing. The reason I created the RAID Volume0 was to avoid backing up the C: drive. If either drive would ever fail, I'd just replace it and never need a backup/restore. Until now.

Given that the two C: drives are still there (I assume), can I access one of them to make a backup on another machine and somehow restore from that after I rebuild the RAID array?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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That might work. Maybe.

For the future, though...RAID 1 ain't a backup. It is good for ONLY a physical drive fail. For all else, you need a real backup. And 'all else' = the majority of the fail modes.
 
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ninjayar

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That makes sense. Yesterday, while I was messing with the two big drives in Windows' Disk Management, I saw a small partition on the D: drive. I didn't give it much thought but now I'm sure that's what you are referring to. Given what I've done already, is there a way to access and recover that partition. I guess when I created the second array, that deleted the small partition. Even when I tried to delete the array, I'm betting that partition is unrecoverable.

I'm off to that that link you provided.
 
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ninjayar

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I appreciate your help. I really do. But so far, I'm still dead in the water.

I tried the link you recommended but it assumes I can log in to Windows and my machine won't boot that far. If I boot from the Windows DVD and choose Upgrade, Windows says there is no OS.

In the mean time, I found a partition restore tool and was able to recover the two partitions on my D: drive, one of which was hidden and exactly 100MB. So, with Volume0 [C:] in place and bootable and with the third drive with it's boot partition restored, Windows still asks for a bootable disk. Does the boot partition have to be bootable or set to some state in order to work?

Booting from my Windows DVD, on the Install Now screen, I have an additional option of Repair My Computer. That sounds promising but when I try it, it reports a few errors including one that says the partition is invalid, tells me everything completed successfully and that I should remove the Windows DVD, restart and reinstall the DVD. It may take several iterations of that process to complete the recovery process. Perhaps needless to say, that does nothing to resolve the problem.

I'm in the process of copying one of the C: drives (one of the two that make up Volume0) to a folder on a spare USB drive I have so I at least have a copy of the files. That's taking hours and reporting lots of errors. I imagine those are from system files SyncBack is having trouble copying.

So at this point, I have a Volume0 with Windows, a restored boot partition on the third HDD and I can boot from my Windows DVD to reinstall/recover Windows. Is there anything else I can do to bring these pieces together to restore my sanity?
 
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ninjayar

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I wondered about doing that but haven't tried it yet. Can I shrink the main partition and add the 100MB partition in FRONT of the first one? Most of what I've read and tried I think assumes that the boot partition is on the same drive as Windows. When I do a startup repair, Windows reports that there is no valid system partition but that may be because it's only looking on the C drive volume. Bootrec also says it finds an installation but then tells me the Element is Not Found when I try to fix the boot record or rebuild the BCD. Again, because it's not finding it on C:. I'm sure this is more of a logical situation than a physical one, but I didn't want to overwrite the first part of the active partition with the new 100MB partition. I will try this tonight when I get home. Thank you for the suggestion.

Another question: should I create an empty partition or try to copy the contents of the system reserved partition from the D drive to the new volume0 partition? I assume the new partition should also be Active.
 
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jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

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You should be able to shrink the primary partition but will need advanced tools like MiniXP to do so or some other partitioning tool. I would also just create a new one and follow the guide. It will work better in the long run.
 
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ninjayar

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OK. Since I can't boot into Windows on "the machine", I'll move one of the Volume0 drives to another computer, create the new partition there and set it to System Reserved, Active. Then when I move the drive back, I'll disconnect everything but the two Volume0 drives and hopefully Windows will see that empty partition and work with it. Does it matter which of the two Volume0 drives I do this to or need I do it on both? If not, I'll have one disk that's 100MB larger than the other on the volume. In a RAID 1 array, is one drive the master or are they both equal? Sorry for being so specific but I don't want to make matters worse by doing the wrong thing.
 
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jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

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In a Intel RAID both are equal, but I caution against doing this as it might cause the RAID to fail since the drives will no longer mirror. I would instead download HirensBCD:

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

And load what is called "MiniXP". This will load a slimmed down version of XP into memory and run it without messing with your drives. You might have to load the Intel RAID driver but you can do the partitioning from there. That way it is done to Volume) and not to a single drive minimizing your risk of losing the entire RAID array.
 
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Solution
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ninjayar

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Got it. The Intel driver loads on POST before Windows tries to start. Unless there's more that loads within Windows, I think Volume0 is in place by the time Windows loads. I'll try to put all this together tonight and let you know how it goes.

Thanks for your help and patience.
 
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ninjayar

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Success! I owe you a CASE of beer! For the record and anyone else who sees this, here's what I finally did:

Download Hiren's BootCD and unzip to a folder on the Desktop of another machine. It includes a burner and a .cmd that launches it. I burned it to a CD.

On the failed machine, I booted from the CD and it gave me a menu of options, including starting MiniXP. I tried that but XP doesn't let you manage partitions like 7 does, so I started again and chose to launch Windows from the HDD (another BootCD menu option). Evidently, that let Windows start using the boot partition on my D drive or the BootCD (not sure which) whereas when booting without the BootCD, Windows wouldn't start at all.

Lo and behold, I have Windows just as I left it almost a week ago. [Insert Halleluiah Chorus here.]

In Disk Management within the now booted Windows 7, I was able to shrink the Volume0's C partition by 101MB and use that now unallocated space for a 10MB Simple Volume partition I called System Reserved to match the original on the D drive. I made the new one Primary and Active but saw no option to designate it as a System partition. Is it a problem that the new partition is shown graphically to the right of the main partition on that volume?

Shut down, remove the D drive cable and reboot from the Windows 7 install disk.

This time, Startup Repair found my Windows 7 installation and recognized that it had boot record problems and fixed it. I rebooted again without the Windows install disk and Bob's your uncle. That's as far as I went last night, but everything appears to be just as I left it. Tonight I'll try creating the second array for my D drive after I create a single partition across the entire drive.

I appreciate all of your help and hopefully won't need to bother you with this problem again. In addition to restoring my system and sanity, I learned a lot about boot records and system reserved partitions. Thank you.
 
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jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

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The location of the partition is fine. Normally it is to the left because Windows creates the 100MB boot partition (450MB in Windows 8/10) first then it creates the main OS partition for installation. The location has no affect on performance since it is literally just to point where on Volume0 the OS starts (and as well if you did a dual boot it would contain that information).

I was pretty sure MiniXP might have not had the RAID drivers so it probably was not able to properly see the partitions. I did forget about the "Load Windows" option. HBCD is a great tool that pretty much anyone half savvy at PCs should keep.

I am glad that your problem was solved though as restoring the boot partition is one of the hardest thingx to fix.
 
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ninjayar

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I guess I spoke too soon. I swear everything was working but when I booted the machine last night, Windows hung at the password prompt. I didn't watch the boot-up, so I restarted. This time, Intel's RST Option ROM reported Volume0 FAILED and both of its members with Error Occurred status. It's got to be statistically impossible for both drives to fail at exactly the same time I'm trying to build these RAID arrays.

It asked if I wanted to recover so I said yes and the status changed to DEGRADED with port 0 showing Member Disk(0) and Port 1 still showing Error Occurred(0). I proceeded, but the machine requested a boot disk so I reverted to the BootCD. It will not boot Windows 7 even with the BootCD mounted. I get Error 15: File Not Found. MiniXP lets me see the C drive in Disk Management but it has a single partition. The previous 100MB partition is gone again. Is that even possible?

In Windows Explorer, I can see that all of the files and folders are still there. In Partition Wizard (BootCD), I see a single disk with a single partition. The Model is Intel RAID1 Volume. I think the single disk I'm seeing is the RAID array. Do I dare create another 100MB partition? I'd have to use Partition Wizard this time since I can't boot Windows 7 even with the help of BootCD. Is it possible that the 100MB partition I created in Disk Management was created on one of the two disks only? If one disk is failing, might Windows be trying to boot off the other disk which doesn't have the boot partition?

One option in the Intel Option ROM is to reset the disks to non-RAID. Is that a viable option? I wonder if I's have more control working with a single disk to get things running, then convert that back to a RAID array. Seems like if the disks are equal, I'd have two shots at getting one of them configured and working before I corrupt the contents.
 
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jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

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It does seem like Intels RST is having a fit. I would first make an image of the drive at minimum to make sure you have a backup of everything. While it might work, making it a non RAID disk and making it bootable might work best then converting back to a RAID1 but changing that could potentially wipe the drive, although I am sure it wont.

As to why your drive does not have the partition, my only assumption is that when it was done it wrote to one drive then it didn't get replicated to the secondary drive. In a RAID1 both disks are equal but one is the primary (where all the writes will happen to right away) and the other is the secondary (where the changes will be duplicated to) so it is not instant. That is one possibility anyways. The other is that due to what you had to do it still needed to write to the second drive.

I only wish you luck, as I said this is something that is very hard to fix. You have gotten close but I fear we might not be able to resolve it to how you want it.
 
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ninjayar

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I think this is resolved. Using Disk Management on another computer, I confirmed that the 100MB partition I created previously only existed on one of the two RAID disks. Of the two, the one reporting "error occurred" (port 1) did NOT have the partition. I reset the drives to non-RAID in Intel RST Option ROM and booted from the "good" drive. Windows made some changes and requested a reboot, and everything is working again through numerous reboots this time. I still need to rebuild the RAID and have questions about that but I'll take them to a different thread to avoid confusing the issues.

Thanks again for your help.
 
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