Q96739: Boot Drive Failure and Recovery with FTBOOT

Article: Q96739
Product(s): Microsoft LAN Manager
Version(s): 
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbnetwork
Last Modified: 30-JUL-2001

SUMMARY
=======

While there often is no explicit error message reporting catastrophic drive
failures such as total loss of power or data connection, unusual symptoms in
FTADMIN may be indicators. This article discusses some issues you should be
aware of when using FTBOOT.

Doing a NET LOGON command after a catastrophic failure may produce a message
about a defective sector on drive C being replaced and recommending that you run
CHKDSK /F, but the NET LOGON will continue.

This is the message FTADMIN presents:

  The disk information could not be loaded. SYS0015: The system cannot find the
  drive specified.

It does not show any disks.

FTADMIN may also issue warnings about attempts to write to the drive followed by
an "error" level message indicating that there was an excessive failure rate on
the master partition and recommending corrective action.

FTBOOT.EXE is not on the HPFS Recovery Disks of the Network Productivity Pack.
Get the program from the HPFS Recovery Disks from LAN Manager 2.1. FTBOOT.EXE is
on HPFS Recovery Disk 2 for LAN Manager 2.2.


Some drives require CMOS changes, and if the CMOS setup has not been updated to
reflect the current hardware condition of the machine at the point when you boot
the server with the HPFS recovery disk, a trap error may result.

MORE INFORMATION
================

While incorrect CMOS settings can cause the above problems, the sources of
problems associated with catastrophic drive failure are unknown.

When you boot with the HPFS Recovery Disk, a message reports that a virtual drive
C has been created. Although this may seem to indicate a hardware problem
because the boot process is not seeing the hard drive, FTBOOT will run
successfully.

If FTBOOT has a problem completing its work, this message is displayed:

  The system is not correctly configured to recover the boot partition.

FTBOOT success is indicated by the message:

  Reboot required for changes to take effect.

The FTBOOT program does not return to the command prompt but it has NOT hung; you
simply have to remove the disk from the drive and reboot to complete the
process.

As the server is rebooting after FTBOOT, this message is displayed:

  The WORKSTATION service has been started by another process.

Then a message indicates that it was started successfully, at which point the
server is again accessible from network stations unless it is a member or backup
domain controller, in which case it may not be available for a few minutes while
security synchronization takes place.

If the former boot drive is going to be returned to service after a failure, you
need to restore it to "raw" condition. Place it in another machine and remove
the partition by booting with the HPFS Recovery Disk and running the FDISK /D
command. If you place the drive back in the original system without first
removing its partition, the fault tolerance system finds conflicting settings
and there may be undesirable results. One such result is that critical errors on
the boot drive will be reported and the suggested action will be to unmirror the
drive, which you will have to do to resolve the side effect.


Additional query words: 2.10 2.1 2.10a 2.1a 2.20 2.2

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Keywords          : kbnetwork 

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