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Topic Summary

Posted by: Samker
« on: 02. February 2015., 20:16:41 »

...

I'm pretty sure I could solve my problem by first demoting Windows Server on my 1 TB disc. Then, clone it again and boot it. I'm pretty sure that should work.

...

I hope you are finally back in the saddle... :thumbsup:

Posted by: devnullius
« on: 02. February 2015., 19:38:26 »

0xc00002e2...

I'm re-installing my server from scratch. Sigh.

I cloned my server partition once more, this time the original 1 TB disc was attached through a USB/sATA adapter: this to prevent wrongly assigned drive letters.

But again I got 0xc00002e2. The newly cloned system did install itself to C: so that problem was solved.

So why 2e2?? I was single domain controller as it turns out. I did not add local administrator account to Domain Admins group.

Because I am not a Domain Admin when I boot in Active Directory Restore Mode (F8 at boot time), I can not remove the active directory roll. Login in ADRM only gives login with local administrator account: she has no power! I read a lot of difficult articles and I'm pretty sure I could solve my problem by first demoting Windows Server on my 1 TB disc. Then, clone it again and boot it. I'm pretty sure that should work. But I cannot take a gamble for yet another day lost. So fresh install on the way!

Devvie
Posted by: devnullius
« on: 31. January 2015., 23:05:11 »

Ok, I used MS-DaRT to view the event logs. It most definitely is caused by the fact that my Domain Controller without a domain has moved from C: to D:

Gonna re-think my cloning strategy. It might easily be solved by creating a small C: partition to force my RAID Windows to D: - where it thinks it is anyways :s

Strange... I was surprised to see D: to begin with... A clone is a clone ;p And if the old one was C:, the cloned one must think it's D: too... Might have something to do with advanced features of the cloning program... We'll see. Old hard disc still boots, but is a pain to work with... It's past mid-night, I feel I can only screw up if I start testing stuff now :s

ARGH!

Devvie :)
Posted by: devnullius
« on: 31. January 2015., 21:46:46 »

Ok, RAID boots but OS itself now is on D:

So it was time to remove my original single 1TB disc.

Result? After booting just fine, almost at the end before login suddenly a BSOD appears: 0xc00002e2

It points to a faulty domain controler - which I don't run. Boot with F8 Directory Services restore mode boots just fine, but won't give login (no domain available). If I put the old disc back in, windows boots just fine from RAID. But if I remove the old disc... It fails :(

Any ideas?? I need to install a new drive to store the blockchains...  ;-(

Also asked the question here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/66ff6702-1451-4080-9379-96458c1cd9ca/cloned-stand-alone-server-installation-to-new-drive-on-same-physical-machine-all-ok-but-removing?forum=winserver8gen

Devvie
Posted by: devnullius
« on: 31. January 2015., 20:00:17 »



Posted by: devnullius
« on: 31. January 2015., 19:39:26 »

Sigh. I spent all day on my work-PC (win 8.1) for it wouldn't boot correctly any longer. I only got a mouse cursor and 4 black desktops. Hard disks and (sometimes) software indicate that my OS was booting all it should after logging in; it just wasn't visible :(

I removed some programs and an update before I had Windows logging me in correctly once more. Different tools and scans did not solve / reveal the program. I installed the update again; let's see where it failed.

Anyways, back to my server... Last step to get it booting again.

First I should mention, of course, that one needs to boot the original Windows OS and install the RAID drivers before cloning; otherwise, boot will fail.

When I tried EasyBCD on my booted RAID Windows 7 Lite installation, I got an error mentioning there was no BCD. Kinda strange. I made my Windows 2012 R2 partition (RAID) active and rebooted Windows, hoping for the best.

This left my system unbootable :)

I could only fix it with MS-DaRT 8.1/2012R2. Sadly, the ones available on torrents (finally!) don't have the RAID drivers you need. So this is what you need to do...

Create your own MS-DaRT cd!

You will need:
1. Windows 2012R2 installation medium
2. MDOP 2014. Google this: (mdop OR (microsoft desktop optimization pack) ) site:kickass.to
3. running Windows 8.1 / 2012R2 system with MDOP installed

Run it and create your own ISO file to burn. The wizard will allow you to add the necessary .inf files... :)

Once you burned it, boot the RAID system with the CD you created. Chose repair startup options and voila! I now have 3 boot entries: Win 7 Lite and 2x W12R2 :)

I'm booting one of them... Hope it's the raid and I hope it all still works - bad blocks testing with HDD Regenerator didn't look good :/

Devvie
Posted by: devnullius
« on: 30. January 2015., 09:37:08 »

UPDATE long story:

The badblocks on my 1TB disc were severe enough for the cloning process to fail :( Even with Aomei's Lite function to test the partition on errors, I could not clone. Too bad! Because Aomei allows for cloning the partition to a smaller drive... Good!

So what's next...? :(

1. find windows-based tool to do badblocks (non-destructive) testing on drive / partition
OR
2. find windows copy / clone / migrate program that allows for Server OSs and that handles bad blocks by skipping them if all else fails...

I decided to go with 2. first... The original installation still appeared to work flawlessly!

Program that worked was: Minitool's Partition Wizard Server. It cloned without *any* problems, except for some delays. Still, within 12 hours my big single disc was cloned to my smaller RAID free space. Yeah! I will test booting the cloned OS later...

For now, I'm running 1.: bad block repair for windows. Only two tools came advised: SpinRite 6 (MS Dos boot disc; hasn't been developed on for almost a decade) and HDD Regenerator 2011 (including crack) which runs from booted Windows system. Testing the drive should be non-destructive, though some data loss might be expected on and around the badblocks themselves... If my original clone will not boot, I'll clone the repaired disc once more.

For cloning I had three other programs I'd like to test to see how they handle bad blocks... (but I did not find the time for that because MiniTool already did the job just fine). Those software titles are: FarStone DriveClone Server v11 Incl Keymaker-CORE, Aomei Partition Assistant Server v5.5.8 and Ontrack EasyRecovery Enterprise 11.1.0.0.

Getting there... Soon back in business! :)

♥ Devvie


PS: also see https://pcbsd.org/showthread.php?t=20649: automatically partition hard drive around bad blocks
Posted by: devnullius
« on: 28. January 2015., 22:33:54 »

Short story: all is working

Medium story: spent days trying to get the RAID drivers working on Windows-based ànd Linux based boot media (cd / dvd), but failed. Only Windows setup was able to correctly load the RAID drivers

Long story: how to transfer / clone / copy existing single disc Windows Server installation to a new fresh RAID volume, without installing from scratch?

Well, as mentioned, all my bootdisks failed. I found many new exciting tools, but none of them support my Adaptec hostraid 5081 / DotHill SP5100 Raid controller :( Red Hat Linux Enterprise 7 came close, but failed to get the correct size of the disk. In the end it still showed the total size available for 1 disc, not 4 configured in RAID 1+0. Window based bootdisks (manually created with driver slipstreamed OR added with the correct option given by the boot media builder software) ignored my RAID volume. Some even BSOD when I tried to right-click install one of the 2 given .inf files (from Supermicro website and FTP). The other .inf wouldn't work either; no error, no Logical Raid Volume :(

After spending over a week on this (I really hate to re-install my server after I spend good money on recovering the disc! And in worst-case scenarios I feel naked if I would be unable to read my raid volume when the OS doesn't boot any longer...) So I decided it was time for a new approach, though I was half-way installing Server 2012 R2 from scratch on the raid volume.

I went to google and searched on site:kickass.to for a Windows 7 x64 Lite installation dvd. I found 1 with Portugese settings (easy to change) but English language. At setup, I load raid drivers and I removed all existing partition on the raid volume. Then, I created a small partition (8GB should be enough without swap file!) and formatted that partition (ntfs) to install WIndows 7 Lite on.

Then, I had two options: Win dd to copy the single disc Windows installation OR use software to copy that partition. For DD I would have to shrink the original partition of 1 TB to fit within my 140GB Raid volume. So I decided to try some software, once more. Warez was allowed, but freeware had my preference. This time, RAID drivers wouldn't be a problem: I was already booted into Windows 7 so raid drivers were easily installed (yes I know: despite installing to RAID, the RAID drivers weren't installed yet ;p). Problem with Server OS is that almost all programs you know refuse to work on it. Might be technical reasons; mostly it is because of license restraints... :s
I found on Google Aomei's (search: server partition resize Partition Assistant Lite Edition (FREE for servers!) http://www.disk-partition.com/partition-assistant-lite.html

Luckily for me (and you?) is that it comes with free partition resize and free partition COPY! You can even chose between RAW (1TB partition needs to be resized first to fit in RAID) OR you can chose between "automatic"! The wizard is a little strange, but if you read what they say it all makes sense :) Only thing to be sure of is that you are not using more data on the original disc than fits in the new raid partition.
TIP: don't forget to remove the pagefile first: the new Windows 7 might use it without asking. Disable it (advanced system settings) and reboot. Then you can use file unlocker 1.9.2 to remove the file. In my case it was 128GB hard disk space reclaimed ;-) A nice tool to check folder size is Treesize. An old tool, to be found in my CHeCKDiSK collection (http://scforum.info/index.php?topic=8202.0)

As we speak, the copy process is running. I expect some problems still. I still did not run a checkdisk on my original server harddrive (I was advised not to  by data recovery expert). So some badblocks still might be hidden. Or ntfs file corruption might still exist. But the old disc still boots and runs like it always did, despite the drive crash...

I'll keep you posted :)

Thank you all,

Devvie


POST-EDIT: seems I had PC-BSD RAID troubles too, once... ;p https://pcbsd.org/showthread.php?t=20649 . I didn't solve that one either ; )
Posted by: devnullius
« on: 26. January 2015., 10:11:13 »

Smart logs really were clean... Zero bad sectors found; also, the block wasn't marked as bad yet... Only after first fix, it was marked as such :s

Anyways: new problem for last few days... Getting a (windows based) bootdisk that recognizes the logical volume so I can finally clone my single disk to my new RAID volume :(

I contacted support for this once more, but I don't think they can be of much assistance in this : ((

Devvie
Posted by: jheysen
« on: 23. January 2015., 22:32:16 »

I believe that SMART did spot it, but since it's just 1 bad sector, it isn't reporting inminent error yet. However, the RAID card migth be looking the SMART dataand deciding that if a bad-sector arose, then the disk is no longer safe so it rejects it.
Posted by: devnullius
« on: 23. January 2015., 09:42:40 »

I would wait for the results of the disk tests, sounds like the RAID controller is defaulting to non-RAID operation due to the failing drive.

I think you are right. Last night's scan found 1 badblock. When restarting the diskcheck, my data recovery / testing PC suddenly froze and now won't boot any longer... Sigh. Working on it. I hate my life :)

Devvie

PS: yes M, your post-edit comment is correct... RAID 10 = RAID 1+0, in RAID Bios :)

POST-EDIT: I got it booting again; long test (might have been interrupted by microsoft updates) last night at least found 1 badblock. I've seen that even with new drives, so I'm willing to give this drive another chance. I'm re-running extended destructive read/write test (Harddisk Sentinel). All other surrounding sectors are scanned smoothly and quick: meaning quality of the disk still is good. Sentinel agrees with me there... No warranty claim could be made yet...

QUESTION REMAINING: how can one, relatively small problem, like 1 bad block have been detected by the RAID controler long before SMART noticed it...?? REALLY curious about that!! :/ And to the RAID BIOS controller programmers... Don't just disregard, report!!  :down:
Posted by: jheysen
« on: 23. January 2015., 00:56:39 »

I would wait for the results of the disk tests, sounds like the RAID controller is defaulting to non-RAID operation due to the failing drive.
Posted by: metalmunna
« on: 23. January 2015., 00:04:10 »

Hmmm... I don't have any ideas, this will have to wait for "J." or "MM" - experts opinions. ;)

sorry man, i just saw the topic ... i a damn disturbed on my damn unchanged life, you know. i just trying to avoid the whole fu*king world some times.
Posted by: metalmunna
« on: 22. January 2015., 23:54:10 »

i really didn't get the scenario as you told @devnullius!!

what is RAID 10? = RAID 1(Mirroring) + RAID 0(Striping)
Did you create 2 mirroring first on 4 Disk? and then you need to create striping on both mirrored drive! then it comes RAID 10! you will get a single drive after then!
If you system have the option on BIOS to configure the RAID 10 before walk through on the server, then done it first and then when you will go to install the Server, you should find a single drive(RAID configured drive) to configure as server hard disk.

Don't forget to mark the RAID drive as Primary or Boot drive or something like that if you need to use that as boot drive, you should have that option too on RAID configuration page.

really without watching some issue it's hard to understand what's the problem or from where comes! i never see any issue on there if need to create the RAID drive before installing the server.

Or i might not get it and i am drunk ...... will read again later.

PS; i just read again to understand! if you create the RAID on 4 hard disk as RAID 10 then on your "disk management" will show a single disk, how comes 3 or 4? i mean if you done that by BIOS or on RAID preboot configuration before installing the server.
Posted by: jheysen
« on: 22. January 2015., 23:13:31 »

Gotta do a long test on it... :/
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