This article provides the steps necessary to recover mirroring using IDE devices under Windows NT. Use this article in conjunction with the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, which explains how to create an Windows NT Fault Tolerant Boot Disk:

ARTICLE-ID: 311073 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311073/EN-US/)

TITLE: Creating a boot disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition

ARTICLE-ID: 102873 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102873/EN-US/)

TITLE: BOOT.INI and ARC Path Naming Convention and Usage

Soft Mirroring (Windows NT) does NOT mirror MBR/PT entries, as soft mirroring is only designed to mirror a partition's data, and cannot guarantee boot capability of the shadow, or mirrored drive. It is important that you always have a valid Windows NT fault tolerant startup floppy disk created in the event that the primary drive fails.

ARTICLE-ID: 117131 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/117131/EN-US/)
TITLE: Master Boot Record Not Written To Mirrored Shadow Partition

Back to the top

The IDE specification requires that a working master drive be available at all times to gain access to other IDE drives on the system. The steps that follow are the appropriate steps to mirror an IDE hard drive with another.

Back to the top

Step-by-Step Procedures

If the shadow (mirrored) hard drive is on the same channel set as an IDE slave device, use the "Failed Primary on the Same IDE Channel" section of this article below.

If the shadow (mirrored) hard drive is on the secondary channel across from the failed primary drive then see the "Failed Primary is on the Primary IDE Channel and the Shadow is on the Secondary" section of this article below.

Back to the top

Failed Primary on the Same IDE Channel (Shadow Drive is a Slave IDE Device)

*** If the replacement drive has already been installed: ***

1.	Edit the Boot.ini file in you Windows NT FT startup disk to point to: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)...
2.	If the replacement drive is not identical to the failed IDE hard drive, you must go into CMOS and use either the AUTO DETECT HARD DRIVE feature in your CMOS, or manually set the new hard drive Heads/Cylinders/Sectors.
3.	Start the Windows NT FT startup disk and load Windows NT.
4.	Start Disk Administrator, and break the mirror.
5.	Establish another mirror by mirroring from the slave hard drive to the master drive.

*** If the replacement drive has not been installed: ***

1.	Verify that the jumper on the shadow IDE hard drive is moved from Slave to master or standalone.
2.	Edit the Boot.ini file in the Windows NT FT startup disk, to point to: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)...
3.	If the shadow drive is not identical to the failed IDE hard drive, you must go into CMOS and use either the AUTO DETECT HARD DRIVE feature in your CMOS or manually set the new hard drive Heads/Cylinders/Sectors.
4.	Start the Windows NT FT startup disk, and load Windows NT.
5.	Start Disk Administrator, and break the mirror.
6.	Establish another mirror by mirroring from this hard drive to the new shadow (IDE Slave) drive.

Failed primary is master the on the primary IDE channel and the shadow is master on the secondary IDE Channel

***If the replacement drive has already been installed:***

1. Edit the Boot.ini file of your Windows NT FT startup disk to point to:



2. If the replacement drive is not identical to the failed IDE hard drive, you must go into CMOS and use either the AUTO DETECT HARD DRIVE feature in your CMOS or manually set the new hard drive Heads/Cylinders/Sectors. 3. Start the Windows NT FT startup disk and load Windows NT. 4. Start Disk Administrator, and break the mirror. 5. Establish another mirror by mirroring from the this hard drive to the new Shadow drive.

***If the replacement drive has not been installed:***

1. Move the shadow drive to the primary channel as the master device and ensure it is jumpered in the same manner as the failed primary drive.

2. Edit the Boot.ini file in your Windows NT FT startup disk to point to:

1.	If the shadow drive is not identical to the failed primary IDE hard drive, you must go into CMOS and use either the AUTO DETECT HARD DRIVE feature in your CMOS or manually set the new hard drive Heads/Cylinders/Sectors.
2.	Start the Windows NT FT startup disk and load Windows NT.
3.	Start Disk Administrator, and break the mirror.
4.	Establish another mirror by mirroring from this hard drive to the new shadow drive.

Back to the top