Trying to replace a dynamic disk

[Philip Herlihy]

I've been asked to look at an elderly Win2K server which produced an error

on boot saying there were SMART errors and the disk should be replaced.



I've been trying to clone the disk to a new one using Acronis True Image but

the edition I have doesn't support Dynamic disks (so won't let me select

it - read the manual eventually!). I'm in the process of creating a disk

image which I hope to apply to the new disk (two stage cloning instead of

one). I've just seen an error saying that there are problems reading some

blocks, so the image won't be complete.



Is it worth trying a chkdsk on the dodgy disk and trying the image again?

Is this even possible with a dynamic disk?



Any advice will be greatly valued.



Phil, London

 

[Philip Herlihy]

"Philip Herlihy" wrote in message

news:#MVXJlqpKHA.1544@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> I've been asked to look at an elderly Win2K server which produced an error

> on boot saying there were SMART errors and the disk should be replaced.

>

> I've been trying to clone the disk to a new one using Acronis True Image

> but the edition I have doesn't support Dynamic disks (so won't let me

> select it - read the manual eventually!). I'm in the process of creating

> a disk image which I hope to apply to the new disk (two stage cloning

> instead of one). I've just seen an error saying that there are problems

> reading some blocks, so the image won't be complete.

>

> Is it worth trying a chkdsk on the dodgy disk and trying the image again?

> Is this even possible with a dynamic disk?

>

> Any advice will be greatly valued.

>

> Phil, London



It's worth adding that we're most keen to rescue an expensive database

application which will be very expensive to reinstall. I have a Win2K

server installation CD, and a valid license key, but it's the original

without any service packs.



Phil

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

"Philip Herlihy" said this in news item

news:#MVXJlqpKHA.1544@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> I've been asked to look at an elderly Win2K server which produced an error

> on boot saying there were SMART errors and the disk should be replaced.

>

> I've been trying to clone the disk to a new one using Acronis True Image

> but the edition I have doesn't support Dynamic disks (so won't let me

> select it - read the manual eventually!). I'm in the process of creating

> a disk image which I hope to apply to the new disk (two stage cloning

> instead of one). I've just seen an error saying that there are problems

> reading some blocks, so the image won't be complete.

>

> Is it worth trying a chkdsk on the dodgy disk and trying the image again?

> Is this even possible with a dynamic disk?

>

> Any advice will be greatly valued.

>

> Phil, London



Running chkdsk on a flawed disk is likeley to make matters worse if there

are file system errors. I would do this instead:

1. Partition and format the new disk on some other machine. Do not create

dynamic partitions.

2. Mark the system partition as Active.

3. Connect both the old and the new disks to that other Win2000/XP PC.

4. Run this command from a Command Prompt:

robocopy O:\ N:\ /s /R:1 /W:1 /np /CopyATSO /log:c:\Robocopy.log

where O: represents the drive letter of the old disk, N: of the new disk.

5. Examine c:\Robocopy.log for error messages.



You can get robocopy from

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...69-57FF-4AE7-96EE-B18C4790CFFD&displaylang=en



This process will be much slower than the Acronis imaging process. However,

it will skip over unreadable clusters and it will deal with dynamic disks,

except that it will ignore any of the dynamic disk-specific functions if you

used them. The new disk will be bootable if you take Steps 1 and 2 above.

 

[Philip Herlihy]

"Pegasus [MVP]" wrote in message

news:eVg3UuqpKHA.4836@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>

>

> "Philip Herlihy" said this in news item

> news:#MVXJlqpKHA.1544@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>> I've been asked to look at an elderly Win2K server which produced an

>> error on boot saying there were SMART errors and the disk should be

>> replaced.

>>

>> I've been trying to clone the disk to a new one using Acronis True Image

>> but the edition I have doesn't support Dynamic disks (so won't let me

>> select it - read the manual eventually!). I'm in the process of creating

>> a disk image which I hope to apply to the new disk (two stage cloning

>> instead of one). I've just seen an error saying that there are problems

>> reading some blocks, so the image won't be complete.

>>

>> Is it worth trying a chkdsk on the dodgy disk and trying the image again?

>> Is this even possible with a dynamic disk?

>>

>> Any advice will be greatly valued.

>>

>> Phil, London

>

> Running chkdsk on a flawed disk is likeley to make matters worse if there

> are file system errors. I would do this instead:

> 1. Partition and format the new disk on some other machine. Do not create

> dynamic partitions.

> 2. Mark the system partition as Active.

> 3. Connect both the old and the new disks to that other Win2000/XP PC.

> 4. Run this command from a Command Prompt:

> robocopy O:\ N:\ /s /R:1 /W:1 /np /CopyATSO /log:c:\Robocopy.log

> where O: represents the drive letter of the old disk, N: of the new

> disk.

> 5. Examine c:\Robocopy.log for error messages.

>

> You can get robocopy from

> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...69-57FF-4AE7-96EE-B18C4790CFFD&displaylang=en

>

> This process will be much slower than the Acronis imaging process.

> However, it will skip over unreadable clusters and it will deal with

> dynamic disks, except that it will ignore any of the dynamic disk-specific

> functions if you used them. The new disk will be bootable if you take

> Steps 1 and 2 above.

>

>



Thanks! I'll certainly try this. I've used Robocopy extensively in the

past but never in this context. I'll let you know how I get on. Much

appreciated.



Phil

 

[Philip Herlihy]

"Philip Herlihy" wrote in message

news:OnQTuJ$pKHA.556@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>

> "Pegasus [MVP]" wrote in message

> news:eVg3UuqpKHA.4836@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>

>>

>> "Philip Herlihy" said this in news item

>> news:#MVXJlqpKHA.1544@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>>> I've been asked to look at an elderly Win2K server which produced an

>>> error on boot saying there were SMART errors and the disk should be

>>> replaced.

>>>

>>> I've been trying to clone the disk to a new one using Acronis True Image

>>> but the edition I have doesn't support Dynamic disks (so won't let me

>>> select it - read the manual eventually!). I'm in the process of

>>> creating a disk image which I hope to apply to the new disk (two stage

>>> cloning instead of one). I've just seen an error saying that there are

>>> problems reading some blocks, so the image won't be complete.

>>>

>>> Is it worth trying a chkdsk on the dodgy disk and trying the image

>>> again? Is this even possible with a dynamic disk?

>>>

>>> Any advice will be greatly valued.

>>>

>>> Phil, London

>>

>> Running chkdsk on a flawed disk is likeley to make matters worse if there

>> are file system errors. I would do this instead:

>> 1. Partition and format the new disk on some other machine. Do not create

>> dynamic partitions.

>> 2. Mark the system partition as Active.

>> 3. Connect both the old and the new disks to that other Win2000/XP PC.

>> 4. Run this command from a Command Prompt:

>> robocopy O:\ N:\ /s /R:1 /W:1 /np /CopyATSO /log:c:\Robocopy.log

>> where O: represents the drive letter of the old disk, N: of the new

>> disk.

>> 5. Examine c:\Robocopy.log for error messages.

>>

>> You can get robocopy from

>> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...69-57FF-4AE7-96EE-B18C4790CFFD&displaylang=en

>>

>> This process will be much slower than the Acronis imaging process.

>> However, it will skip over unreadable clusters and it will deal with

>> dynamic disks, except that it will ignore any of the dynamic

>> disk-specific functions if you used them. The new disk will be bootable

>> if you take Steps 1 and 2 above.

>>

>>

>

> Thanks! I'll certainly try this. I've used Robocopy extensively in the

> past but never in this context. I'll let you know how I get on. Much

> appreciated.

>

> Phil



I've taken my time over this! After a lot of reading, I processed the disk

for 24 hours with Spinrite, after which I did manage to get a disk image to

work. However, I took your advice and used Robocopy to copy everything to a

new disk, which I marked as Active. Today I finally got to try the disks

(the original and the cloned one) in the chassis. Both have booted

perfectly. So, it looks like Spinrite did manage to reconstruct the data on

the original disk (which has since passed the manufacturer's diagnostic

tests). However, I've left the cloned disk in the machine, as it's a brand

new disk which is obviously a better bet. The sql-server-based application,

which it was particularly hoped to preserve, appears to be working well.



I'll need to read up more on Dynamic Disks. Disk management reports that a

dynamic disk (shown as a separate physical disk) is "missing". The Data

disk (also processed with Spinrite) is still shown as a Dynamic disk, but

the replacement system disk is a "Basic" disk. Since everything is working,

I'm not that alarmed, but I'll need to figure out what all this means!



Thanks, Pegasus, for your help in this.



Phil.