Windows 2003 Recover Dynamic Disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ron Gallimore
  • Start date Start date
R

Ron Gallimore

I updated my home server to Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 today. When I
rebooted it could not find ntfs.sys. I tried to copy the ntfs.sys file from
the CD to the HDD but I kept getting access denied. Forgetting that I was
using dynamic disks in this server I stuck it in my XP SP2 workstation to
recover the files. That is where the problems begin. I can not read the
disk since it is dynamic and I accidently destroyed the mirror apparently.
It was running RAID 1 in the server. I still have the second disk that I
have not touched since I do not want to lose any data. Is there any way to
recover the data short of paying for recovery software or professionals?

Thanks!
Ron Gallimore
 
"Ron Gallimore" <RonGallimore@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3E657803-3AF6-485B-BEE6-56A77DE035C9@microsoft.com...
>I updated my home server to Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 today. When
>I
> rebooted it could not find ntfs.sys. I tried to copy the ntfs.sys file
> from
> the CD to the HDD but I kept getting access denied. Forgetting that I was
> using dynamic disks in this server I stuck it in my XP SP2 workstation to
> recover the files. That is where the problems begin. I can not read the
> disk since it is dynamic and I accidently destroyed the mirror apparently.
> It was running RAID 1 in the server. I still have the second disk that I
> have not touched since I do not want to lose any data. Is there any way
> to
> recover the data short of paying for recovery software or professionals?
>
> Thanks!
> Ron Gallimore

You should be able to reboot the machine with the second
half of the mirror, provided you do so with a Windows boot
diskette.
 
I still have the problem with the missing or corrupt
System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys . How can I solve this issue?

Thanks,
Ron Gallimore

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>
> "Ron Gallimore" <RonGallimore@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:3E657803-3AF6-485B-BEE6-56A77DE035C9@microsoft.com...
> >I updated my home server to Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 today. When
> >I
> > rebooted it could not find ntfs.sys. I tried to copy the ntfs.sys file
> > from
> > the CD to the HDD but I kept getting access denied. Forgetting that I was
> > using dynamic disks in this server I stuck it in my XP SP2 workstation to
> > recover the files. That is where the problems begin. I can not read the
> > disk since it is dynamic and I accidently destroyed the mirror apparently.
> > It was running RAID 1 in the server. I still have the second disk that I
> > have not touched since I do not want to lose any data. Is there any way
> > to
> > recover the data short of paying for recovery software or professionals?
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Ron Gallimore
>
> You should be able to reboot the machine with the second
> half of the mirror, provided you do so with a Windows boot
> diskette.
>
>
>
 
I don't know whether you can access a dynamic disk when
booting the machine with a Bart PE boot CD but it's worth
a try.

You could also boot the machine with your server CD
and go into Recovery Console mode. It should let you
restore ntfs.sys.

Failing this I would temporarily "convert" the disk into a
basic disk. Boot it with a Win98 disk (www.bootdisk.com),
then run ptedit.exe
(ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/).
It lets you change the type of your System partition to standard
NTFS. The change is fully reversible as long as you remember
WHERE you made it and WHAT it was before. You can then
restore ntfs.sys while the disk is connected to some other WinXP
machine or when booting the machine with a Bart PE CD. When
finished I recommend that you go back to the original dynamic
partition type, using ptedit.


"Ron Gallimore" <RonGallimore@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:89047E93-E075-437E-956E-7BE1F7FEA16E@microsoft.com...
>I still have the problem with the missing or corrupt
> System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys . How can I solve this issue?
>
> Thanks,
> Ron Gallimore
>
> "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
>
>>
>> "Ron Gallimore" <RonGallimore@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:3E657803-3AF6-485B-BEE6-56A77DE035C9@microsoft.com...
>> >I updated my home server to Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 today.
>> >When
>> >I
>> > rebooted it could not find ntfs.sys. I tried to copy the ntfs.sys file
>> > from
>> > the CD to the HDD but I kept getting access denied. Forgetting that I
>> > was
>> > using dynamic disks in this server I stuck it in my XP SP2 workstation
>> > to
>> > recover the files. That is where the problems begin. I can not read
>> > the
>> > disk since it is dynamic and I accidently destroyed the mirror
>> > apparently.
>> > It was running RAID 1 in the server. I still have the second disk that
>> > I
>> > have not touched since I do not want to lose any data. Is there any
>> > way
>> > to
>> > recover the data short of paying for recovery software or
>> > professionals?
>> >
>> > Thanks!
>> > Ron Gallimore
>>
>> You should be able to reboot the machine with the second
>> half of the mirror, provided you do so with a Windows boot
>> diskette.
>>
>>
>>
 
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