Mirroring the boot drive

This topic describes how to mirror the boot drive on the master console using the Windows® software mirroring capability.

Prerequisites

The target disk must be unformatted before you can set it up as a mirrored disk.

Context

Perform the following steps to mirror the boot drive:

Steps

  1. From the desktop, right-click My Computer.
  2. Click Manage.
  3. Click Storage > Disk Management .
  4. Right-click the disk icon for the system disk.
  5. Click Upgrade to dynamic disk and then click OK.
  6. Right-click the disk icon for the disk that you want to become the mirror of the system disk.
  7. Click Upgrade to dynamic disk and then click OK.
    Note:
    • If you receive a warning, click Yes.
    • If your system reboots, restart the Disk Management.
  8. Right-click the disk icon for the system disk.
  9. Click Add Mirror.
  10. Select the disk that you want to become the mirror of the system disk, and then click Add Mirror.
  11. A warning dialogue box appears stating that you must update the boot.ini file. Click OK to continue.
  12. Update the boot.ini file:
    1. From the desktop, double-click My Computer.
    2. Click Tools > Folder options.
    3. Click the View tab.
    4. In the Advanced settings list, select the Show hidden files and folders radio button.
    5. In the My Computer window, click Local disk (C:).
    6. Double-click the c:\boot.ini file to open the file in Notepad.

      Attention: Be cautious when editing this file to make only the requested changes. Do not modify any other lines in this file.

    7. In the operating system section, add Primary to the end of the operating description for the system disk.
    8. Copy the line for the system disk, and change Primary to Secondary, and change the system disk (for example, disk(0)) to mirrored disk (for example, disk(1)).

      The file should look similar to the following example:

      [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)partition(1)\WINNT [operating
      system] multi(0)disk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced
         Server Primary" /fastdetect
      multi(0)disk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced 
        Server Secondary" /fastdetect
    9. Save and close the file.
    10. Reboot the machine.
    11. After the machine completes the POST test, the system prompts you to select the Microsoft® Windows operating system to boot from. Select Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server Secondary and press Enter to verify that the machine boots successfully from the mirrored drive.
    12. Reboot the machine again.
    13. After the machine completes the POST test, the system prompts you to select the Microsoft Windows operating system to boot from. Select Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server Primary and press Enter to verify that the machine boots successfully from the system drive.

Parent topic: Using the installation wizard
Previous topic: Installing documentation and utilities files

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