I'm working with Windows Server 2008 Web Edition SP1 on a dedicated box (with KVM access). As soon as I convert the system disk (C) to dynamic and reboot I get this message: Error loading operating system. I'm converting the disk to dynamic so that I can mirror the system drive with a second drive. I've actually went through the mirroring process before, everything works fine until I reboot. Could a simple conversion to dynamic stop the system from loading? Although this smells like a software issue, could it be hardware related? Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Hardware: SuperMicro H8SMU (motherboard), AMD Opteron 1216HE, 4GB RAM, 2 x WD Caviar RE 16 WD2500YS.
Best Answer
It sounds like the disk is being put into an unreadable/offline/not-initialized state...
One solution, if possible, is to pull the disk out and plug it into another Win OS which support dynamic disks (all pro/business/server editions of Windows since XP) and take a look at the disk in the Disk Management snap-in. If the disk is merely offline and can be activated inside that operating system, then it is likely an issue with how the Dynamic Disk MBR is being processed on boot. (Potentially hardware related.) (Also, you may need to import the disk into the other environment.)
If the disk appears as 'Unreadable' then WS2008 probably messed up the conversion process.
Could you give us a few details about the hardware you're running on? Dynamic disks occasionally do not jive with particular varieties of onboard RAID.
See Also:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771775.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816307
Hope this is useful :)