Server 2008 R2 requires 2 disks to boot

boothard drivewindows-server-2008-r2

Weird one.

I have a domain controller with Server 2008 R2. It is a hack job but is reliable.

AMD system.
AM2 6000+
Asus Crosshair MB.

The server is utilizing 5 Sata ports for Hard disks of assorted size. No raid is configured. This is mostly for random storage and backup DC

When we attempted to upgrade 1 of the drives upon reboot we got a "No Operating System Detected Insert System disk and press ENTER" error. Fiddling around enough to find out the computer would only boot if the System disk and one of the storage disks (the one we removed to upgade…) were connected on boot.

What is going on here? How do I repair this issue? I would like to be able to remove that drive.

Ran BCDEDIT

I see the issue. Recomendations on the command to best resolve it. We want everything on C:.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
——————– identifier {bootmgr} device
partition=H: description
Windows Boot Manager locale
en-US inherit
{globalsettings} default
{current} resumeobject
{c7cb3484-5288-11e0-a6a3-b7c0d75655a0}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
——————- identifier {current} device
partition=C: path
\Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Server
2008 R2 locale en-US
inherit
{bootloadersettings} recoverysequence
{c7cb3486-5288-11e0-a6a3-b7c0d75655a0}
recoveryenabled Yes osdevice
partition=C: systemroot
\Windows resumeobject
{c7cb3484-5288-11e0-a6a3-b7c0d75655a0}
nx OptOut

C:\Windows\system32>

Here is a screenshot of the situation. Drive 7 is of no concern its external did not feel the need to grab the sceenshot a second time to fit it in.
enter image description here

UPDATE

Boot\BCD is not on H: any ideas
Here is my output

H:\Boot>xcopy /e h:\boot c:
H:\boot\memtest.exe
H:\boot\cs-CZ\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\da-DK\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\de-DE\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\el-GR\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\en-US\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\en-US\memtest.exe.mui
H:\boot\es-ES\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\fi-FI\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\Fonts\chs_boot.ttf
H:\boot\Fonts\cht_boot.ttf
H:\boot\Fonts\jpn_boot.ttf
H:\boot\Fonts\kor_boot.ttf
H:\boot\Fonts\wgl4_boot.ttf
H:\boot\fr-FR\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\hu-HU\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\it-IT\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\ja-JP\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\ko-KR\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\nb-NO\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\nl-NL\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\pl-PL\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\pt-BR\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\pt-PT\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\ru-RU\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\sv-SE\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\tr-TR\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\zh-CN\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\zh-HK\bootmgr.exe.mui
H:\boot\zh-TW\bootmgr.exe.mui
30 File(s) copied

H:\Boot>bcdedit -store C:\boot\BCD -enum all
The boot configuration data store could not be opened.
The system cannot find the file specified.

H:\Boot>dir

 Directory of H:\Boot

03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          cs-CZ
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          da-DK
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          de-DE
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          el-GR
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          en-US
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          es-ES
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          fi-FI
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          Fonts
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          fr-FR
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          hu-HU
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          it-IT
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          ja-JP
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          ko-KR
11/20/2010  11:24 PM           485,760 memtest.exe
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          nb-NO
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          nl-NL
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          pl-PL
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          pt-BR
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          pt-PT
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          ru-RU
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          sv-SE
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          tr-TR
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          zh-CN
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          zh-HK
03/19/2011  11:28 PM    <DIR>          zh-TW
               1 File(s)        485,760 bytes
              24 Dir(s)  177,605,242,880 bytes free

Best Answer

The computer was booting off one of those disks you removed, and starting the OS from the Operating System disk (which is apparently a separate disk). This is what happens when someone carelessly installs an OS.

You need to get the BCD on the OS disk and corrected for it's new location. You may be able to boot the Installation Disk and Repair the installation into booting again.

Update - To Fix:

  • First a backup: run bcdedit -export C:\bcd.backup, should probably copy this to another computer or thumbdrive.
  • Open Drive Management, mount the boot partition (should be 100 or 300 MB) to a drive letter, note the letter.
  • mkdir C:\boot
  • xcopy /e x:\boot c:\boot (where x: is the drive you just mounted)
  • bcdedit -export C:\boot\BCD

  • bcdedit -store C:\boot\BCD -enum all
    Note the entry identifier and property of any lines where the second column says partition=x:

    For example:

    Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier          {current}
osdevice            partition=x:

  • For each occurrence noted execute the following; be extremely careful to not screw this up!
    bcdedit -store c:\boot\BCD -set {current} osdevice partition=c:

    Note: change {current} to whatever the identifier of the section was for the property you're changing. Then just follow it with the property and new value. Also note the new c: value instead of x:. Also, the identifiers may/will be GUIDs.

  • Once that looks all good, fire up Drive Management again, remove the drive letter from that other drive so it's back the way it was. Mark the C: partition Active.

You should now be able to remove the other disk and boot off the system partition. If this doesn't work you haven't messed up the other disk and can put it back in.

Update 2:
Looks like you've got that other partition mounted as h: already, so ignore that mount and unmount stuff, just jump into the copy, edit, yada yada.

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