I have a Windows 2003 Server machine, using the built in software RAID-1 support with two SATA drives.
If the 2nd drives fails (that is, when I pull out the drive connector) everything works perfectly, but when the first drive is missing the system won't boot.
I understand you can create a "fault tolerance" floppy and use that for booting into the secondary drive but floppy disks and drives tend to have a very short lifespan in out dusty server room (I know server rooms aren't supposed to be dusty, but it's a construction problem and can't be fixed).
Is there any way to boot into the secondary drive of a Windows 2003 software RAID-1 array without using a floppy?
Thanks
Edit:
1) the servers are not brand name servers, the disks where unformatted before I installed Windows 2003 Server
2) connecting the secondary disk to the primary controller didn't work
Best Answer
Since you didn't elaborate on what happens when the system "fails to boot", I'm going to take a stab in the dark.
It sounds like your secondary disk might not have an MBR with the necessary code to start NTLDR. A typical symptom in this kind of situation is a blinking cursor with no further progress after POST.
If this is what's happening, boot to the recovery console with the secondary disk attached to the primary controller and run a "FIXMBR". That should get you booting normally.