Windows Server 2003 stuck on animated loading screen

There are several options for accessing the console remotely without relying on RDP into a working Windows install:

1. Lights Out Management - some servers from Sun, HP, IBM and several others have a Lights Out Management Chip (LOM). I have much of my experience with HP's iLO technology which has saved me several trips. Essentially this chip gives you authenticated remote access to the controls on the front of the server, and most instances much much more. The down side is if you server dosn't have it you can't use it.

2. IP KVM's or Remote Power Management - several vendors provide products that allow you to access either the keyboard, video and mouse remotely (IP KVM) or less expensivly the ability to manage power remotely by cycling the mains power to the server off and on again via a PDU. The latter option is not recommended unless you are sure simply power cycling the server will help.

The final option would be to not install updates over night, and schedule short outages during the day when you or your "hands and eyes" can be at the data center to sort out any problems. This is at the whim of your customer really, although a quaterly downtime is often a good thing to build in to your agreements.

Pull the disk out. It's going to provide you the same level of redundancy than an array that's rebuilding anyway (ie none)