Creating an FT Boot Disk With Scsi( ) and Multi( ) Identifiers

ID: q130921

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

SUMMARY

To create a fault tolerance floppy disk for recovering from a failed boot mirror partition, you may need to correct hardware identifier on the arc path name in the BOOT.INI file.

The following are only two valid options to specify the arc name that identifies the disk/controller type:

SCSI(x)disk(y)rdisk(z)partition(a)

Multi(x)disk(y)rdisk(z)partition(a)

SCSI indicates a SCSI disk drive is connected to a SCSI adapter whose BIOS has not been loaded.

Multi can indicate a non-SCSI disk drive supported by either the ATDISK.SYS or ABIOSDSK.SYS driver, or a SCSI disk drive supported by a SCSI BIOS that loads when the SCSI adapter detects a bootable device on the lowest SCSI ID on most SCSI adapters.

MORE INFORMATION

Intel (x86) computers running Windows NT Server use the Multi option as the default hardware identifier for the primary bootable disk drive. This is due to the SCSI BIOS, ATDISK.SYS driver, or ABIOSDSK.SYS driver support.

If the system is using a SCSI adapter and the primary boot drive of a mirror set fails or becomes inaccessible and the SCSI adapter BIOS does not load, the Multi identifier option will fail to locate the healthy mirror drive. As a result, the BOOT.INI file on the Fault Tolerance floppy disk will require the use of the SCSI option to boot the remaining mirror drive.

NOTE: The SCSI identifier option should only be used when the SCSI adapter BIOS is not loaded. Refer to the Concepts and Planning Guide, p.163 for ARC path variable specifications.

Additional query words: prodnt

Keywords : kbusage ntfault
Version : WINDOWS:2000; winnt:3.5
Platform : WINDOWS winnt
Issue type :