High Performance NT4 Optimization and Tuning:Implementing Redundant Systems

Creating A Startup Disk

There are two types of startup disks you might find handy to have around in case of an emergency. The first startup disk type is your standard MS-DOS boot diskette. This boot diskette should be formatted on a computer that only has MS-DOS 6.22 or earlier on it, because the DISKSAVE.EXE application does not run under Windows 95 (or DOS 7, the version of MS-DOS supplied by Windows 95).

Creating A Boot Diskette

To create the boot diskette, follow the steps presented in this section.

1. Insert a floppy disk in your A: drive.

2. From a DOS prompt, run the command FORMAT A: /S /V:DosBootDisk /U.

The /S switch will create a bootable system disk, the /V switch will label the diskette, and the /U switch will unconditionally format the disk. You should always unconditionally format the disk rather than use the quick format (/Q switch) to make sure the low-level format information is fresh. This ensures a longer life span for the disk as all magnetic media will slowly deteriorate over time.

After creating a bootable disk, copy DISKSAVE.EXE from the Windows NT Resource Kit installation directory to the floppy. Then copy the following files from your MS-DOS installation directory to the floppy:

• FDISK.EXE (to create, delete, modify, or obtain information about your disk partitions as well as re-create the master boot record)

• FORMAT.EXE (to format a partition)

• EDIT.EXE (an ASCII-based editor)

• QBASIC.EXE on your MS-DOS floppy (You need QBASIC.EXE for the EDIT.EXE program to function)

If your system partition is a FAT partition, you might find it handy to create a Windows 95 boot disk using the Control Panel Add-Remove Programs applet. You can use SCANDISK.EXE to help repair lost clusters or other file system-related problems. The Windows 95 version of SCANDISK is preferred because it supports long file names (LFN) on FAT partitions. The MS-DOS 6.x version of SCANDISK does not support LFN, so it cannot repair any LFN errors it encounters, at least not without destroying the LFN itself and causing problems with Windows NT.

Saving The Master Book Record

After you have created the floppy, use it to reboot your server under MS-DOS. Then, save the master boot record and boot sector of your boot partition by following the steps presented in this section.

1. Launch DISKSAVE.EXE.

2. Press F2 to back up your master boot record.

3. You will then be prompted to enter a fully qualified path and file name. Enter the path and file name, such as A:\MSTRBOOT.BIN, and press the Enter key.
The master boot record will then be copied to the path and file name you specified.

4. Press F4 to back up your boot sector.

5. You will then be prompted to enter a fully qualified path and file name. Enter the path and file name, such as A:\BOOTSECT.BIN, and press the Enter key.

The boot sector will then be copied to the path and file name you specified.

Note: The DISKSAVE.EXE program might not be able to copy the boot sector on a drive with a third-party partitioning scheme (such as Ontrack Disk Manager) because it uses the BIOS to access the hard disk.

Creating A Windows NT Startup Disk

Creating a Windows NT startup disk follows a similar method. But, you will need to copy other files to the disk after you format it. To build a Windows NT startup disk, follow the steps presented in this section.

1. Insert a floppy disk in your A: drive.

2. From a console (command line) prompt, run the command FORMAT A: /V:DosBootDisk /U.

3. From a console (command line) prompt, run the commands shown in Listing 9.1.

Listing 9.1 Commands to copy the NT boot files.

ATTRIB -H -S -R C:\BOOT.INI
ATTRIB -H -S -R C:\NT*.???
COPY C:\BOOT.INI A:\BOOT.INI
COPY C:\NT*.??? A:\
ATTRIB +H +S +R C:\BOOT.INI
ATTRIB +H +S +R C:\NT*.???

The commands shown in Listing 9.1 will remove the hidden, system, and read-only attributes from the files, then copy BOOT.INI, NTLDR, and NTDETECT.COM to your startup disk. It will also copy NTBOOTDD.SYS, if present. Once the files have been copied, the script presented in Listing 9.1 will reset the hidden, system, and read-only flags to make sure you do not intentionally damage or delete them. Your Windows NT startup disk is not finished, however, as you still need to modify the copy of BOOT.INI on your startup disk. To do that, you need to understand the format of the BOOT.INI file and ARC pathnames. A basic BOOT.INI file looks similar to Listing 9.2.

Note: NTBOOTDD.SYS is only required for older SCSI adapters that do not provide a BIOS option recognizable by Windows NT to load the system files. It is also used for computers with multiple copies of NT installed on disk drives attached with more than one SCSI adapter. For example, you could have two SCSI adapters with a copy of Windows NT on the first disk on the first adapter and a second copy of NT on a disk on the second adapter.

Listing 9.2 The basic BOOT.INI contents.

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=C:\
[Operating Systems]
C:\="Microsoft Windows"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation _
Version 4.00"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation _
Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos

The [boot loader] entry specifies the options used by NTLDR (the boot loader). The timeout entry specifies how long (in seconds) to display the menu before proceeding to load the default operating system as defined by the default entry. The [Operating Systems] entry specifies the location of the operating system to load for a selected menu item. The first part of this entry is the location of the operating system, and the second part (after the =) is the menu text to display. This menu text must be enclosed in double quotes (" “).

Understanding ARC (Advanced RISC Computing) pathnames (the multi(0)disk(0) (rdisk(1)Partition(1) portion) requires a little more explanation.

Table of Contents