PowerEdge T110 II boots to WinPE

What is the BOOT ORDER? Maybe it's service partition instead of Your OS?

Thanks for the reply tomaszg. The boot order is Hard Drive (RAID1), CD Drive, Embedded NIC. I have looked through all the BIOS settings and the Boot Manager, but there doesn't appear to be an option to select which partition to load.

I understand this is production server and now it's unavailable.

Maybe this sounds stupid but is there any DVD in dvd drive?

I don't understand how WinPE boots, it needs inserted medium like DVD, USB pendrive or via PXE.

Also Win2008 recovery mode looks like WinPE. Maybe it's booting into recovery mode?

Do You have iDRAC? Could You insert screenshot or photo?

I hope this didn't wiped out Your whole OS!   --> is this an autowipe script?!

Looks like preinstalation OS is booted.

I just discovered what is "virtual media" it simply emulates disk or dvd from remote location, could You please check is it enabled in iDRAC?

I would check partitions with external CD (like free available Parted Magic from partedmagic.com/doku.php) or builtin "diskpart" then type in command line "list disk", select Your OS disk with "select disk 0" or so, then type "list volume" to check if Your data partitions are still here.

Diskpart can also check "active" partition, but I preffer Gparted from Parted Magic.

No there's nothing in the dvd drive.

Yes it must be going into recovery mode then, but why is it requesting my router details?

Yes it has iDRAC (Remote Access). Do you think its trying to setup Win SBS's remote access feature? Here's a screenshot of what its trying to do...

There are also two other cmd windows which are minimized, called Administrators: VistaPE debug.

Ok, now I've gone into the RAID controller settings and swapped the two virtual disks...

I then ran diskpart again. This time I get this result... I'm lost :emotion-6:

I think this "startnet.cmd" refer to "Dell OpenManage Deployment Toolkit" (DTK)

Ok, I've tried using Gparted and Parted Magic but they aren't compatible with my RAID controller (PERC S300).

So I had to use diskpart. Here are the results...

The OS partition is showing up as FAT32???

I've got a horrible feeling that I'm going to have to reinstall the OS! Is there any way of restoring the server to its original state when it was shipped to me?

It seems You have 2 RAW partitions, right? It's 80GB and 265GB on second volume.

You need external program to recover data..

www.easeus.com/.../convert-raw-ntfs.htm

DO NOT RUN CHKDSK, I lost data one time after doing this (showed 100% volume empty after finish and rewrited MFT)

I personally use TestDisk.

Did You lost power while reboot / after reboot / while updating server? Sounds like to be caused by unclean server shutdown..

But maybe it's just easy job, I don't know. Doing backup is always recommended, so do sector-to-sector copy, for example to some file on external USB drive (under Linux "dd" command is best friend, "dd if=/dev/sda of=/media/RECOVERY-disk/somefile.dump bs=1M"). Of course it has to fit 80+265GB. Well, I would also try changing PARTITION TYPE to 07 (07 = NTFS) - this should be easy fix. BOOTICE can do this, or fdisk/parted under Linux.

http://www.pendriveapps.com/bootice-partition-flash-drive-edit-boot-sector/

Try to run EXPLORE.EXE in WinPE to get data from DATAPART1 - should be easy.

Let's see.. DISK 0 - 200GB

C - RECOVERY - I think it contains clean OS for recovery process to restore original OS (should be bootable)

E - RAW 80GB - it's broken partition, I belive it should be Your OS (I think it should be NTFS).

DON'T TOUCH IT IF YOU WANT TO RESTORE YOUR DATA!!! first do SECTOR-TO-SECTOR full copy

I think to restore "RAW" partition You need to use external data recovery program, like TestDisk.

www.cgsecurity.org/.../TestDisk

D - DATAPART1 - Your data, but no OS. Search for any backup copy folders (Windows Backup) if present.

Z - FAT - service partition, it contains Dell service programs I belive (accessed from BIOS menu - F10?)

DISK 1 - 265GB (prev. photo) 

C - OS, FAT32 - it's recovery patition (WinPE You're booting)

D - RAW 265GB - Your data, broken partition

Z - FAT, 39MB, Dell service Tools accessed from BIOS menu

Very chaotic organised partitions.. but this looks like when shipped with Dell.

Your server doesn't boot since it has ACTIVE partition set to FAT32 (and I belive it's correct there are diagnostic programs from Dell or something else), but Boot Manager should swap to next partition, where OS is installed, which is 80GB RAW in this case (instead of NTFS), so it doesn't boot.

You don't have to SWAP disks in RAID controller menu, they both are visible in WinPE. Just use command "selec disk 0" or "select disk 1".

Use "help" in diskpart to get help about commands.

I belive Your data is still there, all You have to do is restore RAW to NTFS.

I still don't understand how this happen?

Thank you for all your help with this tomaszg. In the end I decided to just cut my losses. I re-created the virtual disks and did a fresh install of Windows SBS. All seems to be running fine now.

I have no idea what could have caused the problem - I didn't notice a power loss at the time, although I did leave the office a couple of times. I suppose it could have been a power surge rather than a power loss. Anyway, I have the server connected to a new UPS now (Yes I know I should have done this from the beginning!! Doh!).

It could be caused by firmware bug.

Contact Dell, since this is DATA DESTRUCTIVE INCIDENT. You lost Your data, If I were you I would like to know why I lost my data!

Is the RAID card's cache backup powered?

Hello,

i had exactly the same issue here, new T110 II, installed everything, let wsus catch the updates through the night.

In the morning i came back to the T110 and same: WinPE, red Screen and no chance to recover.

i started from sratch!

I'm telling You: escalate this to DELL!!