O/S Not booting after windows update?

Hello,

What specific Windows operating system are you running on your server, and what is the model of your server? What happens when you just power on your server and have it attempt to boot? For example, does your server stay on the screen pictured above, or does it reboot? Besides installing updates, was any other hardware or software added to your system that may have caused this issue? Finally, assuming in a worst case scenario that your operating system is corrupted, do you have a recent backup of your server that you can restore if necessary? 

It's running Server 2012 Standardx64 and it is a PowerVault220S. It goes through a bunch of checks (ie. Raid Controller, etc and eventually stops after this one and just hangs there...doesn't reboot or anything). Seems like it went through all the checks and now just having problems loading the O/S. No extra hardware added and all drives are showing healthy. This is actually a backup server in a Raid, so no, i don't really have a backup for the image. Not 100% concerned with the O/S, but the data on the drive should be able to be recovered i would think.

Something else that I thought of that you could try is booting off of your Windows Server 2012 installation disc, selecting "Repair your computer," and then clicking on command prompt. Once you are in command prompt, do a sfc /scannow. Now, because you would be running sfc /scannow outside of your Windows install, you'd have to run the command like this: 

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows

The /offbootdir= option specifies the drive letter, while the /offwindir= option specifies the Windows path, again including the drive letter. The catch here is that even though your drive letter is probably c: inside of Windows, System Recovery may have it be assigned d: in command prompt. The easiest way that I know of to figure out where Windows is installed would be typing c:, and then typing dir to see what is in the directory. If you see the "Windows" folder in the root directory, you are all set. If not, try d:, and then typing dir, and so on until you find the right disk. Here is a website that explains sfc if you are not familiar with it:

pcsupport.about.com/.../sfc-scannow.htm

Basically, sfc scans your Windows installation for important corrupted files, which may be the cause of your issue. In a worst case scenario, you could always boot from a distribution of Linux, like Ubuntu, and then you could recover your files to an external drive or other storage medium. 

Still was not getting it to work as I can't even navigate to the drive that holds windows on it. Also can't get into safe mode (F8).

Still have to try booting from Linux to see if I can pull the data off.

Simply listing the disks available...

Listing the volumes.

C: was the only one that worked (tried many drive letters including X,Y,Z) and none seemed to be available. This C just appears to be the USB stick.

Showing Hard-Disk boot sequence. Why does Slot 6 have * next to it. Also, all drives are green.

Showing the integrated controller. Also heard disabling RAID and trying to boot sometimes works but guessing that's only temporary solution? Also does that do anything to the data itself?

Showing boot process...hangs after the BMC stuff.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/comrise-public/IMG_0782.MOV

A couple of things:

I originally thought that by updating Windows, it corrupted your operating system, possibly even the "critical" files that Windows uses to boot itself up, which is why I wanted you to try running the sfc command, but looking at the screenshots you posted, it now appears that this is more of a hardware issue. Somehow the disks that your operating system is installed on are not being recognized, so therefore your server cannot boot into Windows because it does not think any disks are installed. If you were to try to boot from a bootable Linux distribution disc, you would actually run into the same problem. On a second note, while I was looking at your screenshots, I noticed that your server appears to be a Dell PowerEdge 2800, not a PowerVault 220S. Could you please upload a picture of your server so I can verify this?

Here is what I would do in these steps to try to help us "pinpoint" what is wrong with your server:

1.) Take a picture of the outside of your server so that I can verify what model it actually is, and then upload it to this forum. 

2.) Boot up from your Windows Server 2012 disc and continue through the Windows installation process until you get to the screen that says "Where do you want to install Windows?" Do not go any further than this step or do anything more here either! Then, upload a screenshot of what is shown on the screen, including any error messages, and so on, so that I can get a better idea as to what is going on.

3.) Assuming your server is actually a PowerEdge 2800, go to this website:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/poweredge-2800/drivers

Click the diagnostics tab, and download this file:

DELL_32-BIT-DIAGNOSTICS_5118-3_R212797.exe

Now I assume you would be downloading this on a Windows machine, so all you have to do is run the file and then select burn the diagnostic software to a disc or something similar to that. This was the experience I had when I had to burn the diagnostic software to a disc for my PowerEdge server. If you have any problems with this process, just let me know and I'll also download it to my computer and give you better, specific instructions. Once the software is on the disc, you'll want to boot from it on your server. Once the diagnostics start, it may take a few hours to a day, which was my case, to finish, but once it does, let me know if any hardware is shown as failed and if you get any error codes, messages, and so on.

4.) After you do all of this, and depending on what the outcome is of these things I would like you to try, something may have happened to your RAID card and/or its configuration. I don't know what the * means, but I would recommend going into your RAID configuration to make sure that everything is configured correctly. For now, just try these steps I gave you, and then let me know the results. 

You seem to be right with your hardware issue thoughts. I doesn't think any disks are installed.

1: It actually is a 2800...sorry about that. It's a bit odd because the front says 2800 but the side service tag matches up with a PowerVault 220. Here's the side both machines (top is the powervault 220 sci disk array and bottom is the 2800)

Front view of the 2800.

2: Windows doesn't recognize any HDs. However all lights on the arrays are green...so i'm inclined to think no data is lost?

3: The diagnostic software. I used option 3 (the default)

Failed very quickly.

The log file generated.

It did not actually test the memory - it failed the log check, which contained memory failures in 2014. You need to clear the memory errors in the event log and try again.

If you can't access Windows to clear the logs via OMSA, you can do it with a DRAC. If you don't have a DRAC installed, you can do it from the diagnostics CD ... choose option 4 to drop to a command prompt, then type in the following:

mpmemory -ptech -tlogclr 

Okay, I did that on Thursday. Today is now Wednesday and the scan is still running. Is this normal? Will it just stop when it's done? I do have multiple drives in there totaling a few TB.

What "scan"?

Sorry, meant memory test.

No, that's not normal. 10-15 minutes if you run the non-extended tests, 1-2 hours for the extended. If they are still running, turn it off and try again.

Results shown below.

Getting a little further as it can now see a HD. I installed the PERC driver...unfortunately it didn't find any backups, but couldn't I just do an "upgrade"...it should keep all the config/files, just replace the windows install files...right?

Any ideas on next steps? Upgrade actually isn't possible in Server 2012. I could call m$, but will cost $500 to open a ticket with them.