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gxr1

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21 years ago

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gxr1

9 Posts

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13973

July 13th, 2005 17:00

Problems with logon again

Here is the deal. I have a powervault 725n. It came with four drives. I have a c, d, and e drive (nasvolume). Drives are numbered 0, 1, 2, and 3

I have already reinstalled everything once following the step-by-step guide from Dell. However, this has not resolved my problem.

After I reinstalled and recreated the RAID I booted up and logged into Windows 2000. I then applied Windows 2000 sp4 and all related Windows updats. I then changed the default password from powervault to something else and then proceeded to copy all my data back to the nasvolume and recreate my users, groups, and shares. Everything was working fine.

I then hooked up an external usb backup drive and Windows told me to reboot. I did this and now when I get to the logon screen my password does not work. However, I can login using powervault and guess what nothing is there except for the data on the nasvolume E. None of my users, groups, shares or windows service packs/updates.

For some reason the NAS does not boot correctly to the drive that I made all my changes to it. Or the OS is not mirroring to the other drive correctly. Why? In case you are wondering this is why I reinstalled everything in the first place. I inherited this NAS from an IT guy who left the company. I thought maybe he had done something wrong so I went with a clean install but the problem still remains.

Is the problem with the external drive (f)? I have not removed it yet but may do it later today and reboot to see if it reverts back to the correct login drive.

Dell support has been useless on this issue. All they say is that the os got corrupted and you have to reinstall. Why would it get corrupted when all I did was add an external backup drive? Is there a way to force the NAS to only boot off the correct drive (I think it is Drive 0 - that is a zero). Why isn't the OS mirroring correctly? When I check the disk view in the array manager it says my Drive 0 and 1 are dynamic mirrored as C. My Drive 2 and 3 are dynamic mirrored as D. All four drives 0, 1, 2, and 3, have dynamic raid 5 for my nasvolume E. All drives are reported as healthy.

Somebody please help me. I am loosing my mind over this piece of #$@! NAS.

Thanks.
  • gxr1

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    Posted July 15th, 2005 15:00

    okay I removed the external drive and then shut down the NAS. Now when I power on the NAS it correctly boots to the correct drive.

    I am going to have to contact Dell now that I know that the external drive is causing the NAS to boot into the wrong drive.

    My only issue with this is that I thought the OS was being mirrored so that both drives would look the same. However, even though the array says it is mirrored obviously it is not.
  • gxr1

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    Posted July 15th, 2005 16:00

    dell says that the nas does not support USB completely. External USB is not recommended.
  • tommo666

    4 Apprentice

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    1211 Posts

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    Posted July 21st, 2005 13:00

    You could try in the bios, set it to boot from the hard drives only and remove the other devices.
  • gxr1

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    Posted July 21st, 2005 14:00

    Yes, I have not tried upgrading the bios yet but the Dell tech did not think it would resolve my issue.  The problem is not forcing the NAS to boot to the hard drives but rather forcing it to boot to the correct hard drives.  Remember I have a C (two drives mirrored for OS) and a D (two drives mirrored for OS).  When the external hard drive (F) is installed on the USB then the NAS boots to the D drive.  If I remove F drive then the NAS correctly boots to C.

    I only want the NAS to boot to the C drive since this is where all my updates, service packs, user groups, file shares, and etc. have been done.  When it boots to the D drive then none of these items have been done on these two drives.

  • tommo666

    4 Apprentice

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    Posted July 21st, 2005 14:00

    The raid card bios should have an option to change boot device, make sure this is set to device 0
  • gxr1

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    Posted July 21st, 2005 14:00

    okay thanks.  I will let you know after I apply the bios update after hours.