No boot on restored server

[Sheridan]

We've just restored a server to new hardware, a new HP ML300 with the drives in a RAID5 array. We installed a fresh copy of 2003 server and then restored the backup to the new drives.

 

In the BIOS the boot is set to the RAID card, and in the RAID bios the boot is set to the only logical volume in there. But booting the server just results in a blank screen, no errors, no messages about missing boot partition etc - just nothing!

 

When running the recovery console, it see the Windows partitions and we've run FIXBOOT and FIXMBR and that worked ok, but still results in a blank screen!

 

Anyone any suggestions? This is brand new hardware but I'm thinking theres a fault as we don't get any evidence that the server is even trying to boot from the raid card at all!

[twin--turbo]

Is the hardware the same as the old server?

 

Rob

[Sheridan]

No, it is different hardware but we did the routine of loading drivers etc. I would understand a blue screen, or an 'NTLDR missing' type of message, but nothing at all seems to suggest its not even trying to boot from the volume.

[Patrickv]

So you did a clean install of Windows Server 2003 on new Hardward and then restore data from the old server to the new server with new hardware.

Here is Some troubleshoots

1) Did you test the clean install server before restoring the data.

2) What did you restore and how.

3) Check if your boot partion is active and primary.

4) Check your bios boot order settings.

5) Check your RAID contoroller boot settings and configuration.

 

I hope this narrow down some points for ya.

Regards,

Patrick

[Sheridan]

We did a fresh install on the new hardware. Restored the full backup (using NTBackup) to the new hardware and made sure the new scsi drivers were reloaded. Then rebooting simply results in a blank screen. All the boot settings are correct and the windows installation is recognised by recovery console if you try to do a FIXMBR or FIXBOOT

[Patrickv]

Hmm, I am wondering if the full backup (NTBackup) has overwritten something on the clean install. NTLDR is the OS bootloader, That's what you need to find out if you get their or you don't. Here some more things I could think off

1) Does your server reach that black screen and reboots and keeps looping through that

2) Have you tried F8 safe mode

3) Have you tried repairing the operating system with OS disk

[Sheridan]

It's odd as it boots to a black screen and that's it. You can't even get to safe mode as the boot menu won't appear. I did try a raid install but that simply made the boot stop at the Windows Server flash screen. It doesn't blue screen or come up with any errors which is frustrating!

 

If I use the recovery console I can verify that there is a Windows server installed on the boot partition.