re-activating Dynamic Disk

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AllNightNerding

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#29070 21-Dec-2008 21:45

I took one of our 500gb hdds out of our server today and put it into an external enclosure and then put a 1tb into the server.

The 1tb drive is now happily formatting away.

But...

The 500gb was going for a short amount of time (after I went into Computer Management and brought it back online)

Then I went to have dinner.

Now it wont work on any computer, using either the e-sata or the usb port.

When you right click on the drive in computer management and then click 'Reactivate' then it comes up with the error 'The operation did not complete. Check the System log for more information'

- check the system log and it directs you to a microsoft website.
- Microsoft site says that it does not know what the error it is.

-- Divett Enterprises -- The Power Of Tomorrow --

MrAlan

98 posts

Master Geek

#185561 21-Dec-2008 22:29

I'm guessing it was using the Windows to do some form of raid? I've had this before I can't remember if all I needed to do was delete the partion or I may have had to rebuild the MBR but one of those two things worked.

of course if you want to keep the data on the drive it's a different scenario entirely.

AllNightNerding

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#185564 21-Dec-2008 22:39

Keeping the data on the disk = very important :D

Paragon Partition manager does give me the option to just format the entire disk, but I am going to try a few things before I get to that stage.

-- Divett Enterprises -- The Power Of Tomorrow --

Mark

1506 posts

Uber Geek

#185664 22-Dec-2008 12:14

Ahhh my pet hate with Windows ...

"Keeping the data on the disk = very important" is not compatible with "Dynamic" Disks

Basically dynamic disks are evil :-)

Well maybe not quite that bad but you do open yourself up for more grief with having them, disk repair tools that handle them correctly are few and far between, they are far less robust when the server has a fit (especially if you have SAN or external disks in the mix also with dynamic on them) and they are not greatly transportable between systems.

If you only have a single disk in the system then DO NOT be tempted to use the dyanmic disk option, keep them as basic your data will appreciate it.

As to your problem ... there I'm not going to be much help, but your best bet is to shove it back into the original server and hope that it is the missing link, I seem to remember that the config of the Dynamic disk is not held on the disk itself but in the Windows registry .. something to that effect.

Also don;t start waving "disk repair" tools at it, you are more likely to loose everything then especially if it is a foriegn server doing the "repairs".

But then if all else fails you do have your backups to fall back on right ? You did run them before you pulled the drive ? :-)

Regards

Mark