EISA Configuration Boot Code Is Replaced on Mirror Drives (165181)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition
- Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
This article was previously published under Q165181 SYMPTOMS
Disk Administrator overwrites the EISA partition boot information in the
master boot record (MBR) of a secondary mirror when the mirror is
established. As a result, the normal EISA prompt does not appear when you
boot to the secondary mirror.
CAUSE
Windows NT rewrites the MBR with an industry standard universal boot
record whenever establishing or breaking fault tolerance members, such as
mirrors, when it updated the partition table.
Most manufacturers use the system BIOS to prompt the user to enter EISA
configuration utility. Manufacturers that modify the universal master boot
record with their own boot code to prompt the user to enter EISA
configuration utilities will exhibit this problem.
MORE INFORMATION
HP NetServer Navigator and some other manufacturers' EISA utilities create
a small EISA partition on the hard drive so that it can prompt you with a
choice to run the EISA configuration at startup.
To have this on both primary and secondary mirror drives, you must first
establish the EISA partition separately before installing Windows NT.
If you view this partition in a sector editor like Norton Diskedit or
Microsoft Disk Probe (Dskprobe.exe), you will find the partition type to
be type 12. To Disk Administrator, this partition is properly recognized
as and EISA partition. After installing Windows NT, when you view the
master boot record on the secondary drive, but before establishing the
mirror, you will see the data in the master boot record that is used to
prompt the user for EISA configuration on both drives.
After establishing and generating the mirror, the MBR on the secondary
drive is replaced with a universal master boot record, which deletes the
EISA prompt information. None of the partition table entries are damaged.
The drive is still type 12, although none of the EISA boot information
remains.
The third-party products discussed here are manufactured by vendors
independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise,
regarding these products' performance or reliability.
RESOLUTIONTo resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack
STATUSMicrosoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.
Modification Type: | Minor | Last Reviewed: | 9/23/2005 |
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Keywords: | kbHotfixServer kbQFE kb3rdparty kbbug kbfix kbsetup KB165181 |
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