Mirroring the boot drive

You can use the Microsoft® Windows® software mirroring capability to mirror the boot drive on the master console system.

Note: The master console hardware option is delivered with the boot drive already mirrored.

Before you mirror the boot drive, ensure that you meet the following prerequisites:

You must have a second drive that is as large or larger than your original boot drive.
If the target disk has a partition that is assigned to it (that is, it already has a drive letter), perform the following steps to remove the partition:
1. Back up any necessary data on the existing partition. When you remove an existing partition, you lose any data that is on it.
2. Remove the partitioning by right-clicking My Computer, selecting Manage > Storage > Disk Management, right-clicking the target disk drive, and then selecting Delete Partition.

Perform the following steps to mirror the boot drive:

Right-click My Computer on the desktop.
Click Manage.
Click Storage > Disk Management.
Right-click the disk icon for the system disk.
Convert the disk to a dynamic disk by performing the following actions:
For Windows 2000 systems:
1. Click Upgrade to dynamic disk and then click OK.
2. Right-click the disk icon for the disk that you want to become the mirror of the system disk.
3. Click Upgrade to dynamic disk and then click OK.
4. If you receive a warning, click Yes.
5. If your system restarts, restart the Disk Management utility.
For Windows 2003 systems:
1. Click Convert to dynamic disk.
2. Select both drives and click OK.
3. Click Convert.
4. Click Yes to continue when you receive an operating system boot warning.
5. Click Yes to unmount file systems and to continue.
6. Allow the system to reboot.
7. Restart the Disk Management utility
For Windows 2000 systems, right-click the disk icon for the system disk or, for Windows 2003 systems, right-click the system disk partition.
Click Add Mirror.
Select the disk that you want to become the mirror of the system disk, and then click Add Mirror.
Click OK to continue when you receive a warning indicating that you must update the boot.ini file.
Perform the following steps to update the boot.ini file:
1. Double-click My Computer on the desktop.
2. Click Tools > Folder options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. In the Advanced settings list, perform one of the following actions, depending on your operating system:
  - For Windows 2000 systems, select Show hidden files and folders.
  - For Windows 2003 systems, select Show hidden files and folders and clear the Hide protected operating system files option. Click Yes when you receive a warning.
5. In the My Computer window, click Local disk (C:).
6. Open the C:\boot.ini file in a text editor.
  Attention: Be cautious when you edit this file and make only the specified changes. Do not modify any other lines in this file.
7. In the operating system section, add Primary to the end of the operating description for the system disk.
8. Copy the line for the system disk, change Primary to Secondary, and change the system disk (for example, rdisk(0)) to mirrored disk (for example, rdisk(1)). The file looks similar to one of following examples.
  Windows 2000 example:
```
[boot loader]
timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT 
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced 
  Server Primary" /fastdetect 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced 
  Server Secondary" /fastdetect 
```
  Windows 2003 example:
```
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, 
  Standard Primary" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, 
  Standard Secondary" /fastdetect
```
9. Save and close the file.
10. Restart the machine.
  After the machine completes the Power On Self Test (POST), the system prompts you to select the Windows operating system to use for the boot process
11. Select the secondary operating system and press Enter to verify that the machine successfully restarts from the mirrored drive.
12. Restart the machine again.
  After the machine completes the POST, the system again prompts you to select the Microsoft Windows operating system to use for the boot process.
13. Select your operating system and press Enter to verify that the machine successfully restarts from the system drive.