Windows 7 / Getting Started

Repairing a Mirrored System Volume

When you mirror a system volume, an entry that allows you to boot to the secondary mirror is added to the system's boot configuration data. So, if a system fails to boot to the primary system volume, restart the system, and select the Boot Mirror - Secondary Plex option for the operating system you want to start. The system should start up normally. After you successfully boot the system to the secondary drive, you can schedule the maintenance necessary to rebuild the mirror if desired.

Rebuilding Mirrored System Volumes on MBR Disks

To rebuild the mirror, you must complete the following steps:

  1. Shut down the system and replace the failed drive, and then restart the system using the secondary drive.
  2. In Disk Management, right-click the remaining volume in the mirrored set, and choose Break Mirrored Volume. Click Yes at the prompts to confirm the action.
  3. Next, right-click the volume again, and choose Add Mirror. Use the Add Mirror dialog box to select the second disk to use for the mirror, and then click Add Mirror.

If you want the primary mirror to be on the drive you added or replaced, perform these additional steps:

  1. Use Disk Management to break the mirrored set again.
  2. Make sure that the primary drive in the original mirror set has the drive letter that was previously assigned to the complete mirror. If it doesn't, assign the appropriate drive letter.
  3. Right-click the original system volume, select Add Mirror, and then re-create the mirror.

Rebuilding Mirrored System Volumes on GPT Disks

For GPT disks, rebuilding mirrored system volumes is a bit different. To rebuild the mirror, shut down the system and replace the failed drive, and then restart the system using the secondary drive. In Disk Management, right-click the remaining volume in the mirrored set, and choose Break Mirrored Volume. Click Yes at the prompts to confirm the action. After this, you can use the secondary boot disk as your primary boot disk.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Storage Management
  2. Essential Storage Technologies
  3. Improving Storage Management
  4. Booting from SANs and Using SANs with Clusters
  5. Configuring Multipath I/O
  6. Installing and Configuring File Services
  7. Configuring the File Services Role
  8. Configuring Storage
  9. Adding New Disks
  10. Using the MBR and GPT Partition Styles
  11. Using and Converting MBR and GPT Disks
  12. Using the Disk Storage Types
  13. Using and Converting Basic and Dynamic Disks
  14. Converting FAT or FAT32 to NTFS
  15. Working with Removable Disks
  16. Managing MBR Disk Partitions on Basic Disks
  17. Formatting a Partition, Logical Drive, or Volume
  18. Configuring Drive Letters
  19. Configuring Mount Points
  20. Extending Partitions
  21. Shrinking Partitions
  22. Managing GPT Disk Partitions on Basic Disks
  23. Primary Partitions
  24. Managing Volumes on Dynamic Disks
  25. Configuring RAID 0: Striping
  26. Moving Dynamic Disks
  27. Configuring RAID 1: Disk Mirroring
  28. Mirroring Boot and System Volumes
  29. Configuring RAID 5: Disk Striping with Parity
  30. Breaking or Removing a Mirrored Set
  31. Repairing a Mirrored System Volume
  32. Resolving Problems with RAID-5 Sets