# W2K8 R2 boots to black screen, drive paths are screwed up



## Turukano (Aug 6, 2012)

Hello,

after some rearranging of harddrives (physically) my windows server standard 2008 r2 running a dc suddenly boots to black screen with only a moving cursor.
this article seemed to fit and i followed the instructions: Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller Boots to Black Screen with Mouse Cursor » Top IT Providers
dir c: and dir d: confirmed that d was now the path for my windows directory. via x:\windows\system32\regedit i tried to reassign the correct drive path c, but no change.
in the comment below the article it says that the problem might be that the installation registry is not actually changed and that this could be done by a reg add command. how do i do this?
or is my approach completely wrong? can you recommend any other ways? do you need any more specs?

Sincerely,
Olli


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

Welcome to TSF!


" is my approach completely wrong?"

Well ya it is wrong. You caused the issue by rearrainging the drives! Why would you do such a thing?

Why didn't you just put the drives back the way they were? Problem solved.

BTW the problem you created is the system is booting the wrong drive. The article you read does not apply to your situation. Since you are booting from the wrong drive it does not have the master boot record which is why you end up with a flashing cursor.

If you don't want to move the drives physically you should be able to set the other drive as the first boot device [like it used to be] in the bios. This should get you working again.

Be thankful you are not working with raided drives or this would be unrecoverable and you would only be as good as your last backup.

Good luck!


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## Turukano (Aug 6, 2012)

Hello Wand3r3r,

thank you very much for your answer. I fear that my problem is not that simple.

To begin with, I rearranged the harddrives because I installed a new sata raid controller (via PCIe) and I wanted to move the system drive there. Before I did so I checked the bios and devices behind the new controller were recognized, so I figured it should detect the MBR there. Anyway, problems started and so I put the system hdd back to its original sata port. Also, I removed the other data hdds.

Now, when I start the machine, the MBR detects the installation, because W2K8 boots to the point where the logon screen is supposed to appear. Instead: Black screen and cursor. Cursor moves, but that's it. No reaction to commands, such as ctrl+alt+del...

I'm not sure, but wouldn't there be a totally different reaction if the bios were checking in other places for a MBR? What makes my problem different to the one in the article?

Hope you have any other ideas!?
Olli


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## Wand3r3r (Sep 17, 2010)

It is really important to maintain the drive letter consistancy. If you have put all the drives back to their exact same configuration you should be able to boot up as normal.

You need to remember the Windows boot is tied to the sata driver it was installed with. Moving to a raid card means it needs a different driver.

Perhaps these will help. I would get the system back to where it was and make sure you have a good /tested backup.

Backup and Recovery Overview for Windows Server 2008
How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows
Recovering Your Server
How to move a Windows installation to different hardware


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## Turukano (Aug 6, 2012)

The physical configuration is back to normal and boot does not work.
A user in another board suggested I follow the instructions on How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

I did but no success. 

Apparently my issue is known. You know, on the MB you can switch the sata ports of your system drive, no problem. I'm not sure, but I even think you can do this if there are separate RAID controllers (i.e. different drivers) on your MB. This is the first time I've used a PCIe-Sata card but I assumed there should be no difference. But there was. I assume that in that moment the system drive was initialized and paths were attributed, C: to the system-reserved space, D: to the windows installation (which was supposed to be C. I'm not sure if any of this is true, I have no deeper understanding of the matter.

It is quite striking that the first part of the boot procedure seems to work fine. Only where I am supposed to log on to the domain the error occurs.

So back to the original question: I tried to change the paths in the registry of the RE: it worked but no success.
From the command prompt of the RE I switched to C: and edited the registry there: it did not work, as the drive letter attributions were back to original after reboot.

Unfortunately I have no backup, as the installation was fairly recent, but I do not want to reinstall to risk the same error occuring again.

Any ideas?
And thanks already,
Olli


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## Turukano (Aug 6, 2012)

Okay, this is really screwed up. I was getting ready to reinstall the whole thing. This time I wanted to have the installation at the new sata card, so I reattached the drive there. By mistake I did not boot from DVD but from the drive....... there it was, system working again... Don't ask me how, maybe I quit too early last time I had it attached to the new card and now it was configured for that port... Anyway, it works...
Thanks still!!!


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