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One of my web servers has failed to reboot. Its suck on the animated Windows Server 2003 loading screen. Prior to reboot it was showing a degraded drive in the array, but not allowing me to rebuild it. The array is Raid 1 using NVMediaShield hardware / software array.

The hosting company has suggested that this may be because the array is rebuilding, but I am not convinced. Anyone have any experience of MediaShield and if it will stall windows like this ?

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I'm with you - the boot delay for the array rebuilding is going to occur before windows has a chance to load. – Kara Marfia Aug 26 '09 at 12:53
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When Windows is stuck in that loading screen, it's usually due to hardware problem (tat is the boot phase where Windows is loading drivers and initializing hardware).

Have you tried safe mode?

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thats where we will go next – Andiih Aug 26 '09 at 13:21
still waiting for an admin at the hosting company. – Andiih Aug 26 '09 at 14:16
it is a faulty drive, and a damn poor RAID implementation. The machine restarts with only one drive in it, but not one plus a damaged drive. – Andiih Aug 26 '09 at 21:10
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Also, turn on boot logging. The bar will grind away all day until the kernel tells itself all the drivers are loaded. You can't rule out the RAID array; I never saw a RAID array that couldn't be usable while it's being rebuilt, but there are some real shoestring controllers out there.

If the machine starts in safe mode, the RAID is off the hook (probably). If you can't get a log, look at the RAID.

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