'Stop 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE' after having to remove a dead HDD

[a***@hiperlinux.com.ar]

Hi there,

I got the nasty 0x7B error in my Windows 2000...
'Stop 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE'

This is the story:

I have two HDDs, one for system one for data. Both are dynamic volumes.
One partition each, so no mirrors or strange stuff.
All my system (files, swap, boot sector etc) is in my primary disk.
I was happy at that time, and it had been working for 3 years or so.

Then.... everything happened so suddenly.. LOL... (yep I got time
enough to recover most of the information so you will find this post
happy egouh to laugh...)

My secondary drive, with data started failing. Files of 500k took 2 or
3 minutes to copy... but I managed to get the important files out of
the box. As a side story, curiously enough, S.M.A.R.T. started telling
me of an "imminent failure" AFTER the disk was unaccessible and
completely dead.... really, I would love those messages to be
SMARTer...

OK.. I wanted to take the dead HDD OUT of the box.. and then the real
story started...
I just was completely unable to boot the system, because when I take
out the HDD, it gives me this error.... if I have the HDD connected
(and disabled in the Windows Disk Manager) I can boot without trouble,
but if I take it out, the nasty message comes back.

I tried what microsoft says here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822052#6a

under the title:
You receive a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message when you try to start
your computer after you move the dynamic hard disk

But no sucess up to now...

Any ideas or suggestions that donot involve deleting partitions and
reinstalling absolutely everything?

THANKS FOLKS!

Alchaemist

[a***@hiperlinux.com.ar]

Hi Again,

Last test...
The hipothesis. When I take out the secondary I am removing a
jumper, and somehow changing the identification of the HDD or the HDD
dynamic group (although in theory it is Primary, so with or without
jumper it should not change).
Test
I unplug the dead secondary, plug a new secondary HDD, boot and
blah...
Result

Of course failed, same BOOT message and stufff, so... the
identification is actually to be primary/secondary master/slave...

But it was worth trying!

No another hint... the dead and removed drive is NOT bootable... it
has no system files... why the boot message then? I am pretty sure it
is the darn dynamic disk stuff...
Both disks belong to the same Hard Drive Dynamic groups or whatever
is called (In W2k there can only be one group), and somehow by removing
the dead drive, I altered what W2K expected to find for the group....
grrrrr

Other ideas?

THANKS!
Alchaemist