Microsoft KB Archive/93383

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Windows Err Msg: File Manager Cannot Label the Disk

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Q93383

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows versions 3.1, 3.11
 * Microsoft Windows for Workgroups versions 3.1, 3.11

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SUMMARY
Using File Manager to create a disk label containing a space character generates the following error message:

  File Manager cannot label the disk.

Make sure the disk is not write-protected, is not a network drive, and that the label is valid.

Labels cannot contain the following characters: [space] * ? / \ | ., ; : + = [ ] & ^ < > &quot;

The error message is correct, but confusing because all versions of MS-DOS allow space characters in a disk label.

MORE INFORMATION
Page 517 of the &quot;Microsoft MS-DOS User's Guide and Reference&quot; manual for MS-DOS version 5.0 includes the following misleading statement:

"A volume label can contain as many as 11 characters and can include spaces but no tabs. Consecutive spaces may be interpreted as a single space." Using the MS-DOS label command to create a label of &quot;A B C D E F&quot; will return a label of &quot;A B C D.E F&quot;. Because the first eight characters of an MS-DOS filename cannot end in a space, one or more spaces will be removed and a period inserted. For reasons such as this, it was decided to simplify the label parsing validation in File Manager to disallow space characters.