Microsoft KB Archive/102531

= Drive Changed to New Partition During Drive Creation =

Article ID: 102531

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1
 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.1
 * Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1

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This article was previously published under Q102531



SYMPTOMS
Consider this drive layout:    - | c:   |   d:   |  free space  | - Where d: is where Windows NT is installed, AND it is a "logical drive" (extended partition).

In this layout, the arcnames could be described:    scsi(0)disk(x)rdisk(0)partition(1)   c: drive scsi(0)disk(x)rdisk(0)partition(2)  d: drive If you go into windisk and create a new drive where the free space is, your arcnames change to:    -- | c:   |   d:   |   e:  | --

scsi(0)disk(x)rdisk(0)partition(1)  c: drive scsi(0)disk(x)rdisk(0)partition(3)  d: drive scsi(0)disk(x)rdisk(0)partition(2)  e: drive The d: drive becomes partition(3).

NOTE: If the free space where e: was made is already within the extended region, this arcname change does not occur.

You can encounter this problem any time you boot from a "logical partition" then make a new real partition on the same disk.



CAUSE
This change occurs because there can be only one extended region in the partition table of physical sector 0 on the drive, and it is always placed last in the table.

Windisk knows you just changed the Windows NT boot tree from partition(2) to partition(3). It cannot pop up a message telling you to edit BOOT.INI, and change the 2 to a 3, so it generates an access violation

Nothing is destroyed; your disk and the Windows NT tree are still there.



WORKAROUND
 If your c: drive is FAT, do the following:  Boot MS-DOS. Attrib -r -s -h BOOT.INI. Edit BOOT.INI. Change partition(x) to partition(x+1).</li></ol>

If your c: drive is not FAT, go to another computer and format a floppy disk. It will now have the Windows NT boot sector on it.

</li> Copy NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.INI to it.</li> Edit BOOT.INI, and start guessing as to what the arcname of your Windows NT root is.</li></ol>

Additional query words: prodnt

Keywords: KB102531

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