Microsoft KB Archive/137866

= PC NTMMTA: Err Msg: Drive Is Either Local, Used or Greater... =

Article ID: 137866

Article Last Modified on 10/30/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Mail Multitasking Message Transfer Agent 3.2a

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This article was previously published under Q137866



SYMPTOMS
When you run the Windows NT Multitasking MTA (NT MMTA) External Mail program on either the command line or as a service, the following error may occur in a Monitor window or in the SESSION.LOG when you use Dynamic Drive connections:

Drive is either local, used or greater than LASTDRIVE

Initializing data structures. Could not connect to drive



CAUSE
The drive letter used by the External Mail program to dynamically connect to the postoffice is unavailable for use. The drive letter may be in use by one of the following processes:
 * A hardware device, such as a drive or CD player.
 * The substitute drive assignment is in use.
 * The LASTDRIVE statement in the CONFIG.SYS is lower than the drive letter the External Mail program is trying to use.
 * The network drive assignment is in use by the Dispatch Mail program (see MORE INFORMATION below).
 * You may also get the same error if you run the MS-DOS External.exe from Windows NT and using the Dynadmin table. For the NTMMTA, make sure you are running the correct version of External.exe, located in the Mailexe \External.NT subdirectory.



RESOLUTION
A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:   File Name      Version --  Dispatch.exe   3.5.23 This hotfix has been posted to the following Internet location as Dirsy2k.exe:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/mail/pcmail-public/All-Y2K/



WORKAROUND
Review the current drives used by the system using the Net Use command at the command prompt to ensure that the device letter selected is not used in the EXTERNAL.INI file. Check any drives connected to local subdirectories with the SUBST command.

Confirm that the LASTDRIVE entry in the CONFIG.SYS is higher than the drive letters used by the External Mail program. Check the DISPATCH.INI file to confirm that Dispatch is not trying to use a drive letter that is assigned to the External Mail program. See the More Information section below for additional information.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Mail Multitasking MTA for Windows NT version 3.5



MORE INFORMATION
When you use dynamic drives, and the External Mail program dynamically initializes an instance and uses drive E, then pauses until the next cycle of checking for new mail, it will release its connection to drive E. If Dispatch initializes in order to check the process table and/or run a scheduled Directory Synchronization (Dir-Sync) event, it will also use drive E as the next available drive letter. Dispatch usually releases the drive before the External instance resumes its cycle; however, the External Mail program may try to resume before Dispatch is finished with its process. In this case, the External Mail program will try to use the same dynamic drive Dispatch is currently using (drive E), resulting in the error above.

This can be prevented by initiating all Dispatch instances before initializing the External instances. If a Dispatch service needs to be stopped, ensure that all External instances are stopped, and re-start the Dispatch instance followed by the External instance.

If the NT MMTA is started through batch files or AT commands, you can organize the drive letter assignments to ensure that Dispatch should be assigned the first available drive letters (for example, D, E, F, G, or H). The External instances should be assigned the available drive letters at the end of the drive range (for example, U, V, W, X, Y, or Z). This will reduce the possibility that the drive letters assigned to be used by the External instances for dynamic connections will be selected as the next available drive.

If the NT-MMTA is being run as a service, Dispatch instances will normally start before External instances, but you can still have this problem if a dispatch service is stopped and then restarted manually. You can prevent this by using the Registry Editor (RegEdit) to add all dispatch instances to the DependendOnService parameter of:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MS Mail External - (instance)

Key for each External instance. The Dispatch instances must be specified, as they appear in the Services key name, for example:

MS Mail Dispatch - (instance)

WARNING: Using the Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system- wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.

The Windows NT server must be re-booted for these changes to take effect. You can test the changes after re-booting by:
 * 1) Stop a dispatch instance, and see if all the External instances are automatically stopped.
 * 2) Restart all External instances and make sure the Dispatch instance is automatically restarted when you re-start the first External instance.

Repeat the above steps for each of the remaining Dispatch instances.

Additional query words: 3.20 3.50 mta

Keywords: kbbug kbfix KB137866

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