Microsoft KB Archive/101703

From BetaArchive Wiki
Knowledge Base


Windows NT Tries to Duplicate MS-DOS Drive Letter Scheme

Article ID: 101703

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006



APPLIES TO

  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1



This article was previously published under Q101703


SUMMARY

Windows NT attempts to assign drive letters to partitions in the same manner that MS-DOS does. However, there are cases in which drive letter assignments are not the same.

MORE INFORMATION

Consider the following example in which a system has two hard disks, each of which has two partitions:

Windows NT assigns drive letters as follows:


      --------------------
      | C: FAT | E: NTFS |
      --------------------

      --------------------
      | D: FAT | F: FAT  |
      --------------------
                

However, MS-DOS assigns drive letters as follows:


      --------------------
      | C: FAT | Unknown |
      --------------------

      --------------------
      | D: FAT | E: FAT  |
      --------------------
                

Because MS-DOS does not recognize the NTFS partition, it marks the partition as "unknown" and does not assign it a drive letter.

NOTE: In Disk Administrator, you can customize the drive letter assignments by choosing Drive Letter from the Partition menu.


Additional query words: prodnt

Keywords: kbother KB101703