IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you
modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore
the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the
registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry
SUMMARY
Microsoft Windows may report event messages in the event log for various hard disk device issues using the following syntax:
The device, \Device\Harddisk#\Partition #
The following are examples of some common event log message entries:
- The device, \Device\Harddisk0\Partition 1, has a bad block.
- The device, \Device\HardDisk1\Partition0, has been reset.
- System process lost delayed-write data.
- System was attempting to transfer file data from buffers to \\device\harddisk4\partition2\mydir\myfile.txt
The write operation failed. - An error occurred while attempting to recover data from the fault tolerance set containing \device\harddisk2\FT1
In each of the preceding examples you need to translate the hard disk
number to a physical drive on the system. You can determine the hard disk
number by looking in the registry, but you need to know if you are using
IDE drives, SCSI drives or a combination of the two. Disk Administrator
will display the drives in the order they are enumerated on each controller
and in the order that the controller device drivers are loaded. If you are
using multiple controllers, the order in which they are identified is
based on I/O port and controller BIOS address assignments.
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may
require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve
problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own
risk.
NOTE: Disk Management is enhanced in Windows 2000 and later operating systems. You can use Disk Management to view this information without using Registry Editor. To view where a particular hard disk is located in your system, use the following procedure:
- Start Disk Management console (diskmgmt.msc).
- View the graphical view of your disks. Right-click the gray portion of the basic or dynamic disk whose disk number matches the "Harddisk#" in the error message.
- Click Properties.
The Properties will contain "Device Type" information that will tell you if the disk is IDE or SCSI, and it will also display the "Hardware Vendor" name of the physical device and the "Adapter Name" it is attached to.
For Windows NT, use Registry Editor to extract the required information as follows:
- Run Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
- Locate, and then click the following registry key (for IDE-based devices):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\Devicemap\Atdisk
Controller0 look at the controller address and interrupt.
disk0 look at identifier string for manufacturer and model#
disk1 look at identifier string for manufacturer and model#
Controller1 look at the controller address and interrupt.
disk0 look at identifier string for manufacturer and model#
disk1 look at identifier string for manufacturer and model#
- Locate, and then click the following registry key (For Atapi-compliant or SCSI devices):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\Devicemap\SCSI
Scsiport0 look at driver, Interrupt, and IOAddress
Scisbus0
Targetid0
Logical Unit Id 0 look at identifier and type.
Targetid1
Logical Unit Id 0 look at identifier and type.
Targetid4
Logical Unit Id 0 look at identifier and type.
Scsibus1
Targetid0
Logical Unit Id 0 look at identifier and type.
Targetid1
Logical Unit Id 0 look at identifier and type.
Targetid2
Logical Unit Id 0
Scsiport1 look at driver, Interrupt and I/O Address.
Scsibus0
Targetid0
Logical Unit Id 0 look at identifier and type.
NOTE: When the SCSI ID number is higher than 9, the registry lists the drives alphabetically, but the computer assigns physical IDs to the drives numerically.
Using the information gathered from the registry, you can determine
which physical drive maps to a particular disk number in Disk
Administrator.
- Using the "identifier" and "type" values, determine which entries are for DISKS and which are for other devices such as CD-ROMS, tapes, scanners, and so forth.
- Find each Type:REG_SZ:DiskPeripheral entry under the Targetid#\Logicalunitid0. Each one found equates to a drive in Disk Administrator and also to a \device\harddisk number.
- To find \device\harddisk5 find the 6th DiskPeripheral (zero through five).
- Make note of the SCSIPORT, SCSIBUS, and TARGETID# and use this to replace the defective device.
SCSIPORT is a SCSI controller.
SCSIBUS is a channel on the SCSI controller. Some controllers are
dual channel and have SCSIBUS0 and SCSIBUS1.
TARGETID is the SCSI ID the device that is configured to use usually
0 through 6, with the initiator ID 7 representing the controller
itself.
- If you have doubts about which SCSIPORT represents which SCSI Controller look at the driver, I/O Address, and Interrupt of the SCSIPORT entry and match it with the hardware configuration set on the controller.
- For IDE Devices, the drives are in master/slave configuration order on each controller.