Physical Drive Access Unavailable When Using DskProbe (180064)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.5
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.5
Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0

This article was previously published under Q180064

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Dskprobe.exe program, the "Drives Physical Drive" dialog box may not populate with a list of available physical drives.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur for either of the following reasons:

You are not logged on the computer with administrator rights. You can verify this by running Disk Administrator. If you cannot successfully get into Disk Administrator, and you receive an ACCESS IS DENIED message, then you do not have administrative rights.
A third-party service is running that monitors disks and maintains an open handle to the physical drives.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use the appropriate method:

Method 1

Logoff and then logon with an account that has administrator rights on the local computer.

Method 2

Stop any third-party services that may monitor the disks on your computer while maintaining an open handle to the physical drive. For example, one such service is the Compaq Insight Agent which is part of the Compaq Insight Manager software.

You can use the NET START command to display a list of services that are currently active. Stop the offending service, and then the physical drive dialog box should be populated with local physical disks.

MORE INFORMATION

The Windows NT version 4.0 Resource Kit Utility Dskprobe.exe is used to access and modify data on a disk drive at the sector level. This utility requires that you have administrator rights to gain access to the physical drive. Additionally, Windows NT allows a single open handle to have access to physical disks to prevent problems associated with asynchronous writes.

Modification Type:	Major	Last Reviewed:	5/14/2003
Keywords:	kbprb KB180064