Cannot View NTFS Logical Drive After Using Fdisk (310359)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition
  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
This article was previously published under Q310359

SYMPTOMS

If you start Windows XP in a dual-boot environment with Windows 95 or Windows 98, use the Fdisk tool to delete a logical drive using the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system, and then restart Windows XP, you may no longer see logical drives within the Logical Disk Manager in Windows XP.

For example, this behavior may occur if you do the following:
  • You configure your computer to dual-boot between Windows XP and Windows 95 with a primary FAT file system partition as drive C.
  • In Windows XP, you configure two logical drives:
    • Drive D using NTFS

      -and-
    • Drive E using the FAT file system
  • When you run Fdisk, you can view only the logical drive using the FAT file system (which is labeled drive D by Fdisk but is drive E in Windows XP).
  • When you attempt to delete drive D, you delete the NTFS logical drive instead.

CAUSE

Fdisk cannot recognize NTFS logical drives in an extended partition, and therefore deletes the NTFS logical drive if it occurs before the logical drive using the FAT file system.

RESOLUTION

Use Logical Disk Manager to make changes to logical drives when you have logical drives using both NTFS and the FAT file system. Fdisk is not supported for use in this configuration.

To open Disk Manager, perform the following steps:
  1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
  2. In the Computer Management MMC window, click Disk Management in the tree under Storage.
The Logical Disk Manager will display, showing all available disks and their partition information.

Note that if you run Fdisk a second time, you can successfully delete the logical drive using the FAT file system.

If a primary partition is set to NTFS, Fdisk recognizes the partition as a non-DOS partition in Windows 95, and recognizes the partition as NTFS in Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) and in Windows 98.

For additional information about multiple-booting systems with Windows XP, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

306559 HOW TO: Create a Multiple-Boot System with Windows XP

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:1/22/2002
Keywords:kbprb KB310359
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.