Probable Non-Windows NT Disk Error on HP NetServers (198738)

SYMPTOMS

In certain circumstances, when autochk or chkdsk runs on an HP NetServer, you may receive the either of the following messages:

Errors found
Probable non-Windows NT disk
Continue Yes/No: No

Checking file system on C:
The file system is FAT
Volume Serial Number is xxxx-xxxx
Probable non-Windows NT disk
Continue (Y/N)? No

"No" is automatically filled in, which prevents running the chkdsk utility on the Windows NT system partition in write-mode. However, you may be able to run chkdsk in read-only mode from a command prompt within the Windows NT GUI.

CAUSE

There are two items that may cause this error condtion:

The HP utility partition was created prior to the Windows NT system partition and the HP Installation Assistant from the HP NetServer Navigator CD was then used to install Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0.
The EISA utility partition has the correct partition type of 12, or FAT12, for partitions that are less then 16 MB. However, the HP Installation Assistant mistakenly assigns the invalid partition type of 12 to the Windows NT system partition.

RESOLUTION

According to HP, this issue is scheduled to be resolved in the next release of the HP NetServer Navigator CD for each HP NetServer Series G.01.65, F.01.40, and L.12.05.

If the latest HP NetServer Navigator CD is not available, the only workaround is to do an fdisk on the system and utility partitions. Run HP Configuration Assistant in Custom mode and install Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0, which will create the system partition before the utility partition.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem can be verified by using Disk Probe, a Microsoft Windows NT resource kit utility, and viewing the Master Boot Record for hard disk 0, which will have a 12 at offset 0x01C2.

For additional information about Disk Probe, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

153973 Recovering NTFS Boot Sector on NTFS Partitions

For addtional information on HP Netservers reference the following:

http://www.hp.com/go/netserver

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