Drive Letters Automatically Assigned to Unrecognizable Partitions (266647)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

This article was previously published under Q266647

SYMPTOMS

Windows 2000 automatically assigns drive letters to all partitions, including partitions that are in raw format (partitions that have not been formatted). This can cause a problem if there are many partitions because Windows 2000 may run out of drive letters to assign. Some programs use raw partitions; assigning drive letters in this case is not required or appropriate.

CAUSE

Mount Manager assigns drive letters to recognized partitions even if they are not formatted so that you can issue a format drive_letter: command. However, this behavior may cause all drive letters to be assigned automatically if there are many partitions.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:
   Date        Time    Version        Size    File name
   -------------------------------------------------------
   06/28/2000  05:11a  5.00.2195.2097 29,424  Mountmgr.sys
				

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about how to install Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 hotfixes at the same time, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

249149 Installing Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Hotfixes


Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:9/23/2005
Keywords:kbHotfixServer kbQFE kbbug kbfix kbWin2000PreSP2Fix KB266647