Error Message: The Selected Disk Is Necessary to the Operation of Your Computer, and May Not Be Cleaned (331329)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
This article was previously published under Q331329

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) Boot CD to start your computer, you may not be able to view drive C. If you use the Diskpart.exe command-line tool to delete or clean the drive, you may receive the following error message:
The selected disk is necessary to the operation of your computer, and may not be cleaned.
Note Diskpart.exe may read the drive as "Volume 0" with no drive letter.

CAUSE

This problem may occur when the drive is a dynamic disk that has the volume label "C:".

RESOLUTION

Service pack information

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

322389 How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack

Hotfix information

A supported fix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Apply it only to computers that are experiencing this specific problem. This fix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Windows XP service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

NOTE: In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The typical support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel. 
   Date         Time   Version           Size     File name
   --------------------------------------------------------------
   13-Nov-2002  16:28  5.1.3561.0        151,040  Diskpart.exe     
   12-Nov-2002  16:33  5.1.2600.1143     486,400  Xpsp2res.dll

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 Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2.

MORE INFORMATION

Use the delete partition command to delete the partition that has the focus. Use the clean command to remove partition or volume formatting from the disk that has the focus by zeroing sectors. By default, only the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partitioning information and any hidden sector information on MBR disks is overwritten. For additional information about the Diskpart command-line utility, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

300415 A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/4/2006
Keywords:kbHotfixServer kbQFE kbWinXPsp2fix kbbug kbfix kbQFE kbWinXPpreSP2fix KB331329
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