"An I/O Failure Occurred" Error Message When You Use RAID1 Mirroring on Windows NT 4.0 (811286)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 SP6a

SYMPTOMS

When you use RAID1 mirroring on your Windows NT Server 4.0 computer, you may receive the following error message
An I/O failure occurred on \Device\Harddiskm\Ftn
where m is the number of the Fault Tolerant hard disk and n is the number of the FT group (either 0 or 1).

CAUSE

This issue may occur if a writing error causes a conflict with the mirrored file system. If the writing error occurs on one mirrored drive, you may still be able to read from the same sector on the mirrored drive. This may cause a conflict in the rest of the mirrored file system, and therefore the file system is damaged.

RESOLUTION

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.

To resolve this problem, 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: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 usual 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      Size    Version         File name
   -------------------------------------------------------------
   22-Jan-2003  17:23     34,064  4.0.1381.7207   Ftdisk.sys
   22-Jan-2003  17:24    368,688  4.0.1381.7207   Ntfs.sys
				
Note Because of file dependencies, this hotfix requires Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:9/27/2005
Keywords:kbHotfixServer kbQFE kbQFE kberrmsg kbfix kbbug KB811286