Missing and Multiple Drive Letters Assigned To Partitions

 Last reviewed: March 21, 1997
Article ID: Q139819
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.51
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.51

SYMPTOMS

When you install Windows NT 3.51 on a hard disk partition greater than 9, the following problems may occur: 

   - The first primary partition is not assigned a drive letter.

   - The Windows NT operating system partition is assigned 2 drive letters.
     (Drive C: and the letter that would be normally be assigned to
     partition L:)

   - From File Manager and from the MS-DOS prompt, both drive letters C:
     and L: address the same Windows NT operating system partition.

   - If you assign a drive letter to the first primary partition using Disk
     Administrator, you can then use the first primary partition in File
     Manager.

   - When you reboot the system, you lose the drive letter assigned to the
     first primary partition and must re-assign it again.
Following is an example of the above symptoms: 

                   [logical drives in extended partition]

   Primary1      L2  L3  L4  L5  L6  L7  L8  L9  L10  <-- operating system
   (unassigned)  D:  E:  F:  G:  H:  I:  J:  K:  C:
NOTE: Both File Manager and the MS-DOS prompt address the Windows NT operating system partition by using drive letters C: and L: while the 1st primary partition is inaccessible unless you assign a drive letter to the partition using disk administrator.

RESOLUTION

  • Move or re-install Windows NT into a partition numbered less than ten.

    -or-

  • Delete partitions until the operating system partition is partition
number nine or less. Change the arc path in the BOOT.INI file to reflect the new partition number before you reboot. The arc path looks like this: 

   Multi(0)Disk(0)Rdisk(0)partition(9)\winnt35

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51 We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Additional query words: prodnt
Keywords : kbbug3.51 kbsetup ntsetup
Version : 3.51
Platform : WinNT

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Last reviewed: March 21, 1997
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