Dynamic Disks Are Offline If Controller Driver Is Not Started at Boot

ID: Q244550

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SUMMARY

If the driver for the second mass storage controller is not set to start at boot, the devices connected to that controller may not be available for use after Windows 2000 has started. The disks may appear in the Disk Management snap-in as "Offline." This is especially true if the disks are dynamic disks.

MORE INFORMATION

The default for all mass storage device drivers is to be set to start at boot. This setting is not changed by Windows, but may have been manually changed by a user to start at "System" time.

The disks appear as Offline because the dynamic disk drivers have already started and checked for any dynamic disks to make available. If the driver for the controller for the dynamic disks has not yet started, the dynamic disks are not made available.

To make a disk online and available, right-click the disk in Disk Management, and then click Reactivate Disk. For a volume that spans more than one disk, it may be sufficient to click only one of the disks.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

You can also make the disks available by changing the Start value in the registry for the controller with the dynamic disks to a value of 0x0 (boot). For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q199276 How to Manage Devices in Windows 2000

Additional query words: ldm veritas dmio

Keywords : kbenv diskmem
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbinfo