[ExpertNoob]

Hi,
Just installed Windows Server 2003 (R2) on a PC that runs XP just fine.
All partitions without a drive letter are "device not ready" !! Can't format a partition (ext4) that's not christened Can't mount TrueCrypt volumes..
Add a drive letter, and everything's back to normal. Remove it : "device not ready"

Installing chipset driver and other drivers (for all devices) changes nothing..

ANY ideas ? I got nothing.

Thx

This post has been edited by ExpertNoob: 17 October 2012 - 07:12 AM

[blackwingcat]

ExpertNoob, on 11 April 2012 - 05:26 PM, said:

Hi,
Just installed Windows Server 2003 (R2) on a PC that runs XP just fine.
All partitions without a drive letter are "device not ready" !! Can't format a partition (ext4) that's not christened Can't mount TrueCrypt volumes..
Add a drive letter, and everything's back to normal. Remove it : "device not ready"

Installing chipset driver and other drivers (for all devices) changes nothing..

ANY ideas ? I got nothing.

Thx

1. Ext2Fsd: It can read ext4 format.
2. Partition type changer: It is a utility which change s partition type. Try to change drive type to NTFS or FAT. you can access driver and format after reboot.
3. If you have windows 2000. I think you can format the drive after install it

[ExpertNoob]

blackwingcat: I can do what I want after assigning a drive letter, no special tools needed.
The question is: why ?! Under XP (on the same machine), I don't have to !

I have this problem with Windows Server 2003.

[bphlpt]

Dumb question - if you don't have a drive letter assigned to the drive, how do you address it? And why would you NOT want the drive to have a drive letter? I'm confused.

Cheers and Regards

[ExpertNoob]

bphlpt, on 12 April 2012 - 01:12 AM, said:

if you don't have a drive letter assigned to the drive, how do you address it? And why would you NOT want the drive to have a drive letter?

Almost all my drives are encrypted, I have like 5 encrypted partitions (I'm using TrueCrypt). I don't want those to have assigned drive letters: it's useless (they are encrypted !) and dangerous (some soft could try to access them and ruin them - only TrueCrypt should access them when mounting them). Besides, it messes "My Computer"..

When I boot on a disk having Windows XP, I can mount them (even though they don't have assigned drive letters).
When I boot on the W2k3 disk, I can't ("The device is not ready"). Unless I assign them drive letters (so, they ARE ready, after all !!).

Regardless, what I'm seeing under W2k3 is that a volume without an assigned drive letter somehow becomes "not ready". I can't reformat the second partition of the system disk (hosting the system on it's first partition) if I remove it's drive letter ! That doesn't happen under XP ! And it doesn't make sense (how can the disk the system is booting from not be "ready" ?!).

I hope that's clear enough.

This post has been edited by ExpertNoob: 12 April 2012 - 04:22 AM

[ExpertNoob]

Ok, found a solution: just used a partitionning software (DiskDirector) to change the type of those pesky partitions to Unknown (0Dh)
I have no idea why this is necessary, it just works ! (W2k3 didn't like partition IDs or something ?!)
Hope this will be useful to somebody out there.

Cheers.

This post has been edited by ExpertNoob: 18 October 2012 - 05:25 AM