ExpertNoob Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 (edited) 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 Edited October 17, 2012 by ExpertNoob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackwingcat Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 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.Thx1. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExpertNoob Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bphlpt Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExpertNoob Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 (edited) 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. Edited April 12, 2012 by ExpertNoob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExpertNoob Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 (edited) 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. Edited October 18, 2012 by ExpertNoob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now