Troubleshooting Disk Management

Article
05/14/2012

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2, Windows Server 8 Beta

Troubleshooting

What problem are you having?

Partitions on basic disks added to the system do not appear in the Disk Management volume list view.
A basic disk's status is Not Initialized.
A basic or dynamic disk's status is Unreadable.
A dynamic disk's status is Foreign.
A dynamic disk's status is Online (Errors).
A dynamic disk's status is Offline or Missing.
A basic or dynamic volume's status is Failed.
A basic or dynamic volume's status is Unknown.
A dynamic volume's status is Data Incomplete.
Cannot manage striped, mirrored, or RAID-5 volumes using Disk Management or DiskPart.
A dynamic volume's status is Healthy (At Risk).
A mirrored volume's status is Data Not Redundant.
A mirrored volume's status is Failed.
A mirrored volume's status is Failed Redundancy.
A mirrored volume's status is Stale Data.
A RAID-5 volume's status is Data Not Redundant.
A RAID-5 volume's status is Failed.
A RAID-5 volume's status is Failed Redundancy.
A RAID-5 volume's status is Stale Data.

Partitions on basic disks added to the system do not appear in the Disk Management volume list view.

Cause: For better interoperability in storage area network (SAN) environments, on Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, volumes on basic disks added to the system are not automatically mounted and assigned drive letters by default.

Dynamic disks appear as Foreign when they are added to the system. To use the volumes, you must import the Foreign disks and then bring the volumes Online.

Removable media devices (such as Zip or Jaz drives), and optical discs (such as CD-ROM or DVD-RAM) are always automatically mounted by the system.

Solution: Manually mount the basic volumes by assigning drive letters, or by creating mount points using Disk Management or the DiskPart or mountvol commands.

For instructions describing how to assign a drive letter, see Assign, change, or remove a drive letter.

For more information about the DiskPart or mountvol commands, see DiskPart or Mountvol.

A basic disk's status is Not Initialized.

Cause: The disk does not contain a valid signature. After you install a new disk, the operating system must write a disk signature, the end of sector marker (also called signature word), and a master boot record or GUID partition table before you can create partitions on the disk. When you first start Disk Management after installing a new disk, a wizard appears that provides a list of the new disks detected by the operating system. If you cancel the wizard before the disk signature is written, the disk status remains Not Initialized.

Solution: Initialize the disk. The disk status briefly changes to Initializing and then Online status. For instructions describing how to initialize a disk, see Initialize new disks.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

A basic or dynamic disk's status is Unreadable.

Cause: The basic or dynamic disk is not accessible and might have experienced hardware failure, corruption, or I/O errors. The disk's copy of the system's disk configuration database might be corrupted. An error icon appears on disks that display the Unreadable status.

Disks might also display the Unreadable status while they are spinning up or when Disk Management is rescanning all of the disks on the system. In some cases, an unreadable disk has failed and is not recoverable. For dynamic disks, the Unreadable status usually results from corruption or I/O errors on part of the disk, rather than failure of the entire disk.

Solution: Rescan the disks or restart the computer to see if the disk status changes. For instructions describing how to rescan the disks, see Update disk information.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

A dynamic disk's status is Foreign.

Cause: The Foreign status occurs when you move a dynamic disk to the local computer from another computer running Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP 64-bit Edition (Itanium), or the Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems. A warning icon appears on disks that display the Foreign status.

In some cases, a disk that was previously connected to the system can display the Foreign status. Configuration data for dynamic disks is stored on all dynamic disks, so the information about which disks are owned by the system is lost when all dynamic disks fail.

Solution: Add the disk to your computer's system configuration so that you can access data on the disk. To add a disk to your computer's system configuration, import the foreign disk (right-click the disk and then click Import Foreign Disks). Any existing volumes on the foreign disk become visible and accessible when you import the disk.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

A dynamic disk's status is Online (Errors).

Cause: The dynamic disk has I/O errors on a region of the disk. A warning icon appears on the dynamic disk with errors.

Solution: If the I/O errors are temporary, reactivate the disk to return it to Online status. For instructions describing how to bring the disk back online, see Reactivate a missing or offline dynamic disk.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

A dynamic disk's status is Offline or Missing.

Cause: An Offline dynamic disk might be corrupted or intermittently unavailable. An error icon appears on the offline dynamic disk.

If the disk status is Offline and the disk's name changes to Missing, the disk was recently available on the system but can no longer be located or identified. The missing disk may be corrupted, powered down, or disconnected.

Solution:

To bring a disk that is Offline and Missing back online

Repair any disk, controller, or cable problems and make sure that the physical disk is turned on, plugged in, and attached to the computer. Next, use the Reactivate Disk command to bring the disk back online. For instructions describing how to reactivate missing or offline disks, see Reactivate a missing or offline dynamic disk.

If the disk status remains Offline and the disk name remains Missing, and you determine that the disk has a problem that cannot be repaired, you can remove the disk from the system (right-click the disk and then click Remove Disk). However, before you can remove the disk, you must delete all volumes (or mirrors) on the disk. You can save any mirrored volumes on the disk by removing the mirror instead of the entire volume. Deleting a volume destroys the data in the volume, so you should remove a disk only if you are absolutely certain that the disk is permanently damaged and unusable.

To bring a disk that is Offline and is still named Disk # (not Missing) back online, try one or more of the following:

In Disk Management, right-click the disk and then click Reactivate Disk to bring the disk back online. If the disk status remains Offline, check the cables and disk controller, and make sure that the physical disk is healthy. Correct any problems and try to reactivate the disk again. If the disk reactivation succeeds, any volumes on the disk should automatically return to the Healthy status.
In Event Viewer, check the event logs for any disk related errors such as “no good config copies”. If the event logs contain the "no good config copies" error, contact Microsoft Product Support Services.
Try moving the disk to another computer. If you can get the disk to go Online on another computer, the problem is most likely due to the configuration of the computer where the disk does not go Online.
Try moving the disk to another computer that has dynamic disks. Import the disk on that computer and then move it back to the computer where it would not go Online.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

A basic or dynamic volume's status is Failed.

Cause: The basic or dynamic volume cannot be started automatically, the disk is damaged, or the file system is corrupt. Unless the disk or file system can be repaired, the Failed status indicates data loss.

Solution: If the volume is a basic volume with Failed status, make sure that the underlying physical disk is turned on, plugged in, and attached to the computer. No other user action is possible for basic volumes.

If the volume is a dynamic volume with Failed status, make sure the underlying disks are online. If not, return the disks to the Online status. If this succeeds, the volume automatically restarts and returns to the Healthy status. For instructions describing how to bring a disk online, see Reactivate a missing or offline dynamic disk.

If the dynamic disk returns to the Online status, but the dynamic volume does not return to the Healthy status, you can reactivate the volume manually. For instructions describing how to reactivate a volume, see Reactivate a dynamic volume.

If the dynamic volume is a mirrored or RAID-5 volume with old data, bringing the underlying disk online will not automatically restart the volume. If the disks that contain current data are disconnected, you should bring those disks online first (to allow the data to become synchronized). Otherwise, restart the mirrored or RAID-5 volume manually, and then run the Error-checking tool or Chkdsk.exe.

For instructions describing how to reactivate a volume, see Reactivate a dynamic volume. For instructions describing how to run the Error-checking tool, see Detecting and repairing disk errors. To run Chkdsk.exe, click Start, click Run, type chkdsk, and then click OK.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

A basic or dynamic volume's status is Unknown.

Cause: The Unknown status occurs when the boot sector for the volume is corrupted (possibly due to a virus) and you can no longer access data on the volume. The Unknown status also occurs when you install a new disk but do not successfully complete the wizard to create a disk signature.

Solution: Initialize the disk. For instructions describing how to initialize a disk, see Initialize new disks.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

A dynamic volume's status is Data Incomplete.

Cause: You moved some but not all of the disks in a multidisk volume. Data on this volume will be destroyed unless you move and import the remaining disks that contain this volume.

Solution: Move all of the disks that comprise the multidisk volume to the computer and then import the disks. For instructions describing how to move and import disks, see Move disks to another computer.

If you no longer require the multidisk volume, you can import the disk and create new volumes on it. Right-click the volume with Failed or Failed Redundancy status and then click Delete Volume. Right-click the disk and then click New Volume.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

A dynamic volume's status is Healthy (At Risk).

Cause: Indicates that the dynamic volume is currently accessible, but I/O errors have been detected on the underlying dynamic disk. If an I/O error is detected on any part of a dynamic disk, all volumes on the disk display the Healthy (At Risk) status and a warning icon appears on the volume.

When the volume status is Healthy (At Risk), an underlying disk's status is usually Online (Errors).

Solution: Return the underlying disk to the Online status. Once the disk is returned to Online status, the volume should return to the Healthy status. If the Healthy (At Risk) status persists, the disk might be failing. Back up the data and replace the disk as soon as possible. For instructions describing how to bring the disk back online, see Reactivate a missing or offline dynamic disk.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

Cannot manage striped, mirrored, or RAID-5 volumes using Disk Management or DiskPart.

Cause: Some non-Microsoft disk management products replace Microsoft Logical Disk Manager (LDM) for advanced disk management, which can disable the LDM.

Solution: If you are using non-Microsoft disk management software that has disabled LDM, you must contact the vendor on the non-Microsoft disk management software for support or assistance in troubleshooting problems with the disk configuration.

A mirrored volume's status is Data Not Redundant.

Cause: One half, but not both halves, of a mirrored volume was imported. In Disk Management, the imported half of the mirrored volume receives Failed Redundancy status, while the disk that holds the half of the mirror that was not imported receives Missing status. You can import the Missing disk at a later time to restore redundancy.

Solution: Move all disks that span this volume to the new computer at the same time, and then import all of the disks together. For instructions describing how to move and import disks, see Move disks to another computer.

If you no longer require a mirrored volume, you can break the mirror and retain the imported half of the mirror as a simple volume. Right-click the mirrored volume with Failed Redundancy status and then click Remove Mirror. In the Remove Mirror dialog box, click the disk with Missing status and then click Remove Mirror. The imported half of the mirror with Failed Redundancy status becomes a simple volume with Healthy status. For more information about how to break a mirrored volume, see Remove a mirror from a mirrored volume.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

A mirrored volume's status is Failed.

Cause: The mirrored volume cannot be started automatically, or the disk is damaged. Unless the disk can be repaired, the Failed status indicates data loss.

Solution: Make sure that the underlying physical disks are turned on, plugged in, and attached to the computer. Make sure that the underlying physical disks are online. If not, return the disks to the Online status. If this succeeds, the volume automatically restarts and changes to Failed Redundancy status. For instructions describing how to bring a disk online, see Reactivate a missing or offline dynamic disk.

If the dynamic volume is a mirrored volume with old data, bringing the underlying physical disk online will not automatically restart the volume. If the disks that contain current data are disconnected, you should bring those disks online first (to allow the data to become synchronized). Otherwise, restart the mirrored volume manually, and then run the Error-checking tool or Chkdsk.exe.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

A mirrored volume's status is Failed Redundancy.

Cause: One or both of the members of the mirrored volume has failed, and the volume is no longer fault tolerant. To avoid data loss, you should attempt to repair the volume as soon as possible.

Solution: If the dynamic disk's status is Offline or Missing (it cannot be accessed at all), an icon (X) appears in the graphical view of the Missing or Offline disk. For instructions describing how to repair the mirrored volume, see Reconnect the disk and repair the mirrored volume.

If the disk's status is Online (Errors), an icon (!) appears in the graphical view of the disk. For instructions describing how to reactivate the disk, see Reactivate a mirrored volume.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

A mirrored volume's status is Stale Data.

Cause: If you attempt to import disks that contain a mirrored volume, but one of the volumes on the disks contains stale mirror information, the status Stale Data appears in the Import Foreign Disks dialog box. This problem can occur when the volumes on the disks you moved had a status other than Healthy before you moved them.

Solution: Move the disks back to the computer that they came from. In Disk Management, click Action, and then click Rescan Disks; or restart the computer to make sure all of the disks are installed correctly.

If the volume showed the Failed Redundancy status before the disks were moved, the volume will still show the Failed Redundancy status when the disks are moved back. Make sure that the status of the disk with stale mirror information is not Offline. If the status is Offline, check for any hardware problems, reconnect the disk if necessary, and then bring the disk back online. For instructions describing how to bring a mirrored volume back online, see Reconnect the disk and repair the mirrored volume.

If the volume still shows the Failed Redundancy status, reactivate the volume. Disk Management will attempt to bring the volume back online. You will see a warning message indicating that Disk Management might not be able to bring back all of the data on the volume. For instructions describing how to reactivate a volume, see Reactivate a dynamic volume.

If Disk Management successfully brings the volumes back online, the status of the volume becomes Healthy and any mirrored volumes on the disk will be resynchronized. Now you can move all of the disks that contain this volume to another computer, attach them, and import all of the disks at the same time.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

A RAID-5 volume's status is Data Not Redundant.

Cause: You moved some but not all of the disks in a RAID-5 volume. If you choose to import all but one of the disks, the RAID-5 volume receives the Failed Redundancy status. If more than one disk is missing from the RAID-5 volume, the volume receives the Failed status.

Solution: Move all disks that comprise this volume to the new computer at the same time, and then import all of the disks together. For instructions describing how to move and import disks, see Move disks to another computer.

If you imported all but one of the disks in the RAID-5 volume, the volume receives Failed Redundancy status. Right-click the volume and then click Repair Volume. Select another suitable dynamic disk to repair the RAID-5 volume. After the RAID-5 volume returns to Healthy status, you can right-click the missing disk and then click Remove Disk.

If you no longer require the RAID-5 volume, you can import the disks and create new volumes on them. The RAID-5 volume receives the Failed Redundancy or Failed status. Right-click the volume and then click Delete Volume. Right-click each disk and then click New Volume.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

A RAID-5 volume's status is Failed.

Cause: The RAID-5 volume cannot be started automatically, or the disk is damaged. Unless the disk can be repaired, the Failed status indicates data loss.

Solution: Make sure that the underlying physical disk is turned on, plugged in, and attached to the computer. Make sure that the underlying physical disks are online. If not, return the disks to the Online status. If this succeeds, the volume automatically restarts and returns to the Healthy status. For instructions describing how to bring a disk online, see Reactivate a missing or offline dynamic disk.

If the RAID-5 volume returns to the Online status, but the volume does not return to the Healthy status, you can reactivate the volume manually. For instructions describing how to reactivate a volume, see Reactivate a dynamic volume.

If the dynamic volume is a RAID-5 volume with old data, bringing the underlying disk online will not automatically restart the volume. If the disks that contain current data are disconnected, you should bring those disks online first (to allow the data to become synchronized). Otherwise, restart the RAID-5 volume manually, and then run the Error-checking tool or Chkdsk.exe.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

A RAID-5 volume's status is Failed Redundancy.

Cause: One of the members of the RAID-5 volume has failed and the volume is no longer fault tolerant. To avoid data loss, you should attempt to repair the volume as soon as possible.

Solution: If the dynamic disk's status is Offline or Missing (it can not be accessed at all), an icon (X) appears in the graphical view of the Missing or Offline disk. For instructions describing how to repair a RAID-5 volume, see Reconnect the disk and repair the RAID-5 volume.

If the disk's status is Online (Errors), an icon (!) appears in the graphical view of the partially failed disk. For instructions describing how to reactivate the disk, see Reactivate a RAID-5 disk.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

A RAID-5 volume's status is Stale Data.

Cause: If you attempt to import disks that contain a RAID-5 volume, but one of the volumes on the disks contains stale parity information, the status Stale Data appears in the Import Foreign Disks dialog box. This problem can occur when the volumes on the disks you moved had a status other than Healthy before you moved them.

If the volume showed the Failed Redundancy status before the disks were moved, the volume will still show the Failed Redundancy status when the disks are moved back. Make sure that the status of the disk that contained the stale parity information is not Offline. If the status is Offline, check for any hardware problems, reconnect the disk if necessary, and then bring the disk back online. For instructions describing how to bring a RAID-5 volume back online, see Reactivate a RAID-5 disk.

If Disk Management successfully brings the volumes back online, the status of the volume becomes Healthy and any RAID-5 volumes will regenerate parity. Now you can move all of the disks that contain this volume to another computer. However, if you move all but one of the disks, then the volume will show the Data Not Redundant status in the Import Foreign Disk dialog box. You should attach the missing disks and import all of the disks at the same time.

For more information about volume status descriptions, see Volume status descriptions.

For more information about disk status descriptions, see Disk status descriptions.

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Troubleshooting Disk Management