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# Windows NT Tries to Duplicate MS-DOS Drive Letter Scheme

Article ID: 101703

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

APPLIES TO

- Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.1
- Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1

This article was previously published under Q101703

## SUMMARY

Windows NT attempts to assign drive letters to partitions in the same manner that MS-DOS does. However, there are cases in which drive letter assignments are not the same.

## MORE INFORMATION

Consider the following example in which a system has two hard disks, each of which has two partitions:

Windows NT assigns drive letters as follows:

          --------------------
          | C: FAT | E: NTFS |
          --------------------

          --------------------
          | D: FAT | F: FAT  |
          --------------------

However, MS-DOS assigns drive letters as follows:

          --------------------
          | C: FAT | Unknown |
          --------------------

          --------------------
          | D: FAT | E: FAT  |
          --------------------

Because MS-DOS does not recognize the NTFS partition, it marks the partition as "unknown" and does not assign it a drive letter.
NOTE: In Disk Administrator, you can customize the drive letter assignments by choosing Drive Letter from the Partition menu.

Additional query words: prodnt

Keywords: kbother KB101703