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Windows NT Tries to Duplicate MS-DOS Drive Letter Scheme

Article ID: 101703

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

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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


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