Members of the Administrators group can use the Disk Management snap-in to view the status of disks and volumes.
To open Disk Management
From the Start menu, click Run.
In the Open box, type diskmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
As Figure 26-3 shows, if no errors are present on the disk, Disk Management displays an Online status for disks and a Healthy status for volumes.
Figure 26-3: Online status and Healthy status
You can use the information in this section to diagnose and resolve problems identified by Disk Management, which uses a number of predefined status descriptions to indicate a problem has occurred. In many cases, a problem with the underlying disk also results in a volume error condition. For example, Figure 26-4 shows a disk with the Online (Errors) error condition and a volume with the Healthy (At Risk) error condition.
Figure 26-4: Online (Errors) and Healthy (At Risk) error conditions
You can also use the DiskPart command-line tool to view the status of disks and volumes. DiskPart is a text-mode command interpreter that is separate from the Windows XP Professional command prompt. DiskPart allows you to manage fixed (non-removable) disks and volumes by using scripts or direct input.
To run DiskPart, at the command prompt, type:
diskpart
To view the status of disks, at the DiskPart command prompt, type:
list disk
To view the status of volumes, at the DiskPart command prompt, type:
list volume
To view a list of DiskPart commands, at the DiskPart command prompt, type:
commands
For more information about using DiskPart, see Windows XP Professional Help.
Disk Status Descriptions
The following status descriptions appear if Disk Management detects a problem with a disk or if Disk Management does not recognize the disk.
Foreign
The Foreign status occurs when you install a dynamic disk in the local computer. You must right-click the disk and then click Import Foreign Disks before you can access data on the disk. If you do not want to import the disk, you can right-click the disk and click Convert to Basic Disk. Disk Management displays a warning message before erasing all data from the disk and converting the disk to basic. For more information about importing foreign disks, see Disk Management in this book.
Missing
The Missing status occurs when a dynamic disk is corrupted, turned off, or disconnected. After you reconnect or turn on the missing disk, open Disk Management, right-click the missing disk, and then click Reactivate Disk.
Not Initialized
The Not Initialized status indicates that the disk does not contain a valid disk signature in the master boot record (MBR) or a valid disk GUID in the GUID partition table. After you install a new disk, Windows XP Professional must write the MBR 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 that Windows XP Professional detects. If you cancel the wizard before the MBR or GUID partition table is written, the disk status remains Not Initialized until you right-click the disk and then click Initialize Disk.
Offline
The Offline status occurs when a dynamic disk is not accessible. The disk might be corrupted or intermittently unavailable. Offline also appears if you attempt to import a foreign (dynamic) disk, but the import fails. An error icon appears on the offline disk. Only dynamic disks display the Offline status.
If the disk status is Offline and the disk name changes to Missing, the disk was recently available on the system but can no longer be located or identified. The missing disk might be damaged, turned off, or disconnected.
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.
In Disk Management, right-click the disk, and then click Reactivate Disk to bring the disk back online.
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 computer.
After you remove a dynamic disk from a computer, the remaining online dynamic disks retain information about the removed disk and its volumes in the dynamic disk database. You can delete all references to the removed disk by updating the dynamic disk database. To do this, use Disk Management to remove all volumes on the missing disk. After you remove all the volumes, right-click the missing disk and then click Remove Disk. The missing disk no longer appears in Disk Management.
Caution
Deleting a volume destroys the data on 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 but not Missing back online
In Disk Management, use the Reactivate Disk command 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 automatically return to the Healthy status.
Online (Errors)
The Online (Errors) status indicates that I/O errors have been detected on a region of the disk. A warning icon appears on the disk with errors. Only dynamic disks display the Online (Errors) status.
If the I/O errors are transient, reactivate the disk by right-clicking the disk and then clicking Reactivate Disk to return the disk to the Online status.
Unreadable
The Unreadable status occurs when the disk is not accessible for the following reasons:
The disk is spinning up.
The disk might have experienced hardware failure, corruption, or I/O errors.
The disk s copy of the dynamic disk database might be corrupted.
An error icon appears on disks that display the Unreadable status. Both dynamic and basic disks display the Unreadable status.
Disks might display the Unreadable status while they are spinning up or when Disk Management is rescanning all 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. You can rescan the disks (by using the Rescan Disks command on the Action menu in Disk Management) or restart the computer to see if the disk status changes.
Volume Status Descriptions
The following status descriptions appear if Disk Management detects a problem with dynamic volumes or if Disk Management does not recognize volumes, such as those created by non-Windows-brand operating systems.
Failed
The Failed status occurs when the dynamic disk is damaged or the file system is corrupted. Unless you can repair the disk or file system, the Failed status might indicate data loss.
To troubleshoot a volume with the Failed status, make sure that the underlying physical disk is turned on, plugged in, and attached to the computer. Try returning the disk to the Online status by using the Reactivate Disk command. If this procedure succeeds, the volume automatically restarts and returns to the Healthy status.
If the disk returns to the Online status but the volume does not return to the Healthy status, you can reactivate the volume manually by using the Reactivate Volume command.
In some situations, the Failed status does not indicate data loss even though the Reactivate Disk and Reactivate Volume commands fail. These situations occur when:
You import a mirrored or RAID-5 volume into a computer running Windows XP Professional or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition. These operating systems do not support mirrored or RAID-5 volumes. You must move the disks back to the original computer to access data on the mirrored or RAID-5 volume.
You install Windows XP Professional to upgrade a computer that is running Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and that contains multidisk volumes. Because Windows XP Professional cannot access multidisk volumes created by using Windows NT 4.0, you must use Ftonline.exe to return the volumes to Healthy status so that you can access data on them. For more information about managing multidisk volumes during Windows XP Professional Setup, see Disk Management in this book. For more information about using Ftonline.exe, click Tools in Help and Support Center, and then click Windows Support Tools.
Healthy (At Risk)
The Healthy (At Risk) status occurs when a dynamic volume is experiencing I/O errors caused by bad sectors on the physical disk. The disk remaps the bad sectors by using sectors reserved exclusively for remapping. If the errors are transient, you can use the Reactivate Disk command in Disk Management to return the volume to the Healthy status. If the At Risk status persists, your disk might be failing. Back up the data and replace the disk as soon as possible.
Healthy (Unknown Partition)
The Healthy (Unknown Partition) status occurs when Windows XP Professional or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition does not recognize the System ID of a partition on an MBR disk. Partitions with the Healthy (Unknown Partition) status might be unknown original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partitions or partitions created by operating systems other than Windows or third-party utilities. You cannot format, assign drive letters or drive paths to, or access data on partitions with Healthy (Unknown Partition) status. You can, however, delete these partitions by using Disk Management or the DiskPart command.
Caution
If Windows XP Professional recognizes an OEM partition, Disk Management displays the partition as Healthy (EISA Configuration). You cannot use Disk Management to format, delete, assign drive letters or drive paths to, or access data on Healthy (EISA Configuration) partitions. However, you can use DiskPart to delete OEM partitions by using the delete partition command and specifying the override parameter. Deleting an OEM partition can prevent Windows XP Professional from starting, so it is recommended that you do not delete OEM partitions.
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition recognizes partitions on GPT disks that use known partition type GUIDs. If Windows XP 64-Bit Edition does not recognize the partition type GUID of a partition, then it displays the partition as Healthy (Unknown Partition).
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition recognizes the following partitions on GPT disks and displays them in the Disk Management interface:
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) System partition
Primary partition on a basic disk
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition also recognizes and displays primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives on MBR disks.
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition recognizes the following partitions on GPT disks but does not display them in Disk Management:
Microsoft Reserved partition (MSR)
Logical Disk Manager (LDM) Metadata partition on a dynamic disk
LDM Data partition on a dynamic disk
If an OEM created a primary partition on a GPT disk or if you use an operating system other than Windows XP 64-Bit Edition to create a primary partition on a GPT disk, then Windows XP 64-Bit Edition might not recognize the partition type GUID of the partition. If the partition type GUID is unrecognized, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition displays the partition but does not allow you to assign a drive letter or drive path or to access data on the partition. You can, however, delete these partitions by using Disk Management or the DiskPart command.
For more information about the types of partitions that Windows XP Professional recognizes, see Master Boot Record on Basic Disks. For more information about the types of partitions that Windows XP 64-Bit Edition recognizes, see GPT Partition Table Header later in this chapter. For more information about partitions on GPT disks, see Disk Management in this book.
Unknown
The Unknown status occurs when the boot sector for the volume is corrupted and you can no longer access data on the volume. The boot sector might be infected by a virus. For more information about cleaning an infected computer, see Viruses That Affect the MBR and Boot Sectors later in this chapter. For more information about repairing boot sectors, see Repairing Damaged MBRs and Boot Sectors in x86-based Computers later in this chapter.
