Diskmanagement differences peXP(Gena) and PE7/8

ah, this one,
It is well defined issue :
this is related to "XP32bit - NT5.1" diskmanagement service,

When you do not have any partitioned disk at boot time, service can not start...

Any Workaround method simply assures you have a partitoned disk at boot time 

Since I always use 3rd party , I always forget there is something like that.

or, use Win2003 (ex: Gena-W2003)
http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&biw=1280&bih=778&sclient=psy-ab&q=win2003+trial&oq=win2003+trial&gs_l=hp.3..0i13i30j0i13i10i30j0i13i30j0i13i10i30.701.3886.0.4306.15.12.1.0.0.0.690.4237.0j1j6j2j0j3.12.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.4.psy-ab.jHYi1fA15Hk&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.42768644,d.d2k&fp=ce5d43a4985ebd88


In addition:
Some notes from JFX
*
do not add this registries" to SE (above VDS-un-allignment registries)
 let SE create partitions the way it wants, the right way.
  Most actual partition software also do it that way.
*
More or less XP is okay using the new style, just never update the MBR under XP.
+
Never had any problems with bootsect or bootice, so guess they use raw access to disk, instead system api.

Hi Lancelot

The issue is also present in already partitioned disks. If we delete an existing partition and create a new one neither  drive letter assignment nor formatting is possible. Error message is "The operation could not be completed because Partition or Volume in not enabled". We require to restart the system to do the formatting.  Once i read in MSFN forum this is due to explorer shell is not refreshing itself.

As per your suggestion i tried a 2003 SP2 build but unfortunately the problem still exist in that.I could leave with this as i prefer to use 3rd party tools like you

anshad, thanks for confirming. This is exactly what I was talking about in the OP. Actually a little bit strange that there's no "official cure" for this. Still, if you guys confirm this problem exists, there's no point in trying to get the built-in diskmanagement to work.

I will try the reboot suggestions again.

Thanks anshad,

but diskmanagement service (+ probably plug & play for disks ) and explorer should be 2 seperate things,
 As far as I know diskmanagement is the real problem.. ,
  a good guess: the good coders expect xp installed and always a working-partitioned disk around ;)
   but I remember things were working on 2k3 ... no time to test ....

just remind me end of this summer to test widely, and make a nice topic including some workarounds... (found some and written to end) 



Atari800xl ,
hehe,
 there are many stuff on PE that does not have "official cure" ,
  since all work done without anyprofit but only sharing ..
   maybe you can contribute with an "official cure" 

**
Some of my very old notes about this subject:
After:
"partition or volume is not enabled, please restart computer to enable it"
1) start HWPnP(Install all hardware/force all))
2) than start mounstrope ==> this will give drive letter as C:
3) right click on C: , choose format -- quick format ;)

another way:
1) 'diskmgmt.msc' create the partition only (i select the disk > Right click > 'New Partition...') - no drive letter assignment, no format
2) 'Action' > 'Refresh'
3) Select the disk > Right Click > 'Change Drive Letter and Paths...
4) restart explorer (on Default Gena you can do that with taskmanager ;))
5) reopen the 'Disk Management', then format the partition

and as written
1) restart Gena

and as written
1) use 3rd party ;) ,
  in the end always use 3rd party to avoid nt6x partitioned disk troubles  ,
    to me all above will be quite a hoby to gather on a topic in summer 
      (+ reply 20 added with JFX additonal confirming notes )

Have made a few test with GPT support on NT5.x

- forget about XP x86
- w2k3 disk.sys maybe work with Disk smaller 2TB, but don't work for larger drives.

- paragon gpt loader isn't a real solution, it works with my USB 3TB disk,
  but not with the internal ones (opposite what's told on paragon homepage) 

- Win2003 x86 and XP x64 SP2 RTM show no problems with both (USB / internal 3TB disks) 

Anyway, I would still recommand to not use disk management or chkdsk on such disk in NT5.x windows versions.

 

Thanks JFX,

I put a bold warning to MMC plugin, with a link pointing this topic specially your above post
Also updated this topic http://theoven.org/index.php?topic=34.0


Yes, 2k3 have always been better designed DiskManagement, many oversee this fact 
 This 2TB thingy with more and more users, will wake up more sleepers in time 

It is indeed sad w2k3-disk.sys trick do not work on xp-x86, So far I read ms will not update xp for that support (naturally , $)  so hope is not on west (usa-ms) but on east (china :>).

I guess windows hotfix KB919117 do rest of adjustments on 2k3-XPx64
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919117
WindowsServer2003-KB919117-x86-ENU.exe
WindowsServer2003.WindowsXP-KB919117-x64-ENU.exe
let me know if you can make a plugin (batch .reg etc. ;) all fits ) for that... (and maybe you can also find a test routine to validate..)


Yes NT6x foot steps is getting louder and louder 
 I know what will happen since Vista,
  Still I wait surprises from NT5x fans, especially from Chinese Programmers,
   and 2k3 support will not end shortly already having 2TB> support.....
    Time will show how things will go.... 


Dream part:
Well, who knows,
 maybe Google one day decide to sum up Android with Desktop support (opposite to what ms recently did with w7->w8 transformation )
  and we may get rid off all these ms stuff  along with builders and idiots 
   "Ando-JFX" sounds to me a good project in faaaar future, no builder, just extract setup and use 

Hi Lancelot

I made some comparisons between Gena and BartPE to test  the disk management partitioning error. When using "XP 32" as source both Gena and BartPE failed to create and format partitions in an unpartitioned disk. I got the well known "Partition not enabled" error. I know this is an already known issue but what surprised me is a 2003 build of BartPE succeded in creating the partition while a Gena build using 2003 as source failed  . I didn't compared the MMC plugins of Gena and BartPE yet but i guess Gena MMC script is based on BartPE.

 I have a licenced copy of Paragon GPT loader and i made a Gena script to test it but sadly i don't have a 2TB+ HDD  . Both Paragon GPT loader and 2003 disk.sys works fine with 1 TB HDD with GPT partitions. Since most of the laptops and branded PCs preloaded with  Win8 are equipped with 500 GB to 1 TB disks there is still a scope for well functioning X86 GPT script.


 

Hi anshad,

Good to know things works nice with 1 TBB HD 

what surprised me is a 2003 build of BartPE succeded in creating the partition while a Gena build using 2003 as source failed  .

Interesting 
can you test Gena with 2003 source using:
Gena\Basic\Build\"saydin77 Core" -> Disable "Small Core Build"
see how create partition goes ??? (me crossing fingers for success  ) ???

See You

I guess windows hotfix KB919117 do rest of adjustments on 2k3-XPx64
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919117
let me know if you can make a plugin (batch .reg etc. ;) all fits ) for that... (and maybe you can also find a test routine to validate..)

Hmm, I guess they add support for creating partitions bigger than 2TB.
I'm not testing it with my backup disk here, but if I buy a new disk (properly a 4TB one  )

Hi JFX,
please also check how 3rd parties goes under Gena on your future tests, like "Active@ Partition Manager" 

Hi Lancelot

I did some more tests according to your suggestions.

Creating and formatting partitions from disk management works fine when "small core build" is disabled (2003 source)  .

There is still an issue with the explorer in both Gena and BartPE. We need to manually restart the explorer to show the newly created drives. But that is another unresolved issue with PE1 .

Creating and formatting partitions from disk management works fine when "small core build" is disabled (2003 source)  .

Good, keep in mind, ' "small core build" disabled ' follows standart ms procedure on copying files and other stuff to create a PE1x, which BartPE also uses, you may also notice similarity with sizes of final iso, besides Saydin77Core have multilanguage support but BartPE not ;)

Similary with NT6x is like boot.wim of nt6x where ms set pent6x standart with boot.wim

Shortly:
When you notice something that does not work on Gena, but BartPE, you have option ' "small core build" disabled ' to get same results with BartPE (at core level).
At this point, If curiosity hits, you can dig down to find the critical difference you notice, which would lead a standalone plugin or addition to plugin (probably MMC on your case ;))



*
Here is another interesting test for you,
put "Gavotte RamDisk" to \Drivers\5 Ramdisk\
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?9pvpswftb3df85g
+
See if this helps getting rid of "Partition not enabled" error on your XP builds (crossing fingers) ???
+
maybe !!! helps on automount XP builds (maybee.....)
+
I do not expect difference with w2003 but who knows 

******
Some info about that automount which may take your interest:
on Win2003, when you connect a disk, it never automounts ;) (Win2003 security ;))
on XP, it does...
I feel (guess) this automount is not related to mmc-diskmanagement but related to a setting or driver-with--setting on more core stuff (a setting/thing working with disk.sys...) .... but what ;)
Anyway, untill the day, as you know, we have MountStorePE 

...

Atari800xl

to avoid future readers come to wrong conclusion:

anshad report is not about "big - small" dize disk, it is about difference between xp/2k3 "disk management behaviour",
shortly anshad doing is homework and follow replies on topic about 2k3 source  (which were written initially to you by me)
 and he found something interesting about that for Gena Small Core...... (which none of us notice before)

Keeping short this time:
Try to get following as conclusion for your safe work ( safe work = not sure what you are doing and do not like homeworks):
1) Use 2k3 for source, small core ok (Thanks to JFX verifying 2k3 works nice for 3TB )
2) Do not touch diskmanagement (and chkdsk) on Gena, instead use modern 3rd party Disk Managers. (ex: Active@ Partition Manager )
--> As far as I get to know you, better you disable MMC at all

with these 2, you can use Gena on any pc and keep using small core.

Hi Lancelot

Unfortunately  adding "Gavotte RamDisk" didn't solved the issue. There are 3 options in the script (ramdisk, fixed and removable) and i choose fixed and assigned letter "T" to it. "Gavotte RamDisk" is working and i can see the ramdisk in explorer. May i need to use another option ?
 

yes fixed disk   

Theory is, having a fixed-disk at hand at boot time, which would keep diskmanagement alive and as a result avoid "Partition not enabled" thing.

Please make a last xp-test with big core + gavotte , see if anything changes. 

another test is,
having a "real disk image" (blabla.img) loaded by bootmanager (ex: grub4dos) at boot time, side by side having winvblock/firadisk plugin enabled...
 I do not have ready menu.lst for that (somewhere in my archive....) but I am sure you can figure out easly..


This is just serving curiosity, tests to come to a better conclusion,
 take your time, have fun 

Hi Lancelot

A small update to this old topic. I can confirm that Disk Management will work perfectly fine if Server 2003 SP2  ( SP1 may also work but untested due to the lack of source ) is used a source and Build --> Saydin77 Core --> Small Core Build option is deselected. Deleting , creating and assigning drive letters seems to work fine  .

 

Thanks for the update anshad,

So " Small Core Build" option selected, things does not work !?

For which Disk condition anshad ? GPT ? over 2TB ? ... 

Hi Lancelot

I should have been more clear. This is a continuation of my post http://theoven.org/index.php?topic=526.msg8715#msg8715

XP SP3 Source with "Small core" build selected ( default ) - Can't create a new partition. We will get the infamous "The partition or volume is not enabled" message.

XP SP3 source with "small core build" deselected -  Result is same when creating a new partition- "The partition or volume is not enabled" message. Only deleting works. Also GPT disks can't be accessed because XP 32 bit doesn't have GPT support.

XP SP3 with Disk.Sys from Win2003 -  GPT disks can be accessed ( 2TB+ probably won't work). But creating a new partition in neither MBR nor in GPT disk is possible. Only deleting existing partitions are possible.

2003 Source with Small Core build selected ( default ) - Supports GPT disks but creating a new partition results in the  "The partition or volume is not enabled" message

2003 Source with Small core build deselected - Works perfectly. Can delete, create and manage both MBR and GPT disks ( 2 TB + disks probably won't be supported ). 

Thanks anshad,

In future, on this case , I hope missing things will be solved in Small core build ,
 anyway we still get things work 

( 2 TB + disks probably won't be supported ).

I still have hope on this point 
 To be tested one day when hardware accessible 

See You