DSA shows disk volume layout and status as "unknown" - Servers

Resolving The Problem

RETAIN tip: H162680

On the Microsoft Windows operating system, the disk volume layout and status information fields are reported as "UNKNOWN" in the Hardware Inventory.

This Tip is not hardware specific.

The system is configured with at least one of the following:

• IBM Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) 2.00 Installable Edition, Portable Edition
• IBM Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) 2.02 Installable Edition, Portable Edition
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server 64 Bit Limited Edition, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server EE x64, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server for 64 Bit Itanium Servers, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition , any service pack
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows Vista 64 Bit Business Edition, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows Vista, x64 Business, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows Vista, x86 Business, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows XP 3 Bit professional, any service pack
• Microsoft Windows XP 64 Bit professional, any service pack

This Tip is not option specific.

To obtain the basic disk volume layout and status information, follow the steps below:

1. Right click on My Computer.
2. Select Manage.
3. Select Storage.
4. Select Disk Management.

DSA collects disk volume layout and status information by querying the private sector for dynamic disks. This data only pertains to dynamic disks and there is no method to obtain this information for a basic disk.

Note: Dynamic disks provide features that basic disks do not, such as the ability to create volumes that span multiple disks (spanned and striped volumes), and the ability to create fault tolerant volumes (mirrored and RAID-5 volumes). All volumes on dynamic disks are known as dynamic volumes.

A basic disk is a physical disk that contains primary partitions, extended partitions, or logical drives. When using basic disks, there is a limitation to create four primary partitions per disk, or three primary partitions and one extended partition with unlimited logical drives. Partitions and logical drives on basic disks are known as basic volumes.