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Q96327: Disconnected Network Drive Becomes Floppy Disk Drive

Article: Q96327
Product(s): Microsoft Disk Operating System
Version(s): MS-DOS:6.0,6.2; WINDOWS:3.1,3.11; :2.1,2.1a,2.2
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 19-NOV-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft MS-DOS operating system versions 6.0, 6.2 
- Microsoft Windows versions 3.1, 3.11 
- Microsoft LAN Manager, versions 2.1, 2.1a, 2.2 
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SYMPTOMS
========

Under certain circumstances when you are running MS-DOS DoubleSpace, Doublespace
may not disconnect from a network drive correctly if the network drive letter is
between the last physical drive letter and the host drive letter.

After you attempt to disconnect either from File Manager or MS-DOS, the network
drive changes to a floppy disk drive. If you choose the floppy disk drive icon
in File Manager, a message is displayed stating that there is no floppy disk in
the drive. If you choose the drive in MS-DOS, the following message is
displayed:

  Not Reading Drive <x>: Abort, Retry, Fail?

where <x> is the drive letter of the disconnected network drive.

File Manager and MS-DOS maintain this nonfunctioning disk drive until you reboot
your computer.

WORKAROUND
==========

To work around this problem, do the following:

1. Restart your computer.

2. Change to your DoubleSpace host partition and use the ATTRIB command to
  remove the hidden, system, and read-only attributes of the DBLSPACE.INI file
  as follows:

  attrib dblspace.ini -h -s -r

3. Open DBLSPACE.INI in a text editor, such as MS-DOS Editor. You should see two
  lines similar to the following (not necessarily in this order):

  LastDrive=M
  ActivateDrive=H,C0

4. Change the ActivateDrive= statement's first parameter to the next drive
  letter following your last physical drive letter. For example, if you have
  two partitions (C and D) on one physical hard drive, set ActivateDrive= to
  E.

  WARNING: If you use the incorrect drive letters when you edit the
  ActivateDrive= line in the DBLSPACE.INI file, the system may stop responding
  (hang) when you restart it.

5. Set LastDrive= to the same letter you used in step 4. As with the previous
  example, if you have one physical drive and two partitions, C and D, your
  DBLSPACE.INI file would include the following lines:

  LastDrive=E
  ActivateDrive=E,C0

6. Save the changes you made to the DBLSPACE.INI file and use the ATTRIB command
  to reset its attributes as follows:

  attrib dblspace.ini +h +s +r

7. Restart your computer.

After you restart your computer, DoubleSpace uses the new drive letter as its
host partition. This results in no available drive letters between your physical
hard disk drive and the DoubleSpace host partition to use for network
redirections. You are forced to use drive letters that follow the host partition
drive letter; this prevents the floppy disk drive icon problem from occurring.

NOTE: This procedure restricts the creation of additional DoubleSpace compressed
drives. If you later decide to create additional compressed drives, you must
change the LastDrive= statement in the DBLSPACE.INI file to a higher letter than
the one specified in ActivateDrive=. For example, if your host drive is assigned
to D, your DBLSPACE.INI file should include the following lines:

  LastDrive=E
  ActivateDrive=D,C0

This gives DoubleSpace the necessary drive letter to use when it creates another
DoubleSpace compressed drive.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in MS-DOS versions 6.0 and 6.2. We
are researching this problem and will post new information here as it becomes
available.

Additional query words: 6.00 6.20 diskette errmsg error

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbAudDeveloper kbWin3xSearch kbLanManSearch kbZNotKeyword3 kbWin310 kbWin311 kbLanMan210 kbLanMan210a kbLanMan220 kbMSDOSSearch kbMSDOS620 kbMSDOS600
Version           : MS-DOS:6.0,6.2; WINDOWS:3.1,3.11; :2.1,2.1a,2.2

=============================================================================

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