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Invalid Volume Label (Read 15966 times)
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Invalid Volume Label
Oct 6th, 2006 at 6:05pm
 
I wanted to upgrade the 20GB Maxtor oem drive in a Dell Dimension 4100 to a new Samsung 80GB drive.

The Dell is running Windows 2000 and the drive is NTFS.

I installed the new drive as a slave in the machine and created a single primary partition on it. (Although, I think that was wiped by the subsequent step, in fact.)

I started up from the Ghost 2003 CD and did a disk-to-disk clone.

After exiting from Ghost in DOS, I turned off the machine and removed the old HDD, setting the new one as the master.

I then started the machine in BartPE and used DiskPart to expand the cloned 20GB primary partition to take up all the free space on the new disk, and to make that partition the active one.

I then started the machine from the new HDD. No problem. It started up. Though it did insist on restarting to "install new hardware."

However, if I try to change the volume label of the C drive (the system volume, and the only volume on the disk) from "20GB_HD" to "80GB_HD" (or, indeed, to anything else at all) I get a dialogue box with the title "Invalid Volume Label" and the message "You do not have sufficient rights to perform this operation."

The account I am logged in with is a local administrator (and, in fact, the only account on the machine,) so it should have the rights to do this.

I CAN change the volume label using the file browser utility within BartPE, but subsequently STILL cannot change it again from within Windows 2000 (as booted from the new disk).

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Firstly, I'd like to fix the problem. Secondly, I'd like to know whether this is a symptom of deeper problems which I ought to know about...

Any information much appreciated. Searching all over the www (including these boards) has not turned up much of any use so far, but maybe I am not looking in the right places or with the right keywords?...
 
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #1 - Oct 6th, 2006 at 6:43pm
 
Hmmmmm,

That is one of the most clearly expressed posts that I have read. Unfortunately I don't have an answer.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/w2000Msgs/51...

http://groups.google.com.au/group/microsoft.public.win2000.file_system/browse_th...
 
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #2 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 4:58am
 
Thanks Brian. No-one else seems to either!

I'm wondering whether:
  • it is something I am doing wrong somewhere due to a lack of understanding,
  • or whether there is a problem with the new drive itself (unlikely, surely?)
  • or perhaps a problem with the registry or security descriptors.


To expand a little:

The same problem occurs if I use DriveSnapshot.

However, with DriveSnapshot I also had the (separate) problem that the restored C volume continued to be reported in Windows as being 20GB with 8GB free, even after I expanded it to fill the disk. I mention that in case it is relevant (to a registry problem?) It is more probably down to my ignorance and not relevant.

I also wondered whether the problem might have been caused by the Intel Application Accelerator, which was installed on the 20GB drive. It was installed so that I could use a 250GB slave drive. (The Dimension 4100 BIOS does not support 48-bit LBA and cannot, it seems, be upgraded. The IAA is a replacement for the standard Windows disk driver which, in conjunction with certain Intel chipsets, allows Windows to use large drives, even though the BIOS cannot.)

I removed that large drive (and booted Windows without it) before starting the cloning process, of course. So, when I encountered this renaming problem (large disk still out at this point,) I could happily uninstall Intel Application Accelerator to eliminate it as a cause.

I put the 20GB HDD back in as the master (and only) disk, booted into Windows (where, incidentally, I could rename this original disk to my heart's content), uninstalled the Intel Application Accelerator, rebooted into Windows, shut down, and did the cloning again (deleting and re-creating the primary partition on the new 80GB HDD before using Ghost). No difference. Same renaming problem.

Sorry for the stream-of-consciousness wittering. I'm just trying to bring up anything which may be significant and jog an idea...

To address the only other issues in that Google groups link:

Chkdsk on the new (cloned) drive is fine.

Root permissions are Everyone Full Control and Ownership the local Administrators group.

Can you think of anything else I might look into?
 
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #3 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 6:19am
 
Hmmmmm wrote on Oct 7th, 2006 at 4:58am:
The same problem occurs if I use DriveSnapshot.

However, with DriveSnapshot I also had the (separate) problem that the restored C volume continued to be reported in Windows as being 20GB with 8GB free, even after I expanded it to fill the disk. I mention that in case it is relevant (to a registry problem?)


Now that's unusual too.

With Drive SnapShot, did you make an image and then restore the image to the 80 GB HD? I didn't know you could do a direct "clone" with Drive SnapShot.

Did you try changing the Volume label while the recently cloned partition was still 20 GB? It would be intiguing if the problem only happens when the partition is resized. When the partition was resized after the Ghost clone, was it reported in Windows as 20 GB as well?

If you restore a Drive SnapShot image from BartPE into an 80 GB partition on the Samsung does the partition remain at 80 GB? Can you edit the Label?

 
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #4 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 6:30am
 
This is an interesting lead.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archive/index.php/t-67861.html

Could diskpart be the culprit? Could you try the resize with Partition Magic?
 
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #5 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 9:39am
 
I suppose diskpart could be the culprit, but it would have to be its partitioning rather than extending functions causing the problem (see below). I don't have Partition Magic, unfortunately.

I have just started again, with DriveSnapshot this time in order to be able to answer questions as clearly as possible.

With the 80GB HDD installed as the master and only internal disk, I booted to BartPE and used diskpart to delete the primary partition. I then created a new primary partition with the size 19069MB (which is the size DriveSnapshot reports that it needs to restore the image I previously created of the old C drive), made it active and assigned it the letter C. The rest of the space I left free.

To go back a step and answer your question above, yes I made an image with DriveSnapshot - you cannot "clone" a complete hard disk with it. This image is stored on an external (NTFS) firewire drive, which BartPE is happily able to work with. Ghost (or rather DOS and the firewire drivers Symantec provides) is less happy with it, which is why I did not go via an image file when using Ghost.

I then used DriveSnapshot to restore the SNA image of the old 20GB drive to the 19069MB partition on the new 80GB HDD.

Rebooting worked fine. Received message window "System Settings Change" with the message "Windows has finished installing new devices. You must restart your computer before the new settings will take effect." Presumably because the disk signature is different from the 20GB HDD (because the hard disk itself has not been cloned). I clicked yes to restart.

Everything fine, but unable to change the volume label!

I restarted in BartPE and used diskpart to extend the primary partition and C volume to fill the 80GB drive.

This did actually work this time (not sure what went wrong previously - perhaps I let DriveSnapshot resize the restored volume into a full 80GB partition by itself and it didn't work properly? That functionality is beta, I think, so maybe that was it.)

Upon reboot x2 (System Settings Change message again) I had roughly 10GB of space used and 60-odd GB available on the new C drive - which is what one would expect. But still not able to change the volume label. Except by using the file manager utility in BartPE.

Tried adding System Full Control and various other permissions to the root of the drive, all of which made no difference.

The upshot of which seems to be that resizing is not, itself, the cause of the problem.

The problem does not seem to be caused by a specific cloning/imaging application (since both Ghost and DriveSnapshot exhibit the behaviour).

The use of diskpart to create partitions and make them active is a common link.......  Although, as I say, I think the Ghost disk-to-disk clone overwrote all that.

What else have I overlooked?
 
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #6 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 9:59am
 
Hmmmmm

Did some Goggle searching on *volume label*--looks like the volume label is in a special file that has the *v* attribute set--this apparently *hides* this file from being seen--it is in the *root directory* of the volume--in older DOS, the volume label was in the Master Boot Record.

References:

Detailed Explanation of FAT Boot Sector


FAT Partition Boot Sector


File Attributes


Apparently the *attrib* command does not allow for accessing or changing that *v* attribute.

I could not find any programs that allow one to view that file directly, but you could try the command line in the root directory of your C:\ drive to see if that allows for access:

vol c: (enter)

label c: whatever (enter)

VOL and LABEL Commands


Sounds like the security settings for that file is somehow being changed or corrupted by the cloning process--you may need to try a Win2k forum that deals with security and file permissions settings.

Report back about the results of the *vol* and *label* command line usage!

 

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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #7 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 8:54pm
 
Thanks for the info, NightOwl.

My disk is NTFS, of course, but the site you linked to for FAT has similarly good info on NTFS, where the volume label is, it seems, stored in a metadata file resident within within the Master File Table, called $volume and with the attributes Volume Name, Volume Information and Volume Version.

HOWEVER, it is also stated that the volume label is included in the BIOS Parameter Block in the NTFS Volume Boot Sector.

Perhaps it is precisely the fact that it is stored in two places which is causing the problem???

In any case, I AM able to change the volume label from the command prompt whilst booted into Windows 2000 from the new HDD using the LABEL command, as you suggest. Just as I am able to do so using the file explorer in BartPE.

It is, nevertheless, still not subsequently possible to do so using the usual Windows 2000 GUI.

Why this might be remains a mystery (although perhaps I am inching closer to an explanation with the generous help of you both). It also remains unclear whether this is a symptom of a more serious problem.

Certainly, it would not be wise to proceed running on the new hard drive without establishing the true nature of this bizarre quirk. Presumably people clone NTFS drives all the time without issue?
 
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #8 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 9:07pm
 
Hmmmmm

Quote:
Presumably people clone NTFS drives all the time without issue?

Well, I do--but it has been Win98se and WinXP--not Win2k!  (Obviously, not NTFS with Win98se  Wink ! )
 

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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #9 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 9:10pm
 
As an aside, Brian, the following link may be relevant to the problem I mentioned with the expanded volume size (though it does not shed any light on this label problem):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329826/
 
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #10 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 9:14pm
 
Re: "
That is one of the most clearly expressed posts that I have read
."

I agree. We appreciate folks who know how to express themselves clearly. Welcome to the Rad forums. Make yourself at home.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer either.  Sad
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #11 - Oct 7th, 2006 at 9:52pm
 
Thanks Rad  Smiley

Ug! I just have to go to bed. Nearly 4am here...

Thank you ALL so much for your help. I'll come back to it fresh in the (post-dawn) morning and let you know if I get anywhere.

Any 'overnight' insights you may come up with greatly appreciated, as ever...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
 
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Re: Invalid Volume Label
Reply #12 - Oct 10th, 2006 at 8:40am
 
Well, I still don't know what caused this issue, but (fingers crossed - so far so good) I have managed to fix it.

I presume the problem was that the $volume metadata file within the MFT was somehow getting corrupted.

Obviously, using imaging applications was replicating that 'corruption' on the cloned partition... or somehow introducing the corruption...? I don't know. Sometimes you have to give up trying to understand and say "Life is too short!"

But anyway, I decided that what I needed to do was format the new disk from scratch with a completely fresh set of NTFS metadata which I did not then change directly. Then just copy all the files (with their attributes & security descriptors) across from the old disk to the new disk. A job for robocopy.

I used the Windows 2000 setup CD to format the new HDD as NTFS (one big C drive taking up the whole thing). This was really out of a superstitious belief that that would produce the most reliable, compatible result, rather than for any logical reason. It also has the advantage of setting a new disk signature at the same time (which is what I wanted - I'm upgrading the disk, not cloning it).

I haven't checked, but it should, as an extra bonus, have reserved 12.5% of the 80GB disk for the MFT zone, which should help to stop the MFT from becoming fragmented on the new disk? I don't think resizing partitions resizes the MFT zone, does it??? Of course, a defrag tool like PerfectDisk could always be used to rearrange all that later anyway.

Setup did also dump some setup files onto the disk before it was safe to turn the machine off. No matter: I just deleted them all immediately before doing the copy.

So, having connected the old disk as primary master and the new one as primary slave, I started up in BartPE and used Microsoft's excellent free ROBOCOPY utility (previously added to my BartPE CD) to move the files across:

Code:
robocopy c:\ d:\ /E /COPYALL /B /R:0 /W:0 /LOG:d:\robolog.txt /NP /NFL /V /TEE 



As you can see, under BartPE the new disk is d:, but it magically became c: when booted from as the primary master, as anticipated.

I also did a chkdsk /F /R on d: before taking out the old disk and booting from the new.

So, that's all, folks! With any luck...  Roll Eyes

One small addendum:

I discovered the GPartEd LiveCD whilst trying to fix this problem. Although its partition copy function did not solve my particular volume label problem, it worked as well as Ghost or DriveSnapshot, and I found the whole package to be an uterly wonderful and hassle-free tool. It is a CD which boots Linux and launches a fully graphical partition editor which basically allows you to move, resize and copy partitions HOWEVER you want. Amazing. And the really clever bit is that it doesn't change a thing until you click "Apply," so, for complex reorganization, you can string multiple actions together and, once you are happy, go and have dinner whilst it gets on with it. You'll never pay for partition magic again!  8)
 
 
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