21H1 Disk Management re-ordered my SSD’s

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[bbearren]

When checking my drive images created via Task Scheduler by Image for Windows, I noticed immediately that the image file sizes were unusual.  Using TBI Mount I checked them out, and they weren’t the correct partitions.  I updated Image for Windows to 3.44 today, but the images made in the wee hours of this morning were created by the previous version, 3.43.

I opened Image for Windows, ran the setup for a drive image and checked the partition ID against my Batch file partition ID, and the partition numbers were correct, but the drive numbers were different.  I corrected all the drive ID numbers in my Batch files, deleted the incorrect image files and re-created fresh images.  After that was completed, I checked Disk Management against a screenshot from a couple of months ago, and found that:

Disk 0 has become Disk 5
Disk 1 has become Disk 0
Disk 2 has become Disk 1
Disk 3 has become Disk 2
Disk 4 has become Disk 3
Disk 5 has become Disk 4

Everything else is copacetic, and only Image for Windows let me know that 21H1 Disk Management had re-ordered the SSD ID numbers.

The other issue was particular to my setup, I have the Windows Recovery Environment in its own separate partition on a different SSD from the Windows installation.  The upgrade had pulled 530MB from the end of my Windows installation partition and setup the Windows RE there.  I re-established my preferred Windows RE, reclaimed the 530MB, and while I was at it, I upgraded it to the newer version of the TBWinRE from Image for Windows.

That has been my only hiccup with the upgrade to 21H1.  Even with the shifted drive numbers, Windows has no difficulty finding my apps, programs, files etc. scattered across 19 partitions on those 6 SSD’s, since none of the drive letters and the paths using those drive letters changed.  IFW uses Disk Managements drive number/partition number to create images.  It had the correct partition number, but the old drive number.

This should not affect single-drive PC’s.  Drive 0 will still be drive 0.

For those folks with more than one drive and using drive imaging, I suggest checking your images to make sure you have what you think you have.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

• This topic was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by bbearren.

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DLivesInTexas, JohnW

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bb,

I assume you’ve NAMED your SSDs and/or partitions (e.g., system, data, backups, etc.) previously in order to keep track of them in just such an occurrence.

Zig

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Zig wrote:

I assume you’ve NAMED your SSDs and/or partitions (e.g., system, data, backups, etc.) previously in order to keep track of them in just such an occurrence.

Always, Zig.  That’s what made it easy to spot.  My image files had the correct image file name (from the Batch file), but when mounted, the partition name was wrong, and from the wrong drive.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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In noodling around for something else, I think I’ve stumbled upon what appears to be the source of the re-numbering of my drives.  I have three 1TB SSD’s in my desktop and three 250GB SSD’s with 19 partitions scattered throughout.  One of the 1TB SSD’s is a single partition, the target of my Task Scheduler setup for drive images early every Sunday morning.

I use a wireless mouse/keyboard, and when I want to directly access my NAS, I swap the transceiver and change the input choice on the TV I use for a monitor.  On occasion Windows will get confused when I swap the transceiver back to my desktop, and I’ll get a notification to finish installing hardware, which is the USB transceiver.

After getting that notice again today, I checked Device Manager to make sure it was the transceiver that needed its installation finished (it was).  But while clicking down through my hardware just to make sure Windows didn’t try to sneak in a driver update (I have them disabled via Group Policy), when I expanded Disk drives, it listed, along with four of my SSD’s, two 1TB Seagate HDD’s instead of the Samsung 1TB SSD’s.

I uninstalled the HDD’s, rebooted, the HDD’s disappeared and the SSD’s have returned.  My assumption is that the two (falsely identified) HDD’s bumped up the numbering so that they were Drive 0 and Drive 1, and that rotated the original Drive 0 down to Drive 5.

I’m thinking that mistaking an SSD to be an HDD could be considered a hiccup.  However, the only thing affected was the numbering of the drives.  Everything else worked, except for my drive images being created from the correct partition, but on the wrong drive.  Windows itself was not confused with where to find which of the 19 partitions, because it is using drive letters, not drive numbers.

It would appear that Device Manager was the culprit, and not Disk Management.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

1 user thanked author for this post.

wavy

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