Cannot control partition mounts after cloning

I just downloaded and used TI9 to clone a SATA drive
to a new RAID array. All seemed to go well, but then -

I cannot unmount disk partitions in WinXP.
Or, more precisely, I cannot prevent WinXP SP2 from
scanning every hard disk in my system at bootup and
mounting every disk partition it finds - including the Dell
utility partition and Linux ReiserFS and swap partitions.

Please, do not tell me to use Administrative Tools ->
Computer Management -> Disk Management.
If this, or DISKPART worked, I would not be here.
They do not work because they do not see any
disk partitions mounted.
Not even the System partition, drive C:.
If I select any Windows partition in "Disk Management" ->
Right click -> "Change Drive Letters and Paths" shows
the "Allow access to this volume ..." window blank with
only the "Add" button active.
The "Change" and "Remove" buttons are greyed out.
If I select a Linux partition, only "Delete Logical Drive" is
not greyed out and is available.

However, "My Computer" and "Windows Explorer" shows
the partitions mounted, assigned drive letters and
accessible. The drive letters assigned to the Dell and
Linux partitions superceed and knock out the drive letters
assigned to my mapped network drives.

REGEDIT shows HKLM -> SYSTEM -> MountedDevices ->
\DosDevices\C: through \DosDevices\K:.
If I delete the \DosDevices\ for the Dell and Linux partitions, they return on the next reboot and remain
mounted. If I activate a second disk drive in the system,
the same thing happens with every partition, no matter
what filesystem, being mounted and assigned additional
\DosDevices\ drive letters.
If I delete the unwanted \DosDevices\, restart, turn off
the second disk in the bios, and reboot - I am back to just
the first disk's \DosDevices\.

This happens early in the boot process. I cannot stop it
with MSCONFIG. I tried a
"System Configuration Utility" "Diagnostic Startup",
where almost every *.INI, Services and Startup activity
is suppressed. The Linux partitions remained mounted and
could not be dropped by deleting their entried in
\DosDevices\.

What the heck is going on?
What is mounting the partitions?
How do I get back control of my system?

Help!
Leo

 

Hello Leo.freeman,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Could you please do the following?

- Boot into Windows from the source (SATA) hard drive and prepare your original Windows installation for transferring using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep) as it is described in this FAQ article;

- Boot the computer from Bootable Rescue CD created using the latest build (2337) of Acronis True Image 9.0 and perform the disk cloning process once more;

- Turn off the computer as soon as the disk cloning process is finished and unplug the source (SATA) hard drive;

- Boot into the newly cloned Windows from a RAID array and see if the problem still persists.

If the problem still persists then please do the following:

- Boot into Windows from the source (SATA) hard drive and create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

- Boot into Windows from a RAID array and and create Acronis Report and Windows System Information once more;

- Rename the files created to sysinfo_source.nfo, report_source.txt and sysinfo_destination.nfo and report_destination.txt accordingly.

Please submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Problem solved. Live and learn...

After Acronis Support indicated that my problem
was not a known user error, I spent the day on the
Microsoft.con web site and discovered a new (to me)
command, "mountvol":

Z:\>mountvol
Creates, deletes, or lists a volume mount point.

MOUNTVOL [drive:]path VolumeName
MOUNTVOL [drive:]path /D
MOUNTVOL [drive:]path /L
path Specifies the existing NTFS directory where the mount
point will reside.
VolumeName Specifies the volume name that is the target of the mount
point.
/D Removes the volume mount point from the specified directory.
/L Lists the mounted volume name for the specified directory.

Possible values for VolumeName along with current mount points are:

\\?\Volume{26f6f57c-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
G:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f57d-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
F:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f57e-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
C:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f57f-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
D:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f580-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
H:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f581-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
I:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f582-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
J:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f583-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
K:\
\\?\Volume{4c31c211-d428-11d9-aa74-806d6172696f}\
E:\
\\?\Volume{4c31c210-d428-11d9-aa74-806d6172696f}\
A:\

After a series of remove operations:

Z:\>mountvol K:\ /D
Z:\>mountvol J:\ /D
Z:\>mountvol I:\ /D
Z:\>mountvol H:\ /D
Z:\>mountvol G:\ /D

The unwanted mounted partitions are gone.
And, they are still gone after shutdown and reboot.

Z:\>mountvol
Creates, deletes, or lists a volume mount point.

MOUNTVOL [drive:]path VolumeName
MOUNTVOL [drive:]path /D
MOUNTVOL [drive:]path /L
path Specifies the existing NTFS directory where the mount
point will reside.
VolumeName Specifies the volume name that is the target of the mount
point.
/D Removes the volume mount point from the specified directory.
/L Lists the mounted volume name for the specified directory.

Possible values for VolumeName along with current mount points are:

\\?\Volume{26f6f57c-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
*** NO MOUNT POINTS ***
\\?\Volume{26f6f57d-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
F:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f57e-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
C:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f57f-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
D:\
\\?\Volume{26f6f580-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
*** NO MOUNT POINTS ***
\\?\Volume{26f6f581-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
*** NO MOUNT POINTS ***
\\?\Volume{26f6f582-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
*** NO MOUNT POINTS ***
\\?\Volume{26f6f583-9c02-11da-b0f4-806d6172696f}\
*** NO MOUNT POINTS ***
\\?\Volume{4c31c211-d428-11d9-aa74-806d6172696f}\
E:\
\\?\Volume{4c31c210-d428-11d9-aa74-806d6172696f}\
A:\

I do not know how or why this happened, but I am now
back in business...

Thank you,
Leo