stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:18:14 Z

HI,
I have unformatted volumes as resources in my cluster.
Each time I do a switch over I get this message, which is dangerous because in mistake I can format the volume and delete it's contents!
Is there a way to disable this message?
Thanks, Anat

anat

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 07:41:07 Z

you may not have unformatted resources.

a physical disk under cluster control must be formatted NTFS.

Format your disks NTFS or delete the clustered resources and offline the disk

rgds,
Edwin.

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:32:02 Z

What OS are you running? After a failover and you get that message, does the volume appear ok and accessible? Have you opened up the System event log and looked for any errors? (such as lost delay writes). Do you have some non-cluster aware app which has an open handle to the disk which is corrupting it when the volume is dismounted? (you can find tools to help you discover this here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cb56073f-62a3-4ed8-9dd6-40c84cb9e2f5.aspx)

Thanks!
Elden

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:45:25 Z

Hi, I'm running the windows server 2008. after the switchover ( when I recieve these messages) the volumes are fine, and there are no errors in the event log. The problem is not related to failed i/o this message appears every switchover regardless of i/o

( it happended to me when there was no application writing to it)

Is there a way to tell the os not to send these error messages to specific volumes?

anat

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:42:30 Z

Dear Anathe,

in your first post you say

"I have unformatted volumes as resources in my cluster"

in your last post you say

"tell the os not to send these error messages to specific volumes"

These two statements are a bit contradicting

if they are "unformatted" then you do not have "volumes"
and if you have "volumes" then they must be "formatted"

So here is my question:
- for each disk in your cluster,
-- configured as a clustered physical disk resource,
---in all your application groups and in available storage,

are all of them formatted ?

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:48:56 Z

HI,
I'm sorry for my inaccurate description.
My Resources are physical disks. On the physical disks I have volumes which some of them are formatted and some are not.

anat

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:30:39 Z

and for cluster, your volumes MUST be formatted NTFS

why are you not formatting your volumes ?

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:36:37 Z

This is a reuirement for an application that I'm running (which is cluster aware) to have a volume which is not formatted.
The application works, and the volume acts fine, I just want to get rid of these messages.

anat

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:12:08 Z

in that case, you should really contact your application vendor to assist you.

I could be wrong, but part of the cluster check is an IsAlive and LooksAlive checks, which basically do a FindFirstFile() on the volume/filesystem... as you do not have a filesystem, this should be failing, and could cause the symptom you are experiencing.

what application if I may ask ?

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:09:55 Z

Hi Edwin,
Thanks for your reply.
Information regarding the application I'm using, I'd happy to explain on a less public forum, or via mail.

I'm curious about the functions you mentioned, " IsAlive" and "LooksAlive".
If on the physical disks I have atleast one formatted volume ( and one or more volumes which are not formatted), the check that you mentioned should be ok, since i have one file system on the disk...

anat

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:34:44 Z

So, you have 1 disk with multiple volumes, one of those is formatted the others are not

is that correct ?

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:20:04 Z

Yes.

anat

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:23:41 Z

ok, well that would not be a "best practice"

best practice would be

1 disk, with one partition, with one formatted NTFS volume, and this is represented by one physical disk resource in cluster.

I believe the error message is comming from the way you have configured this.

so, you seriously need to talk to your application vendor who requires you to configure it like that

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:55:11 Z

Instead of lambasting Anat with "Best practice", it might be more benificial to listen to him. (In my opinion, this is what gives Microsoft a bad reputation, by not listening to their users.)

This is a confirmed issue. It occurs when ever a newly created LUN is presented to the OS. It will incorrectly throw up a message box that says "You need to format the disk in drive C: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?" Not only is the drive incorrectly identified, but it does not do this on any other versions of windows. In automation, I had one box that filled up with 200 message boxs!!

It is a bug. It needs to be addressed.

Thanks!

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:47:16 Z

Dear RTHawk,

I was not "lambasting" the OP at all, and if it seems that way, then I appologize.

I was trying to help him with a cluster problem and in this case the route to the application vendor is the correct one, as cluster expects an NTFS file system for a clustered disk.

In regard to the "bug" you are describing, I can indeed see that this is causing troubles, and agree that something need to be looked at.
Unfortunately I do not work for Microsoft, so the only advice I can give you for this is to open a Case with Microsoft Support and file a bug-report for this.

Rgds,
Edwin.

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:05:23 Z

Hi,

I have the same issue in Vista and Windows 7 OS.
Please post the solution for this issue if you addressed.

Thanks in advance
Vidhyashok

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:59:41 Z

I would also want a way to turn off this message. I have a partition on an USB drive that is formatted with a custom non-Microsoft file system. And I don't want this message. I'm afraid I will accidentally press Yes at one point. Also, it's annoying.

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:08:06 Z

I would check that the filesystems drivers are properly installed.

When PnP is enumerating the volume on your USB drive, it will look for the appropriate (file system) driver.

If your file system driver is properly installed and you still get this message, then contact your file system driver vendor to further troubleshoot. Or alternatively if you have developed this custom filesystem in house, open a case with Microsoft for development support.

There is no "generic" way of turning off this behaviour

HTH,
Edwin.

stop recieving message "you need to format the disk in drive XXX: before you can use it. Do you want to format?" each switchover in cluster

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:14:43 Z

I would check that the filesystems drivers are properly installed.

That's the problem. There is no driver for it. It's not used with a driver. So I will always get this message until there is a way to turn it off.