Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--November 24, 2003

Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE, November 24, 2003, —brought to you by the Windows & .NET Magazine Network and the Windows 2000 FAQ site
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1. Commentary

2. FAQs

Q. How can I stop Windows Server 2003 from automatically mounting new volumes?
Q. How can I resolve Device Manager errors in Windows 2000 and later?
Q. How can I display all drivers on a Windows XP or later system from the command line?
Q. How can I easily construct the command-line syntax for a backup job in Windows XP and later?
Q. How can I create an Automated System Recovery (ASR) set if my PC doesn't have a 3.5" disk drive?

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1. Commentary
by John Savill, FAQ Editor, [email protected]

This week, I explain how to stop Windows Server 2003 from automatically mounting new volumes, how to resolve errors in Device Manager, and how to display all drivers on a Windows XP or later system from the command line. I also provide an easy way to construct the command-line syntax for a backup job and tell you how to create an Automated System Recovery (ASR) set for a machine that doesn't have a 3.5" disk drive.

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2. FAQs

Q. How can I stop Windows Server 2003 from automatically mounting new volumes?

A. By default, Windows 2003 automatically mounts and assigns a drive letter to any new volume introduced to the OS. (If the new volume is a dynamic volume, the OS attempts to assign the current drive letter unless that letter is already in use.) You can prevent Windows 2003 from automatically mounting new volumes using either of two methods.

The first method is to use the Mountvol command with the /n switch; go to the command prompt and type

mountvol /n

The second method is to use the Diskpart command with the automount disable option; go to the command prompt and type

diskpart

When the utility starts, you'll see the DISKPART> command prompt. At the prompt, type

automount disable

Your computer will display the message "Automatic mounting of new volumes disabled." To exit the utility, type

exit

Q. How can I resolve Device Manager errors in Windows 2000 and later?

A. The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Device Manager snap-in contains information about the devices on your system. If a device isn't working correctly, you'll see a yellow icon with an exclamation point (!) next to the device. If you right-click the device and select Properties, Windows will display the actual error message with an error code. The most common error codes and a suggested approach for resolving each problem are as follows:

code 1--Select the Driver tab, click Update Driver, then install an updated driver for the device (you should obtain the new driver from the manufacturer's Web site and ensure that your version of Windows supports the hardware).
code 3--This error can result from a lack of system resources. Check Task Manager to ensure that the system isn't low on memory. If the system has adequate memory available, the device driver might be corrupt, which might cause the device to think it needs more memory than it actually requires. Follow the steps for code 1 to replace the driver.
code 10--Select the Driver tab, click Update Driver, then select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" and manually select the correct driver.
code 12--This error occurs because the hardware conflicts with another device. From the device Properties dialog box, select the Resources tab to view the conflicting device in the "Conflicting device list" at the bottom of the screen. Remove the conflicting device, then re-add the device to see whether that device requests a different, nonconflicting resource. If these steps don't resolve the error, you'll need to manually assign resources for the two conflicting devices.
code 14--Restart the computer.
code 16--From the device Properties dialog box, select the Resources tab. If you see a question mark (?) next to one of the resources assigned to the device, select that resource to assign. If you can't change the resource, click Change Settings. If Change Settings is unavailable, try clearing the "Use automatic settings" check box to make Change Settings available. If the device isn't Plug and Play (PnP), check the hardware documentation for more information about installing and configuring the device.
code 22--The device is disabled; From the device Properties dialog box, click Enable Device.

For any code not listed, the best approach is to follow the steps for code 1 to update the driver.

Q. How can I display all drivers on a Windows XP or later system from the command line?

A. XP and later OSs come with a utility called Driverquery that lets you display information about all drivers on the system. From the command prompt, type

driverquery

To see a list of all applicable options, type

driverquery /?

To have the utility return more information about the drivers, enable verbose mode by typing

driverquery /v

You can also display the information in various formats. For example, to output the driver details in comma-separated value (CSV) format to ease the process of importing the data into a spreadsheet, type

driverquery /fo csv

When I run this command, my system displays

"Module Name","Display Name","Driver Type","Link Date"
"ac97intc","Intel(r) 82801 Audio Driver Install Service (WDM)","Kernel ","19/07/2001 23:43:40"
"ACPI","Microsoft ACPI Driver","Kernel ","29/08/2002 09:09:03"
"ACPIEC","ACPIEC","Kernel ","17/08/2001 21:57:55"
"adpu160m","adpu160m","Kernel ","30/05/2001 10:18:22"
"aec","Microsoft Kernel Acoustic Echo Canceller","Kernel ","12/08/2002 18:54:24"

"AFD","AFD Networking Support Environment","Kernel ","29/08/2002 10:01:13"
"agp440","Intel AGP Bus Filter","Kernel ","17/08/2001 21:57:59"

Also, be aware that several of the switches (i.e., /s, /u, and /p) let you execute the command against a remote system.

Q. How can I easily construct the command-line syntax for a backup job in Windows XP and later?

A. Because several switches and commands are available when performing a backup from the command line, keeping track of your backup configuration can get complex. Fortunately, you can use the Backup Wizard to construct a dummy backup job that lets you see the equivalent command-line options. To do so, perform the following steps:

Start Windows Backup.
Select the Schedule Jobs tab.
Select a day, then click Add Job, as this figure shows.
Click Next on the first screen of the Backup Wizard page that appears.
Select the files, folders, or drives that you want to back up, then click Next. (Depending on which options you select, you might have to navigate through additional screens to manually select the items you want to back up.)
Select the destination for the backup, then click Next.
Select the type of backup that you want to perform, then click Next.
Select any options you want performed during the backup (e.g., "Verify data after backup"), then click Next.
Select the backup overwrite options, then click Next.
Select when to run the backup, as this figure shows, give it a job name, then click Next.
Enter the user account information necessary to perform the backup, then click OK.
Click Finish.

Windows Backup will create a new backup job. Right-click the new job to display the Properties dialog box, then click the Properties button. Select the Task tab to view the Ntbackup command that will be used to run the backup job. For example, the Backup Wizard constructed the following Ntbackup command for my job:

G:\WINDOWS\system32\ntbackup.exe backup "@G:\Documents and
Settings\savijo\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
NT\NTBackup\data\Full system normal backup.bks" /n "backup.bkf created
13/11/2003 at 13:50" /d "Set created 13/11/2003 at
13:50" /v:no /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m normal /j "Full system normal
backup" /l:s /f "E:\backup.bkf"

Click Delete to remove the backup job. Easy! :-)

Q. How can I create an Automated System Recovery (ASR) set if my PC doesn't have a 3.5" disk drive?

A. An ASR set consists of a system backup and a 3.5" disk that lists the system files that are installed on the PC. If you don't have a 3.5" disk drive on your machine, you won't be able to create the ASR disk. However, you can still create an ASR disk by performing the following steps:

Run the ASR wizard, which is part of Windows Backup.
After you run the ASR Wizard, start Windows Explorer.
Navigate to the \%windir%\repair folder (e.g., C:\windows\repair).
Copy the asr.sif and asrpnp.sif files to a network location.
On a different networked computer that has a 3.5" disk drive, copy these files to a 3.5" disk and label the disk as your ASR disk.

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