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Question
Friday, January 12, 2018 11:30 PM | 1 vote
I'm running a release version of Win10 (1709 now) , and I have the feeling that either the 1709 or 1703 update brought the possibility to see and mount all partitions even on removable drives. This was not possible before, you could only see the first partition. I'm just not sure when it started happening, so I can't blame any particular update.
What's weird - I can't google any info about this feature. Do you know if it was officially announced somewhere, or can you at least confirm it also works at other computers?
For a long time I've had an SD card with 2 partitions, which is always inserted in my notebook. I was used to only see the first partition, but now I can also see the other partition automatically mounted. I know that there are some hacks to see all partitions, but they require either installing an unsigned device driver, or using a utility that flips a bit in the firmware of the removable drive. I'm not aware of doing any of these things. And, I can also see all partitions of my USB pendrive, which also wasn't possible before.
Not sure if (cor)related, but my SD card started to receive a readonly flag from time to time (mainly after waking up from sleep). This also did not happen before, but I'm not sure if this issue started at the same time as the possibility to see all partitions. No errors in event log, diskpart cannot clear the flag, but ejecting and reinserting (and sometimes chkdsk) fixes the SD card so I can write to it again. First, I was worried that the card or the reader are defect, but chkdsk never finds anything wrong with the card (except the dirty flag).
All replies (20)
Wednesday, February 7, 2018 1:55 AM âś…Answered | 2 votes
Hi Martin,
Based on my research, I found this feature is added starting with Windows 10 1703 version. This is the first Windows build that supports multiple partitions on removable media (like USB-Sticks).
Here is an article:
https://borncity.com/win/2017/04/22/windows-10-version-1703-usb-stick-multi-partition-support/
Please Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
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Saturday, January 13, 2018 12:10 PM
Here's the diskpart view of the SD card (other volumes/disks are left out for clarity)
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
...
Disk 1 Online 117 GB 2048 KB
DISKPART> select disk 1
Disk 1 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> list partition
Partition ### Type Size Offset
Partition 1 Primary 117 GB 1024 KB
Partition 2 Primary 251 MB 117 GB
DISKPART> list vol
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
...
Volume 5 G PECI-SD NTFS Removable 117 GB Healthy
Volume 6 W LIVECD FAT Removable 251 MB Healthy
Monday, January 15, 2018 7:07 AM
Hi Martin,
Could you share the exact screenshot about your "readonly flag" for further analysis?
What if you unplug it and insert it again to see if the issue has gone.
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Monday, January 15, 2018 8:46 AM
Yes, here's the listing. And do you know something about the ability to mount multiple partitions?
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
...
Disk 1 Online 117 GB 2048 KB
DISKPART> select disk 1
Disk 1 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> attrib disk
Current Read-only State : Yes
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No
DISKPART> attrib disk clear readonly
Disk attributes cleared successfully.
DISKPART> attrib disk
Current Read-only State : Yes
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No
And after a few re-insertions of the SD card and running "chkdsk G: /offlinescanandfix":
DISKPART> select disk 1
Disk 1 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> attrib disk
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No
So the SD card is definitely not damaged (or at least not permanently damaged).
The output of the chkdsk:
$ chkdsk G: /offlinescanandfix
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is PECI-SD.
Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
78592 file records processed.
File verification completed.
1 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
1497 reparse records processed.
79990 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
1497 reparse records processed.
Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
700 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
80150352 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.
123273753 KB total disk space.
104467292 KB in 8136 files.
3752 KB in 701 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
226597 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
18576112 KB available on disk.
4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
30818438 total allocation units on disk.
4644028 allocation units available on disk.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018 9:54 AM
Hi Martin,
Since I have no removable device to do test. Could you give a screenshot of "readonly flag"?
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Tuesday, January 16, 2018 10:02 AM
Hi Karen, I've provided a "view" of the readonly flag in the previous listing:
DISKPART> attrib disk
Current Read-only State : Yes
Otherwise, if I try to create a file/folder on the G: drive, it just doesn't appear. If I try to run the graphical disk integrity check from disk properties, it yells at me that the drive is readonly and it won't proceed.
As I've already told, event log shows no related entries.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018 9:50 AM
Martin,
According to your description, after unplug and re-insert with running "chkdsk G: /offlinescanandfix, its status correct as below:
DISKPART> attrib disk
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
So I think that's the SD card problem. We can insert it into another computer to see if the issue again to narrow down it.
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Wednesday, January 17, 2018 10:21 AM
Yesterday I just reinserted the card without running chkdsk at all, and it became writable again.
I don't have another notebook with Win 10 and SD card reader, but I can try connecting this card through an external memory card reader and see if it happens with that reader.
Thursday, January 18, 2018 9:14 AM
Any update?
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Thursday, January 18, 2018 9:29 AM
Any update?
Not yet, hopefully next week.
Thursday, January 18, 2018 9:34 AM
Ok, Look forward to receiving your reply.
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Friday, February 2, 2018 8:21 AM
Any update?
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Friday, February 2, 2018 9:57 AM
Yes. I've been testing with the SD card in an external reader in the last 2 weeks, and it had never switched to the readonly mode. So it's probably a problem with the integrated reader and I'll contact HP about that.
So it's time to return back to the first part of the question - why does the system suddenly see all partitions on the cards? Where is it documented?
Monday, February 5, 2018 9:11 AM
I suspect that's also cause by intergrated reader. Please fix it firstly then check the result.
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Monday, February 5, 2018 9:33 AM
It's definitely not. I see multiple partitions of USB thumbdrives, too.
Tuesday, February 6, 2018 9:48 AM
Hi martin,
On Windows 10 computer, I also could see all partitions of USB drive. That's normal behavior.
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Tuesday, February 6, 2018 10:18 AM
Thank for trying, Karen. For a long time, it wasn't normal. And I'm asking where is this change documented or at least announced, since it looks like a big change to me.
Wednesday, February 7, 2018 2:06 AM
Thanks for the link, my google-fu was obviously not good enough. So I'm not the only one wondering where are the release notes and MSDN articles describing this feature :) It'd be of great help, because internet is now full of articles telling you that Windows cannot mount multiple partitions from removable drives and hint people to install some more or less dangerous third-party software. Can Microsoft make an official description of this feature?
Wednesday, February 7, 2018 2:14 AM
Hi Martin,
Your advice is very reasonable. And I would submit this feedback via our own channel.
Thanks for your feedback.
In addition, let's confirm if this thread can be closed if your issue was resolved.
If yes, please mark the helpful reply as answer in order that other community members could find the helpful reply quickly.
If no, please reply and tell us the current situation in order to provide further help.
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Monday, December 9, 2019 9:11 AM
Windows 10 -
This is late reply, but to clear up the support for more than one partition on a removable USB FLASH DRIVE, and SD CARD, Microsoft did post this as a new feature in their tech support pages that Build 1703 would see more than one partition.