You are prompted to restart your computer when you connect a fiber channel array in Windows 2000 (833776)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

SYMPTOMS

When you connect a fiber channel array controller and a fiber channel array to your Microsoft Windows 2000 Server-based computer, you may receive the following message in the notification area:Windows has finished installing new devices. You must restart your computer before the new settings will take effect. Do you want to restart your computer now?

CAUSE

This problem occurs because of a race condition that may occur when you connect the fiber channel array. When you create a new logical volume, the Windows Plug and Play component must install that device. This process involves removing the device and then restarting it. Some components can override the device removal operation by holding open handles or references to the device. When these components override the device removal operation, Plug and Play postpones the device installation until after you restart the computer.

In the scenario that this article describes, the volume manager driver (Ftdisk) exposes the new volume device to Plug and Play, and then Ftdisk polls the mount manager component (Mountmgr) one time per second until Mountmgr announces the arrival of the new volume. This call to Mountmgr causes the reference count of the new volume device to be incremented for a short time. If Plug and Play tries to remove the device during this time, the removal operation is unsuccessful, and the message that is described in the "Symptoms" section of this article appears in the notification area.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, ignore this notification message. When you next restart the computer, Plug and Play finishes the installation of the device.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft recommends that you restart your computer when you are prompted to do so. However, no known issues currently occur if you ignore the notification message that the "Symptoms" section of this article describes. If you do not restart your computer when you receive this notification message, a drive letter may not be automatically assigned to the volume. In this scenario, you must manually assign a drive letter.

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:2/23/2004
Keywords:kbwinservsetup kbDiskMemory kbFileSystems kbnofix kbBug KB833776 kbAudITPRO