Some things to consider when you work with hidden volumes in Windows Server 2003 (841000)

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The following are some things to consider when you work with volumes that have the hidden attribute set on a Windows Server 2003-based computer:

• If you convert a volume that has the hidden attribute set from a basic volume to a dynamic volume, the hidden attribute is removed. Additionally, even if the automount option is enabled, the volume is no longer assigned a drive letter. After you convert a hidden basic volume to a dynamic volume, use either the Diskpart.exe command-line tool or Disk Management to manually assign a drive letter to the dynamic volume.
• Remote users who connect to the computer cannot identify hidden volumes. There is no option that remote users can use to view or modify the attributes that are set on a hidden volume.
• You can assign a drive letter to a hidden volume, although the volume was already previously assigned a drive letter. Although the volume has two drive letters assigned to it, only one of the assigned driver letters is displayed at a time. You may experience this behavior if the following conditions are true, in the order that they are presented:
  1. You create a new partition, and then you assign the new partition a drive letter.
  2. You set the hidden attribute on the new volume that you created.
  In this situation, Windows Server 2003 does not prevent you from assigning the hidden volume another drive letter. If you assign the hidden volume another drive letter, and then you remove the hidden attribute from the volume, the volume uses the original drive letter that you specified when you created the new partition.
  
  For example, if you originally assigned the partition the drive letter E, and then you assigned the hidden volume the drive letter H, the volume now uses drive letter E. The drive letter that you assigned to the volume when the volume was hidden cannot be assigned to other partitions until you restart the computer. In this example, you cannot assign the drive letter H to other partitions until you restart the computer.

For more information about the Diskpart.exe command-line tool in Windows Server 2003, visit the following Microsoft Web site: