Data Backup and Recovery

Windows Volume/LUNS - Info Storage Location

darraghos
3,625 Views

Guys,

Just a quick question. When you present a LUN to a windows machine then create a volume on it, assign it a drive letter and give it a description, where is that info stored? I assume it it written to some sector on the LUN as it seems to follow the lun to another server when re-presented provided that server is not already using the drive letter.

Thanks in advance!

4 REPLIES 4

aborzenkov
3,625 Views

Drive letter assignment is kept locally in Windows registry on every system. MBR drives are identified by disk signature – unique number that is computed and stored in MBR the very first time disk is initialized by Windows. GPT drives have GUID for every partition that is computed when partition is initialized.

darraghos
3,625 Views

Hi, i kni of thought that windows would store this info in the registry but here's the thing. If i have a single volume for the system it obvuisly defuls to c:. In the past, i have presented a LUN to my windows systems, formatted it as  aprimimary partition (i.e. mbr) and given a drive letter of say Q. When i present that same storage to another system, it maintains the drive letter.

Perhaps i'm crazy!

aborzenkov
3,625 Views

Are you using SnapDrive to connect the LUN?

darraghos
3,625 Views

No, windows 2003 with iSCSI initiator

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