You can list the available objects and determine an object's number or drive letter by using the list disk, list volume, and list partition commands. The list disk and list volume commands display all disks and volumes on the computer. However, the list partition command only displays partitions on the disk that has focus. When you use the list commands, an asterisk (*) appears next to the object with focus. You select an object by its number or drive letter, such as disk 0, partition 1, volume 3, or volume C.

When you select an object, the focus remains on that object until you select a different object. For example, if the focus is set on disk 0 and you select volume 8 on disk 2, the focus shifts from disk 0 to disk 2, volume 8. Some commands automatically change the focus. For example, when you create a new partition, the focus automatically switches to the new partition.

You can only give focus to a partition on the selected disk. When a partition has focus, the related volume (if any) also has focus. When a volume has focus, the related disk and partition also have focus if the volume maps to a single specific partition. If this is not the case, focus on the disk and partition is lost.

• active
• add disk
• assign
• attributes
• automount
• break disk
• clean
• convert basic
• convert dynamic
• convert gpt
• convert mbr
• create partition efi
• create partition extended
• create partition logical
• create partition msr
• create partition primary
• create volume raid
• create volume simple
• create volume stripe
• delete disk
• delete partition
• delete volume
• exit
• extend
• gpt attributes
• help
• import
• inactive
• list partition
• list volume
• online
• rem
• remove
• repair disk
• rescan
• retain
• select disk
• select partition
• select volume

Only partitions can be marked as active.

Important

• DiskPart verifies only that the partition is capable of containing the operating system startup files. DiskPart does not check the contents of the partition. If you mistakenly mark a partition as active and it does not contain the operating system startup files, your computer might not start.

By using the assign command, you can change the drive letter associated with a removable drive.

You cannot assign drive letters to system volumes, boot volumes, or volumes that contain the paging file. In addition, you cannot assign a drive letter to an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partition or any GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition other than a basic data partition.

By default, the contents of both halves of the mirror are retained. Each half becomes a simple volume. By using the nokeep parameter, you retain only one half of the mirror as a simple volume, and the other half is deleted and converted to free space. Neither volume receives the focus.

Important

• The disk must be empty to convert it to a dynamic disk. Back up your data, and then delete all partitions or volumes before converting the disk.

Important

• The disk must be empty to convert it to a GPT disk. Back up your data, and then delete all partitions or volumes before converting the disk.

Important

• The disk must be empty to convert it to an MBR disk. Back up your data, and then delete all partitions or volumes before converting the disk.

Caution

• Be very careful when using the create partition msr command. Because GPT disks require a specific partition layout, creating Microsoft reserved partitions could cause the disk to become unreadable. On GPT disks that are used to start Windows XP 64-bit Edition (Itanium), the EFI System partition is the first partition on the disk, followed by the Microsoft Reserved partition. GPT disks used only for data storage do not have an EFI System partition; the Microsoft Reserved partition is the first partition.

  Windows XP 64-bit Edition (Itanium) does not mount Microsoft reserved partitions. You cannot store data on them and you cannot delete them.

Caution

• Deleting a partition on a dynamic disk can delete all dynamic volumes on the disk, thus destroying any data and leaving the disk in a corrupt state. To delete a dynamic volume, always use the delete volume command instead.

Partitions can be deleted from dynamic disks, but they should not be created. For example, it is possible to delete an unrecognized GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition on a dynamic GPT disk. Deleting such a partition does not cause the resulting free space to become available. This command is intended to allow reclamation of the space on a corrupted offline dynamic disk in an emergency situation where the clean command cannot be used.

If the partition was previously formatted with the NTFS file system, the file system is automatically extended to occupy the larger partition. No data loss occurs. If the partition was previously formatted with any file system format other than NTFS, the command fails with no change to the partition.

You cannot extend the current system or boot partitions.

extendfilesystem [noerr]

Important

• Changing the GPT attributes might cause your basic data volumes to be unmountable or fail to be assigned drive letters. Unless you are an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or an IT professional experienced with GPT disks, do not change GPT attributes.

Caution

• Your computer might not start without an active partition. Do not mark a system or boot partition as inactive unless you are an experienced user with a thorough understanding of Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

  If you are unable to start your computer after marking the system or boot partition as inactive, insert the Setup CD in the CD-ROM drive, restart the computer, and then repair the partition using the Fixmbr and Fixboot commands in the Recovery Console. For more information about the Recovery Console, see Recovery Console overview and Recovery Console commands .

   

rem These commands set up 3 drives.

create partition primary size=2048

assign d:

create partition extend

create partition logical size=2048

assign e:

create partition logical

assign f:

The remove command can be used to change the drive letter associated with a removable drive. You cannot remove the drive letters on system, boot, or paging volumes. In addition, you cannot remove the drive letter for an OEM partition, any GPT partition with an unrecognized GUID, or any of the special, non-data, GPT partitions such as the EFI system partition.

Creates a partition entry in the master boot record (MBR) on the dynamic simple volume with focus. To create an MBR partition, the dynamic simple volume must start at a cylinder-aligned offset and be an integral number of cylinders in size.

Creates a partition entry in the GUID partition table (GPT) on the dynamic simple volume with focus.

Important

• When using the DiskPart command as a part of a script, it is recommended that you complete all of the DiskPart operations together as part of a single DiskPart script. You can run consecutive DiskPart scripts, but you must allow at least 15 seconds between each script for a complete shutdown of the previous execution before running the DiskPart command again in successive scripts. Otherwise, the successive scripts might fail. You can add a pause between consecutive DiskPart scripts by adding the timeout /t 15 command to your batch file along with your DiskPart scripts.

Using this script, DiskPart would create a 3 GB simple volume on disk 2 (an existing dynamic disk) and assign that volume drive letter G.

To run a DiskPart script, at the command prompt, change to the directory where the script file is located and then type:

diskpart /sScriptName.txt

Where ScriptName.txt is the name of the text file that contains your script, for example, simple_volume.txt.

To redirect a DiskPart script’s output to a text file, type:

diskpart /sScriptName.txt > LogFile.txt

Where LogFile.txt is the name of the text file where DiskPart writes the output.

When DiskPart starts, the DiskPart version and computer name are displayed at the command prompt. By default, if DiskPart encounters an error while attempting to perform a scripted task, DiskPart stops processing the script and displays an error message (unless you specified the noerr parameter). DiskPart, however, always returns errors when it encounters syntax errors, regardless of whether you used the noerr parameter. The noerr parameter enables you to perform useful tasks. For example, you can use a single script to delete all partitions on all disks regardless of the total number of disks.

The following table lists the DiskPart error codes.