Help? How do I UNDO a mountvol /p in Win11 (Can't automount the disk anymore). Thanks!

[jeffw_00]

Hi - I had just updated my PC to Windows 11.  I found that an old exe I used for dismounting drives in scripts no longer worked.  Following some bad instructions on the web I did a mountvol /p on a drive.  Somehow this made it so this drive would never automount (i.e. if I unmount it (mountvol /D), and disconnect it, and later connect it, it doesn't show up as a drive with a letter, I need to do a mountvol  <letter>: <label>  where the <label> is a long descriptor like \\?\Volume{long hex string>\.)  I appear to have either done something permanent to the drive, marking it "don't automount me", or (more likely) made some permanent entry in some table in Windows marking this drive by label as "don't mount automatically".

 

Does anyone know how to undo this? (the effect of a mountvol /p?)

 

For reference see below. yes this was a dumb thing to do without reading the below twice.

 

mountvol

  /P          Removes the volume mount point from the specified directory,
                dismounts the volume, and makes the volume not mountable.
                You can make the volume mountable again by creating a volume
                mount point.

 

I assume the "creating a volume mount point" is the mountvol command I now have to use to mount it.  Using it does not cause the drive to later automount without giving that command.  

 

Thank You!

/j

[goretsky]

Hello,

I have mostly used DiskPart for volume management, but between looking at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/mountvol and https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/117336-enable-disable-automount-new-disks-drives-windows.html it seems the command to re-enable the automatic mounting of disk volumes is mountvol /e from an elevated Command Prompt.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[jeffw_00]

Thanks goretsky -  But that command does not take a specific disk as an argument - it was one of the first things I tried, and it didn't help with this drive.  Any other ideas? 

Thanks! 

[Bookmem]

6 hours ago, jeffw_00 said:

Thanks goretsky -  But that command does not take a specific disk as an argument - it was one of the first things I tried, and it didn't help with this drive.  Any other ideas? 

Thanks! 

Have you tried using "Disk management" to assign the drive a drive letter?

[goretsky]

16 hours ago, jeffw_00 said:

Thanks goretsky -  But that command does not take a specific disk as an argument - it was one of the first things I tried, and it didn't help with this drive.  Any other ideas? 

Thanks! 

 

Hello,

Have you restarted the system since performing the mountvol /e command?  Does the volume show up, either in the Windows Explorer or Disk Management?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[jeffw_00]

Goretsky - yes, several times 

 

Let me explain in more detail.  I have an external USB drive that is usually powered down.  Before I did something stupid (mountvol /p <drive letter>), whenever I powered it up the drive just appeared in file manager.  After I did the stupid thing, the drive does not appear automatically, I have to mount it using some manual method. This is true after several reboots.  Either the drive is somehow marked "don't mount me", or the PC has noted not to mount the drive automatically, and there doesn't seem to be a way to undo the stupid thing.  :-(.   TIA for any other suggestions for me to try.  

/j

Edited Sunday at 01:01 PM by jeffw_00

[goretsky]

Hello,

 

Did @Bookmem's suggestion to assign the drive a new letter via Disk Management (filename DISKMGMT.MSC) make any difference?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[jeffw_00]

Sorry -everything I try doesn't stick - next time I power up the drive I have to mount it (assign drive letter) manually  

[Bookmem]

4 hours ago, jeffw_00 said:

Sorry -everything I try doesn't stick - next time I power up the drive I have to mount it (assign drive letter) manually  

You didn't answer the question. Did you use Disk Management to assign a drive letter?

[crp]

"automount enable" from DiskPart didn't work?

Quote

 

DISKPART> help automount

    Enables or disables the automount feature.

Syntax:  AUTOMOUNT [ENABLE] [DISABLE] [SCRUB] [NOERR]

    ENABLE      Enables Windows to automatically assign drive letters
                to volumes that are added to the system.

    DISABLE     Prevents Windows from automatically assigning drive letters
                to volumes that are added to the system.

    SCRUB       Removes mounted folder pathnames, drive letters, mounted
                folder directories, and registry settings, for volumes that
                are no longer in the system. This prevents volumes that were
                previously in the system from being automatically assigned
                their former drive letters and mounted folder pathnames when
                they are reintroduced to the system.

    NOERR       For scripting only. When an error is encountered, DiskPart
                continues to process commands as if the error did not occur.
                Without the NOERR parameter, an error causes DiskPart to exit
                with an error code.

    When the AutoMount feature is enabled (the default on some versions
    of Windows Server), Windows automatically brings the volume online,
    and, assigns a drive letter and a volume GUID pathname to the volume,
    when the volume is added to the system. In storage area network (SAN)
    configurations, disabling AutoMount prevents Windows from automatically
    onlining the volume and assigning drive letters or volume GUID pathnames
    to any new volumes that are visible to the system.

    Note that the AutoMount feature could only be applied to basic disk
    volumes on Windows versions released prior to Windows Vista. Starting
    with Windows Vista, the AutoMount feature can be applied to both basic
    and dynamic disk volumes.

Example:

    AUTOMOUNT
    AUTOMOUNT ENABLE
    AUTOMOUNT DISABLE