CreateTapePartition function (winbase.h)

Article
10/13/2021

The CreateTapePartition function reformats a tape.

Syntax

DWORD CreateTapePartition(
  [in] HANDLE hDevice,
  [in] DWORD  dwPartitionMethod,
  [in] DWORD  dwCount,
  [in] DWORD  dwSize
);

Parameters

[in] hDevice

Handle to the device where the new partition is to be created. This handle is created by using the CreateFile function.

[in] dwPartitionMethod

Type of partition to create. To determine what type of partitions your device supports, see the documentation for your hardware. This parameter can have one of the following values.

Value	Meaning
TAPE_FIXED_PARTITIONS 0L	Partitions the tape based on the device's default definition of partitions. The dwCount and dwSize parameters are ignored.
TAPE_INITIATOR_PARTITIONS 2L	Partitions the tape into the number and size of partitions specified by dwCount and dwSize, respectively, except for the last partition. The size of the last partition is the remainder of the tape.
TAPE_SELECT_PARTITIONS 1L	Partitions the tape into the number of partitions specified by dwCount. The dwSize parameter is ignored. The size of the partitions is determined by the device's default partition size. For more specific information, see the documentation for your tape device.

[in] dwCount

Number of partitions to create. The GetTapeParameters function provides the maximum number of partitions a tape can support.

[in] dwSize

Size of each partition, in megabytes. This value is ignored if the dwPartitionMethod parameter is TAPE_SELECT_PARTITIONS.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is NO_ERROR.

If the function fails, it can return one of the following error codes.

Error	Description
ERROR_BEGINNING_OF_MEDIA 1102L	An attempt to access data before the beginning-of-medium marker failed.
ERROR_BUS_RESET 1111L	A reset condition was detected on the bus.
ERROR_END_OF_MEDIA 1100L	The end-of-tape marker was reached during an operation.
ERROR_FILEMARK_DETECTED 1101L	A filemark was reached during an operation.
ERROR_SETMARK_DETECTED 1103L	A setmark was reached during an operation.
ERROR_NO_DATA_DETECTED 1104L	The end-of-data marker was reached during an operation.
ERROR_PARTITION_FAILURE 1105L	The tape could not be partitioned.
ERROR_INVALID_BLOCK_LENGTH 1106L	The block size is incorrect on a new tape in a multivolume partition.
ERROR_DEVICE_NOT_PARTITIONED 1107L	The partition information could not be found when a tape was being loaded.
ERROR_MEDIA_CHANGED 1110L	The tape that was in the drive has been replaced or removed.
ERROR_NO_MEDIA_IN_DRIVE 1112L	There is no media in the drive.
ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED 50L	The tape driver does not support a requested function.
ERROR_UNABLE_TO_LOCK_MEDIA 1108L	An attempt to lock the ejection mechanism failed.
ERROR_UNABLE_TO_UNLOAD_MEDIA 1109L	An attempt to unload the tape failed.
ERROR_WRITE_PROTECT 19L	The media is write protected.

Remarks

Creating partitions reformats the tape. All previous information recorded on the tape is destroyed.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows XP [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	winbase.h (include Windows.h)
Library	Kernel32.lib
DLL	Kernel32.dll