Understanding Disk Location Paths

Note

This content applies to Windows 7. For Windows 8 content, see Windows Deployment with the Windows ADK.

If you are deploying Windows to a computer that has multiple hard disks, make sure your images are applied to the intended disks. You can identify each disk in the diskpart tool by using the location path, such as PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0100)#ATA(C00T00L00), which is based on the physical connection to the computer.

For BIOS-based computers or a computer running Virtual Disk Service (VDS), you can use the SELECT DISK=SYSTEM and SELECT DISK=NEXT commands to select the appropriate disks. For more information, see Manage Multiple BIOS-based Hard Disks.

In This Topic

Selecting the System Disk

Identifying a Disk Location Path

Location Path Format

Selecting the System Disk

Note

When configuring systems with multiple disks, do not use SELECT DISK=0 to specify the system disk. The computer may reassign disk numbers when you reboot, and different computers with the same disk configuration can have different disk numbers.

Identifying a Disk Location Path

To show the location path of the selected disk, use the diskpart command DETAIL DISK.

In this example, the location path of the selected disk is PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0100)#ATA(C00T00L00).

DISKPART> detail disk

HITACHI HTS722016K9SA00
Disk ID: 5E27161A
Type   : ATA
Bus    : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0100)#ATA(C00T00L00)
Read-only  : No
Boot Disk  : Yes
PagefileDisk  : Yes
Hibernation File Disk  : No
CrashdumpDisk  : Yes
Clustered Disk  : No


  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition    149 GB  Healthy    System

DISKPART>

To select a disk, use the diskpart command SELECT DISK=<location path>, where <location path> is the location path of your disk:

SELECT DISK= PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0100)#ATA(C00T00L00)

Location Path Format

For disks with SCSI/SAS/RAID bus type, format the location path as follows:

<PnP location path of the adapter>#<Bus Type>(P<Path ID>T<Target ID>L<LUN ID>)

For disks with ATA/SATA bus type, format the location path as follows:

<PnP location path of the adapter>#<Bus Type>(C<Channel ID>T<Target ID>L<LUN ID>)

The following table defines the elements in the location path.

Note

<PnP location path of the adapter>

<Target ID>

TargetId field of SCSI_ADDRESS. Retrieve by calling IOCTL_SCSI_GET_ADDRESS.

<LUN ID>

Lun field of SCSI_ADDRESS. Retrieve by calling IOCTL_SCSI_GET_ADDRESS.

The following table gives an example of a location path for each bus or disk type:

Bus/disk type	Location path
IDE\ATA\PATA\SATA	PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0100)#ATA(C01T03L00)
SCSI	PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1C00)#PCI(0000)#SCSI(P00T01L01)
SAS	PCIROOT(1)#PCI(0300)#SAS(P00T03L00)
PCI RAID	PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0200)#PCI(0003)#PCI(0100)#RAID(P02T00L00)

See Also

Concepts

Manage Multiple BIOS-based Hard Disks
Manage Multiple UEFI-based Hard Disks

Other Resources

Diskpart Command line syntax