"The Destination Directory Must Be on a Partition Formatted with NTFS" Error Message When You Try to Install Exchange Server 2003 on a Server Cluster

When you try to install Exchange Server 2003 on a cluster node, you receive the following error message: Note In this error message, the word "formated" is a misspelling for the word "formatted."

You receive this message even though the destination folder is on a partition that is formatted with the NTFS file system.

This issue may occur if both of the following are true:

• You try to install Exchange Server 2003 on a server cluster.
  
  -and-
• The hard disk configurations of each cluster node do not match.

For example, this issue may occur when the following example configuration exists:

• On cluster node A, drive C is defined where you install the Exchange Server 2003 binary files, and drive G is not defined.
• On cluster node B, drive G is defined where you try to install the Exchange Server 2003 binary files, but drive C is not defined.

When you try to install Exchange Server 2003 on the second cluster node, Exchange Server 2003 Setup obtains the installation location of the Exchange Server 2003 installation on the first cluster node. If that installation path does not exist on the second cluster node (for example, where a drive is not configured), Setup cannot continue.

To resolve this issue, reconfigure the cluster nodes to have matching hard disk configurations, and then install Exchange Server 2003.

For a technical overview of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 clustering services, visit the following Microsoft Web site: