When I try to assign a drive letter to a hard disk drive in Windows Server 2003, I receive an error message: "The path cannot be used for creating a drive path"

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

This problem occurs if the Windows disk filter driver entry is missing from the registry. When the entry is missing, the PartMgr filter driver may not start. To resolve this problem, add the UpperFilters entry to the registry, make sure that the PartMgr driver is configured to start when the computer starts, and then restart the computer. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
4. Type UpperFilters to name the new entry, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click UpperFilters, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type PartMgr, and then click OK.
7. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PartMgr
8. In the details pane, examine the value of the Start registry entry. To start PartMgr when the computer starts, this value must be 0x00000000.
9. Exit all programs, and then restart the computer.

Note The following table lists the service startup types that are available in Windows.
Typically, device drivers are set to use a startup type of Boot or System. Typical Windows services are set to use a startup type of Automatic or Manual.