Error: "System error 85 has occurred. The local device name is already in use."

Products

• Deployment Solution
• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

 When the client tries to boot into automation and maps the drive (using WinPE or DOS) it records the following error:

System error 85 has occurred.  The local device name is already in use.

Environment

DS 8.x

Cause

Due to DOS and WinPE being limited to mapping drives instead of mapping mount points like Linux does, and as they do not load the target machines registry in order to obtain currently assigned drive letters, they assign all detected drives automatically.  This means that if a machine has four or more drives, then DOS and WinPE will not be able to map to the F: drive, as it will already be used up during the drive mapping phase, causing the "System error 85 has occurred.  The local device name is already in use." error to be thrown

Resolution

As WinPE uses the X: drive for itself as well as the Z: drive for its RamDrive by default, it is recommended to use the Y: drive in the boot images to map to the eXpress share. 

Please be aware that if the target machine has 24 or more detectable drives, then WinPE will not work.  If it has 26 detectable drives, then DOS will not work either (25 drives would mean that the eXpress share mapping would have to be the Z: drive).  In cases like this, Altiris recommends to use Linux PE instead, as this uses mount points which does not have this limitation.

1. Another network drive was created (for storing images) using a share location also called "eXpress". The Altiris drive was being assigned to the wrong "eXpress" share location.
   1. Create a folder called Images2 under the remote share in NY and use this map share instead.
   2. Usually a remote share is called C:Images
           \\Servername\Images\Image.img
   3. Edit the NY Managed Winpe boot image to use the 'I' drive \\NYservername\Images
   4. Regenerate the NY Winpe Managed boot file.
      
      
2. 'F' may be used on a remote share for another drive
   1. Edit the WinPE PXE configuration and move the drive designation for the eXpress share from F to another lower letter such as I.
   2. Rebuild the entire WinPE boot file and save before testing the new configuration.
   3. Change the Drive mapping to 'I' in the control panel > Deployment Configuration> Options> Drive Mappings for remote share in NY>
   4. Give the same permissions on the Image folder as the default eXpress share. If using a local admin account add this account to the NTFS permissions full control
   5. The 'X' Drive is common for CD rom for Winpe