Weird Macrium Reflect error

"The USB disk contains the maximum number of partitions allowed"

Macrium Reflect needs to make a new partition? As far as I know, being
freshly formatted in current Windows 10, the USB flash drive has one
partition. Copied a file to it. The file opens just fine.

Something weird about Windows 10 format nowadays? The authors have
developed a distaste for Windows?

Thanks.

John Doe wrote:
"The USB disk contains the maximum number of partitions allowed"

Macrium Reflect needs to make a new partition? As far as I know, being
freshly formatted in current Windows 10, the USB flash drive has one
partition. Copied a file to it. The file opens just fine.

Something weird about Windows 10 format nowadays? The authors have
developed a distaste for Windows?

Thanks.

Any chance this stick was previously GPT partitioned ?

It could be a false positive coming from some GPT
info the program has detected. And this wouldn't be
the first time, that uncleaned GPT info did that either.
(Other tools will make bogus claims, if you don't do a
good job of cleaning GPT off before switching back
to MBR.) And I can't give you a good reason,
why these softwares are doing that kind of sniffing either.

In Linux, you can put four partitions (in MSDOS legacy MBR
mode), and Linux can use all four.

If the device is then handed to Windows, only the first
partition mounts, and the last three are ignored. Windows
supports one partition that way.

I don't know whether putting GPT on the stick, changes the
behavior or not.

You can use HxD to examine the first blocks of the stick
and make sense of it. As far as I know, a USB stick can begin
with an MBR sector, or the first sector of the file system
can be located at Sector 0 (no MBR). In the latter case, obviously
there is zero possibility of adding another partition
(linux or not) - without an MBR, there's no partition table,
and no way to bootstrap GPT.

I don't know whether TestDisk will scan a USB stick.

The best collection of USB flash trivia, is here.

https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html

Paul

Paul wrote:

John Doe wrote:

"The USB disk contains the maximum number of partitions allowed"

Macrium Reflect needs to make a new partition? As far as I know,
being freshly formatted in current Windows 10, the USB flash
drive has one partition. Copied a file to it. The file opens just
fine.

Something weird about Windows 10 format nowadays? The authors
have developed a distaste for Windows?

Any chance this stick was previously GPT partitioned ?

It could be a false positive coming from some GPT info the program
has detected. And this wouldn't be the first time, that uncleaned
GPT info did that either. (Other tools will make bogus claims, if
you don't do a good job of cleaning GPT off before switching back
to MBR.) And I can't give you a good reason, why these softwares
are doing that kind of sniffing either.

In Linux, you can put four partitions (in MSDOS legacy MBR mode),
and Linux can use all four.

If the device is then handed to Windows, only the first partition
mounts, and the last three are ignored. Windows supports one
partition that way.

I don't know whether putting GPT on the stick, changes the
behavior or not.

You can use HxD to examine the first blocks of the stick and make
sense of it. As far as I know, a USB stick can begin with an MBR
sector, or the first sector of the file system can be located at
Sector 0 (no MBR). In the latter case, obviously there is zero
possibility of adding another partition (linux or not) - without
an MBR, there's no partition table, and no way to bootstrap GPT.

I don't know whether TestDisk will scan a USB stick.

The best collection of USB flash trivia, is here.

https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html

It requires special formatting.

Taken from their support pages, in haste, with some editing...

diskpart

list disk

select disk n

WARNING: SELECTING THE WRONG DISK ERASES IT (but of course anyone
who is smart enough to use a PC has backups)

clean

create par primary

active

This formats the newly created partition on the USB stick for legacy
MBR booting...

format FS=ntfs LABEL="Macrium WinPE" QUICK

If your system has GPT disks and uses the newer UEFI booting
standard then please type this instead...

format FS=FAT32 LABEL="Macrium" QUICK

exit

exit



--

Thanks to any replies that might be in the queue.

John Doe wrote:
Paul wrote:

John Doe wrote:

"The USB disk contains the maximum number of partitions allowed"

Macrium Reflect needs to make a new partition? As far as I know,
being freshly formatted in current Windows 10, the USB flash
drive has one partition. Copied a file to it. The file opens just
fine.

Something weird about Windows 10 format nowadays? The authors
have developed a distaste for Windows?

Any chance this stick was previously GPT partitioned ?

It could be a false positive coming from some GPT info the program
has detected. And this wouldn't be the first time, that uncleaned
GPT info did that either. (Other tools will make bogus claims, if
you don't do a good job of cleaning GPT off before switching back
to MBR.) And I can't give you a good reason, why these softwares
are doing that kind of sniffing either.

In Linux, you can put four partitions (in MSDOS legacy MBR mode),
and Linux can use all four.

If the device is then handed to Windows, only the first partition
mounts, and the last three are ignored. Windows supports one
partition that way.

I don't know whether putting GPT on the stick, changes the
behavior or not.

You can use HxD to examine the first blocks of the stick and make
sense of it. As far as I know, a USB stick can begin with an MBR
sector, or the first sector of the file system can be located at
Sector 0 (no MBR). In the latter case, obviously there is zero
possibility of adding another partition (linux or not) - without
an MBR, there's no partition table, and no way to bootstrap GPT.

I don't know whether TestDisk will scan a USB stick.

The best collection of USB flash trivia, is here.

https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html

It requires special formatting.

Taken from their support pages, in haste, with some editing...

diskpart

list disk

select disk n

WARNING: SELECTING THE WRONG DISK ERASES IT (but of course anyone
who is smart enough to use a PC has backups)

clean

create par primary

active

This formats the newly created partition on the USB stick for legacy
MBR booting...

format FS=ntfs LABEL="Macrium WinPE" QUICK

If your system has GPT disks and uses the newer UEFI booting
standard then please type this instead...

format FS=FAT32 LABEL="Macrium" QUICK

exit

exit

https://kb.macrium.com/knowledgebasearticle50210.aspx

"Note: this article is only relevant to releases newer than v5.2.6474."

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...B+rescue+media

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...B+rescue+media

"Disk Contains Maximum Partitions Allowed (Error Code 5)

All disks have a maximum number of primary partitions
(for pen drives this is 1, a limitation imposed by
Microsoft Windows, or 4 for hard disks).

Macrium Reflect needs to create a partition in order to
make the USB disk bootable but is unable to do so due
to the maximum partition count limitation.
"

So that means it doesn't like the partition you made,
and decided to try to make a second partition.

It's not supposed to overwrite existing partitions.
Perhaps that means the one and only partition must
be completely empty.

Paul

On Thu, 23 Aug 2018 23:51:36 -0400, Paul wrote:

John Doe wrote:
Paul wrote:

John Doe wrote:

"The USB disk contains the maximum number of partitions allowed"

Macrium Reflect needs to make a new partition? As far as I know,
being freshly formatted in current Windows 10, the USB flash
drive has one partition. Copied a file to it. The file opens just
fine.

Something weird about Windows 10 format nowadays? The authors
have developed a distaste for Windows?

Any chance this stick was previously GPT partitioned ?

It could be a false positive coming from some GPT info the program
has detected. And this wouldn't be the first time, that uncleaned
GPT info did that either. (Other tools will make bogus claims, if
you don't do a good job of cleaning GPT off before switching back
to MBR.) And I can't give you a good reason, why these softwares
are doing that kind of sniffing either.

In Linux, you can put four partitions (in MSDOS legacy MBR mode),
and Linux can use all four.

If the device is then handed to Windows, only the first partition
mounts, and the last three are ignored. Windows supports one
partition that way.

I don't know whether putting GPT on the stick, changes the
behavior or not.

You can use HxD to examine the first blocks of the stick and make
sense of it. As far as I know, a USB stick can begin with an MBR
sector, or the first sector of the file system can be located at
Sector 0 (no MBR). In the latter case, obviously there is zero
possibility of adding another partition (linux or not) - without
an MBR, there's no partition table, and no way to bootstrap GPT.

I don't know whether TestDisk will scan a USB stick.

The best collection of USB flash trivia, is here.

https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html

It requires special formatting.

Taken from their support pages, in haste, with some editing...

diskpart

list disk

select disk n

WARNING: SELECTING THE WRONG DISK ERASES IT (but of course anyone
who is smart enough to use a PC has backups)

clean

create par primary

active

This formats the newly created partition on the USB stick for legacy
MBR booting...

format FS=ntfs LABEL="Macrium WinPE" QUICK

If your system has GPT disks and uses the newer UEFI booting
standard then please type this instead...

format FS=FAT32 LABEL="Macrium" QUICK

exit

exit

https://kb.macrium.com/knowledgebasearticle50210.aspx

"Note: this article is only relevant to releases newer than v5.2.6474."

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...B+rescue+media

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/di...B+rescue+media

"Disk Contains Maximum Partitions Allowed (Error Code 5)

All disks have a maximum number of primary partitions
(for pen drives this is 1, a limitation imposed by
Microsoft Windows, or 4 for hard disks).

Macrium Reflect needs to create a partition in order to
make the USB disk bootable but is unable to do so due
to the maximum partition count limitation.
"

So that means it doesn't like the partition you made,
and decided to try to make a second partition.

It's not supposed to overwrite existing partitions.
Perhaps that means the one and only partition must
be completely empty.

I ran into that exact issue a few days ago, Macrium complaining about
'maximum number of partitions'. There was nothing on the USB stick that
I wanted to keep, so I blew away the single partition with MiniTool
Partition Wizard. With no partitions on the stick, Macrium happily
created what it needed without further ado.