Understanding NTFS volume mount point

This topic contains highlights about NTFS volume mount point:

About NTFS volume mount points

A volume mount point is a drive or volume in Windows that is mounted to a folder that uses the NTFS file system. A mounted drive is assigned a drive path instead of a drive letter. Volume mount points enable you to exceed the 26-drive-letter limitation. By using volume mount points, you can graft, or mount, a target partition onto a folder on another physical disk.

Volume mount point limitations

You can create volume mount points on either a shared or a dedicated disk. Volume mount points are not supported in the following scenarios:

When they are used with Windows clusters that are running Microsoft Windows 2000 or earlier.
For more details, refer to the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 819546.
When you create a volume mount point on a server cluster, consider the following key items regarding volume mount points:
- Volume mount points cannot go between clustered and nonclustered disks.
- You cannot create mount points that refer to the quorum disk.

Volume mount point limitations in a clustered environment

When creating mount points on a server cluster, you must keep these additional limitations in mind:

Volume mount points are not supported on clustered Windows 2000 Servers.
The mounted volume must be of the same type as its root:
- If the root volume is a shared cluster resource, the mounted volume must also be shared.
- If the root volume is dedicated, the mounted volume must also be dedicated.
You cannot create mount points to the quorum disk.
If you have a mount point from one shared cluster resource disk to another, ensure that the disks are in the same group and that the mounted disk resource is dependent on the root disk source.
For more details, refer to the Microsoft TechNet article 280297.