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STATUS_DEVICE_NOT_READY
STATUS_DEVICE_NOT_READY indicates that the device addressed by the request is not currently ready to process I/O. The device can exist and be correctly configured while still being temporarily unavailable: removable media may be absent, a drive may be initializing, or a storage path may not yet be ready for use.
Why this is not necessarily a permanent hardware failure
Windows driver guidance classifies this status among conditions that can be caused by the user or by media state and that may justify asking for the correct media, retrying after readiness changes, or cancelling the request. That classification does not guarantee a benign cause, but it explains why the status should be handled differently from a deterministic invalid-parameter error.
Useful diagnostics
- Record the device path, media type, operation, and elapsed time since the device was attached or mounted.
- Check whether the problem occurs only with removable media, virtual drives, or a particular storage path.
- Inspect operating-system and controller events for resets, mount failures, or media changes.
- Use a bounded, policy-driven retry only when the device is expected to become ready; otherwise surface the condition to the user or operator.
Do not turn an unbounded retry into a substitute for readiness detection. A service that continues to queue writes to an unavailable device can exhaust resources and obscure the initial failure that explains why the device never became ready.
See IoIsErrorUserInduced, Notifying the File System of Possible Media Changes, and the NTSTATUS reference.
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