What does HRESULT 0xC0380046 (ERROR_VOLMGR_VOLUME_ID_INVALID) mean?

ERROR_VOLMGR_VOLUME_ID_INVALID

Locate the rejected storage invariant: volmgr volume id invalid

The practical meaning of ERROR_VOLMGR_VOLUME_ID_INVALID (0xC0380046) is tied to logical volume geometry and the disk extents that realize it: the volume identifier does not resolve to a volume in the selected pack generation. The result does not, by itself, prove file-system corruption or physical-media failure.

Evidence to preserve before repair

Keep this HRESULT as the primary result if rollback or cleanup reports another code; those later values describe recovery, not the first rejected invariant.

One-variable reproduction

1. Associate this result with one caller, one transaction and one target UniqueId.
2. Save the pre-call and post-call inventories, including volume ID, requested length, sector sizes, extent table, plex/member counts, disk health and the exact VM_VOLUME_LAYOUT buffer.
3. Use this A/B case without touching unrelated storage: serialize the exact VM_VOLUME_LAYOUT buffer, validate every count and Size field, and compare it with a layout produced by a known-good management API.
4. Validate both the HRESULT and the on-disk or provider state after the relevant reopen, remount or attach cycle.

ERROR_VOLMGR_UNEXPECTED_DISK_LAYOUT_CHANGE describes a nearby but different storage condition; this result indicates that the volume identifier does not resolve to a volume in the selected pack generation.

Mechanism-specific note

The identifier must be resolved in the same enumeration generation and provider scope that will execute the operation. Store the stable GUID plus the pack generation. Drive letters, friendly names and array positions are unsuitable substitutes because they can change independently of the underlying dynamic-volume object.

Repair without rewriting unrelated metadata

Refresh the disk layout, serialize the change as one volume-manager transaction and reject any external partition mutation until commit or rollback completes. After correcting it, reopen the pack, volume, tier, snapshot or virtual disk so no cached generation participates in the validation run.

• The original request now reaches success or a documented later status with the intended layout and access mode.
• A new enumeration reports internally consistent IDs, counts, geometry and ownership for the corrected object.
• The passing state survives the relevant lifecycle transition, such as reopen, remount, owner change or detach/attach.
• The application still distinguishes it from ERROR_VOLMGR_UNEXPECTED_DISK_LAYOUT_CHANGE and has no unbounded retry loop.

Technical references

• Microsoft: COM error codes for VOLMGR, VHD and SDIAG — use this source to verify volmgr state and parameters.
• Microsoft: Virtual Disk Service object model — documents the supported management path relevant to this HRESULT.
• Microsoft: Pack object — defines the volmgr objects used to interpret it.
• Microsoft: Virtual Disk Service common return codes — primary API or object-model reference.