What does HRESULT 0xC0380048 (ERROR_VOLMGR_VOLUME_LENGTH_NOT_SECTOR_SIZE_MULTIPLE) mean?

ERROR_VOLMGR_VOLUME_LENGTH_NOT_SECTOR_SIZE_MULTIPLE

What this result says about the disk model: volmgr volume length not sector size multiple

ERROR_VOLMGR_VOLUME_LENGTH_NOT_SECTOR_SIZE_MULTIPLE (0xC0380048) is emitted by the volmgr path when the logical volume length is not aligned to the sector size required by every participating disk. The deciding object is logical volume geometry and the disk extents that realize it, so the first investigation belongs there rather than in a generic “disk failure” bucket.

Keep the first result attached to its request parameters and object instance. Cleanup failures or a later drive-letter change are secondary evidence, not replacements for the original failure.

Capture the exact object instance

Prove the condition in a test volume

1. serialize the failing request and the enumeration from which its identifiers came.
2. Preserve volume ID, requested length, sector sizes, extent table, plex/member counts, disk health and the exact VM_VOLUME_LAYOUT buffer while every handle is still valid.
3. Repeat the operation using this controlled change: compare a disk set with identical logical sector sizes against one mixed-geometry test set while keeping extent counts unchanged.
4. Close and reacquire the relevant objects, then run once more to test lifecycle correctness after this result.

Use ERROR_VOLMGR_VOLUME_LENGTH_INVALID as the nearest comparison. It is specific to the logical volume length is not aligned to the sector size required by every participating disk; the neighboring result belongs to another validation or lifecycle branch. Keeping both names prevents a generic storage label from hiding the actual owner.

Mechanism-specific note

Record logical and physical sector sizes for every layer: image format, host file system and physical disk. Alignment must be checked with integer arithmetic before truncation. Copying an image to a different device can change the host geometry even when the image bytes and virtual capacity remain identical.

Safe recovery path

Rebuild the layout from enumerated objects and checked arithmetic rather than patching one serialized field; validate counts, indices, sizes, alignment and overflow before submission. The repair is incomplete until a fresh enumeration and new handle observe the corrected state.

• The controlled A/B case changes only the invariant that triggers this result.
• No unrelated disk, cluster owner, tier policy or virtual-disk backing file is altered to hide it.
• Health, synchronization or job state reaches a terminal value consistent with the repaired operation.
• Telemetry includes both symbolic names when it or ERROR_VOLMGR_VOLUME_LENGTH_INVALID occurs again.

Technical references

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