What does Windows error code 1111 (ERROR_BUS_RESET) mean?

 
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ERROR_MEDIA_CHANGED ERROR_NO_MEDIA_IN_DRIVE

ERROR_BUS_RESET

the i/o bus was reset.

ERROR_BUS_RESET means that a storage or device bus reset interrupted the assumptions of the current I/O operation.

Where the result appears

  • SCSI, SAS, USB, Fibre Channel, virtual storage, and other device stacks.
  • device recovery after timeout or transport error.
  • path failover and controller reset.
  • hot-plug, power, firmware, or virtualization events.

Typical causes

  • a device or command timed out and the stack reset the bus to recover.
  • controller, cable, power, firmware, or transport instability.
  • another initiator or management action triggered a reset.
  • virtualization or multipath failover recreated the device path.

What to collect

  • device instance/path, controller, transport, reset timestamp, and affected commands.
  • storage, kernel, multipath, hypervisor, and hardware event logs.
  • timeouts or errors immediately preceding the reset.
  • firmware/driver versions, topology, power state, and recurrence pattern.

Handling and recovery

Assume in-flight requests may need revalidation. Reopen or re-query device state according to the API contract, and retry only operations documented as safe and idempotent. Repeated resets are a reliability incident requiring transport and hardware investigation, not an application-level retry problem.

Common misinterpretation

A bus reset is broader than a single command failure and does not automatically mean the target device itself is defective.

References


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