What does HRESULT 0x80042553 (VDS_E_ALIGN_BEYOND_FIRST_CYLINDER) mean?

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Offset and explicit alignment violate the first-cylinder rule.

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VDS_E_VOLUME_RETAINED	VDS_E_ALIGN_NOT_SECTOR_SIZE_MULTIPLE

VDS_E_ALIGN_BEYOND_FIRST_CYLINDER

This error maps directly to the parameter contract of IVdsCreatePartitionEx::CreatePartitionEx. When the caller specifies both ullOffset and ulAlign, VDS requires the offset to be within the first cylinder. The API then uses alignment rules to place the partition boundary.

Why this state matters

The failure is not a statement that the requested partition is “too far into the disk” in general. It is the combination of an explicit offset with an explicit alignment request that violates this legacy VDS creation contract. Preserve both original values and the disk style; removing one parameter changes the placement semantics and can produce a different partition start than the caller intended.

Diagnostic focus

Log ullOffset and ulAlign exactly as passed to CreatePartitionEx.
Confirm whether both values were intentionally specified rather than inherited from defaults.
Check the disk style and platform-specific rounding behavior documented for MBR and GPT.
Do not silently zero the offset or alignment without reviewing the resulting placement semantics.

Technical references

IVdsCreatePartitionEx::CreatePartitionEx · IVdsAdvancedDisk::CreatePartition · VDS_PARTITION_PROP · VDS_PARTITION_STYLE · MS-VDS error codes

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