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VDS_E_DELETE_WITH_CRITICAL
This HRESULT is a critical-volume deletion gate. It is deliberately broader than ordinary “volume in use” checks: VDS protects the active boot, system, pagefile, crash-dump, and hibernation roles because deleting the volume would invalidate running-system or recovery infrastructure. Force flags used by other storage operations are not documented as a bypass for this condition.
Why this state matters
Diagnosis should identify which critical role makes the target protected. The VDS disk flags expose those roles on the containing disk, but a disk can host multiple volumes, so retain the volume-to-disk extent mapping as well. Do not assume that a volume is safe to delete because it has no drive letter or because the Windows directory is on another volume.
Diagnostic focus
- Capture the target volume ID and map its extents to the containing disk or disks.
- Record BOOT_DISK, SYSTEM_DISK, PAGEFILE_DISK, HIBERNATIONFILE_DISK, and CRASHDUMP_DISK flags.
- Identify the exact current role before proposing any configuration migration or reboot.
- Do not substitute raw partition deletion while Windows still reports the volume as critical.
Technical references
VDS_DISK_FLAG · VDS_DISK_PROP · MS-VDS error codes · VDS common return codes · IVdsAdvancedDisk::Clean
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