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The Radio 3 Boards > General Chat > The Coffee Bar > The IT Helpdesk. > Drive Letters for External Hard Drives etc
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Author Topic: Drive Letters for External Hard Drives etc  (Read 223 times)
Andy D
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« on: 18:11:10, 09-08-2008 »
Does anyone know how Windows allocates drive letters when you plug in an external hard drive or whatever - and is there a way of controlling it, other than retrospectively, by starting "disk management" and changing the letter?

My drives seem to get the same letter most times, but not always - and that's not because the letter has already been allocated to another drive -  I've just plugged in the drive which is normally "G" and it's been allocated "F" this time - and nothing is occupying "G". This is quite important because Sony's SonicStage (for example) records the location of an audio file as H:\........ because I keep all the MD recordings that I've imported on an external HD which usually gets allocated "H".

Oh for the simplicity of Linux where drives are called by their real names eg my Icy Box 1 is called IB1.
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time_is_now
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« Reply #1 on: 18:18:33, 09-08-2008 »
I don't really know the full answer, Andy, but what I do know is that I only normally use one USB plug-in, which is my memory stick, and it's always allocated as E:/. Recently, however, I've been using a dongle for internet access, which gets allocated to E:/, so if I plug in the memory stick while E:/ is already occupied, the memory stick gets allocated to F:/. This all seems quite straightforward and logical but I'm pretty sure I've used machines with more hardware attached and the pattern has seemed less predictable.

The only other thing I do know is that some settings related to this issue are stored in the registry, which means for example that if I re-order the files on my memory stick, this machine remembers the last order I had them in on this machine, even if I've used the stick on another computer in the meantime and viewed them in a different order there. On the other hand if I use something else in drive E:/ in the meantime and then plug the memory stick back in, the Windows Explorer memory gets reset and the file display reverts to default order.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #2 on: 23:47:53, 09-08-2008 »
My experience is the same at tinners and Andy's - Windows allocates the next available free letter.  This is extremely annoying if you have a link saved - for example - to H:\MyMusic and then you connect your peripherals in a different order to usual.  However, peripherals which are always left connected are always allocated in the same order, so things only get mucked-up if you add an external usb-flash or similar Sad
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increpatio
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« Reply #3 on: 04:09:31, 10-08-2008 »
I've found that XP on my desktop pc seems to keep track of drive-letters.  But yeah, it's not really made for having cross-drive compatibility.  There's probably some way to deal with it, but I don't know it and don't have the energy to goole.
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Michael
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« Reply #4 on: 21:10:31, 11-08-2008 »
Hi Andy,

Not sure if this helps.... but...

http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic45288.htm

I notice you mentioned disk management?  Have you chosen a drive letter for the device in question in disk management?

As far as I'm aware, drives A and B are specifically assigned to Floppy drives.  C is the default boot drive... then after that it seems a pretty grey area. After that, it's a free for all between DVD/CD drives, Extra Hard drives, small Removable Media ports and USB sticks/external harddrives etc.

Although you don't always get the same drive letter, is it possible that you also have something else plugged in at the same time when your External drive doesn't get the same letter? (Even if that something else doesn't have the drive letter in question.)
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owain
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« Reply #5 on: 21:24:09, 11-08-2008 »
This should help: http://news.office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?articleid=659&zoneid=9&paginate=false
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Andy D
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« Reply #6 on: 21:39:19, 11-08-2008 »
Thanks guys.

I'm already using the "Disk Management" utility to change drive letter when I have to Michael but it's a pain to have to do it each time a drive gets allocated the wrong letter. Some drives get allocated the same letter most times, but not always, others seem to take the first available. I can't work out the logic of it.

However, a quick skim through owain's link looks like it might very well provide the answer, I'll give it a go when I have time.
« Last Edit: 21:42:40, 11-08-2008 by Andy D » Logged
Andy D
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« Reply #7 on: 11:06:54, 12-08-2008 »
owain's article seems to do the business Smiley

I've now got some icons (with real names, not drive letters) on my desktop and each links directly to the appropriate external drive as soon as it's plugged in - which is what Ubuntu creates automatically for you Wink

I've now got to work out how to get SonicStage, which has hundreds of audio files supposedly on H:\.... to link to the new location. Might end up having to physically move them to get it to work Sad
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