Reserving Drive Letter?

  • Thread starter Thread starter (PeteCresswell)
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(PeteCresswell)

Periodically, when using some app that's not capable of opening
up a UNC, I map "D:" to my NAS box's "Data" folder.

But when that share is not active, every time I plug something
into the USB port that could be construed as a drive, XP assigns
"D:" to it - but keeps the share name "Data".

Is there any way to prevent this - i.e. to make XP assign some
other drive letter than "D:" without the user having to manually
intervene with MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management | {drive}
Change Drive Letter and Paths?
 
Periodically, when using some app that's not capable of opening
up a UNC, I map "D:" to my NAS box's "Data" folder.

But when that share is not active, every time I plug something
into the USB port that could be construed as a drive, XP assigns
"D:" to it - but keeps the share name "Data".

Is there any way to prevent this - i.e. to make XP assign some
other drive letter than "D:" without the user having to manually
intervene with MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management | {drive}
Change Drive Letter and Paths?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can assign a permanent drive letter to the USB drive.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2131593_assign-drive-letter-usb-drive.html

(Google is your friend...)
 
Per Bob CP:
Yes, you can assign a permanent drive letter to the USB drive.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2131593_assign-drive-letter-usb-drive.html

(Google is your friend...)
Click to expand...

I've done that for my backup bay, but that's kind of the opposite
of what I want to do this time around.

Instead of assigning a specific letter to a USB device, I want to
ensure that a specific letter is *not* assigned to a USB device.

I want "D:" reserved for my connection to a NAS device.

e.g. D: = \\NAS\A\Data

..... and when "D:" is not connected there, I don't want to insert
a USB device and have the system assign "D:" to it.
 
(PeteCresswell) said:
Per Bob CP:

I've done that for my backup bay, but that's kind of the opposite
of what I want to do this time around.

Instead of assigning a specific letter to a USB device, I want to
ensure that a specific letter is *not* assigned to a USB device.

I want "D:" reserved for my connection to a NAS device.

e.g. D: = \\NAS\A\Data

.... and when "D:" is not connected there, I don't want to insert
a USB device and have the system assign "D:" to it.
Click to expand...

There is an example here, of a program for controlling drive letters.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html

Paul
 
(PeteCresswell) said:
Per Bob CP:

I've done that for my backup bay, but that's kind of the opposite
of what I want to do this time around.

Instead of assigning a specific letter to a USB device, I want to
ensure that a specific letter is *not* assigned to a USB device.

I want "D:" reserved for my connection to a NAS device.

e.g. D: = \\NAS\A\Data

.... and when "D:" is not connected there, I don't want to insert
a USB device and have the system assign "D:" to it.
Click to expand...


What happens when you do a "map network drive" to the NAS device, and check
"reconnect at logon"? It still happens? I have no shared mapped drives on my
system currently, but I remember that before, when I did, the letters were
persistent. And nobody else could map there. Unless I'm forgetting. Or because I
used the end letters - Z etc, and new drives wouldn't map there anyway.
 
What is sauce for the goose.....

Just as you can "reserve" a drive-letter to a removable drive, by attaching
it to the system, assigning the drive-letter you want it to have using the
"diskmgmt.msc" - Disk Management MMC plug-in.

Then, by simply using the same port to subsequently re-attach the removable
drive, the drive should always be assigned the same drive-letter (no matter
if it is the next available letter or not).

Thus, if all other drives are configured in this way, it will always leave
any drive-letter you want left unused, having "assigned" drive-letters
for all your known removable drives. As I said above, so long as you
re-attach them always using the same port to do so, they should always take
up the same drive-letter.

The problem comes if you run out of different USB ports for all the
removable drives you have.

If you end up having to use a single USB port for two different
memory-sticks (lets say), then it's doubtful that the drives will always be
assigned the same letter and they will end up sometimes swapping the two
originally assigned letters for that port.

But if you just go out and buy yourself another cheap & cheerful USB hub to
meet your needs, you should be able to keep all your drives allocated
separate and consistent drive-letters.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
I've found that with the external hard disks (and flashdrives etc.) that
once I give them a unique Volume Label (e.g. "1Gig External", "500Mg
External", "2Gig SD Card" etc.) AND I set it to use a specific drive letter
using XP's disk management utility that provided I use the same USB port to
reconnect it, it gets the same drive letter.

Tim Meddick said:
What is sauce for the goose.....

Just as you can "reserve" a drive-letter to a removable drive, by
attaching it to the system, assigning the drive-letter you want it to have
using the "diskmgmt.msc" - Disk Management MMC plug-in.

Then, by simply using the same port to subsequently re-attach the
removable drive, the drive should always be assigned the same drive-letter
(no matter if it is the next available letter or not).

Thus, if all other drives are configured in this way, it will always leave
any drive-letter you want left unused, having "assigned" drive-letters
for all your known removable drives. As I said above, so long as you
re-attach them always using the same port to do so, they should always
take up the same drive-letter.

The problem comes if you run out of different USB ports for all the
removable drives you have.

If you end up having to use a single USB port for two different
memory-sticks (lets say), then it's doubtful that the drives will always
be assigned the same letter and they will end up sometimes swapping the
two originally assigned letters for that port.

But if you just go out and buy yourself another cheap & cheerful USB hub
to meet your needs, you should be able to keep all your drives allocated
separate and consistent drive-letters.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




(PeteCresswell) said:
Periodically, when using some app that's not capable of opening
up a UNC, I map "D:" to my NAS box's "Data" folder.

But when that share is not active, every time I plug something
into the USB port that could be construed as a drive, XP assigns
"D:" to it - but keeps the share name "Data".

Is there any way to prevent this - i.e. to make XP assign some
other drive letter than "D:" without the user having to manually
intervene with MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management | {drive}
Change Drive Letter and Paths?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
(PeteCresswell) said:
Periodically, when using some app that's not capable of opening
up a UNC, I map "D:" to my NAS box's "Data" folder.

But when that share is not active, every time I plug something
into the USB port that could be construed as a drive, XP assigns
"D:" to it - but keeps the share name "Data".

Is there any way to prevent this - i.e. to make XP assign some
other drive letter than "D:" without the user having to manually
intervene with MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management | {drive}
Change Drive Letter and Paths?
Click to expand...


The Care and Feeding of USB Storage Devices in XP:
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=28888
 
Periodically, when using some app that's not capable of opening
up a UNC, I map "D:" to my NAS box's "Data" folder.

But when that share is not active, every time I plug something
into the USB port that could be construed as a drive, XP assigns
"D:" to it - but keeps the share name "Data".
Click to expand...

I know nothing about shares, so what follows might be totally
unhelfpul.
Is there any way to prevent this - i.e. to make XP assign some
other drive letter than "D:" without the user having to manually
intervene with MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management | {drive}
Change Drive Letter and Paths?
Click to expand...

I wish I knew what I did, but somehow:

My internal hdd is C, D, and E, that's not surprising.

My CD-drives are Y and Z. I did that with Disk Management, as above.
They used to be F and G.

My USB external HDD is H, I, and J, no matter how often I unplug it
and plug it.

My Sansa USB flash drive which comes with a large and small partition
is F and G.

Either I had the USB flash drive plugged in when I first plugged in
the USB HDD, and XP assigned the drive letters in alphabetic sequence
starting with H;
OR
I still had the CD drives at F and G when I first plugged in the USB
hard drive, so that's why it started at H.

When I started to write, I thought it was the USB flash drive that did
this, but now I'm thinking it's more likely it the CD-drives that

That the USB external drive starts at H is good for you but that my
flash drive starts at G is not.

If this, whatever this is, doesn't work,
--- well, this seems like a dead-end, I can't even find the download--
Have you tried to use LetAssign. (I can't seem to find it on the web
and my own hd crashed years ago when I didn't have a decent backup!
But someone like on the win98 ng should have it.) Even though it's a
DOS program, and ran from autoexec.bat, I do think it works with XP
also somehow. Someone here can explain how. It was powerful in my
view with win98 in that once it got the drive letters the way I wanted
them, which was easy, they stayed that way even when I did something
that I thought would undo things -- I don't remember what -- it still
used the same letter for the same drive. He uses the unique drive
serial number to keep letters assigned to the same drive, doesn't use
the MS sequence. Even if your mapping doesn't have that, all your
other drives should, iiuc.
 
mm said:
--- well, this seems like a dead-end, I can't even find the download--
Have you tried to use LetAssign. (I can't seem to find it on the web
and my own hd crashed years ago when I didn't have a decent backup!
Click to expand...

Letter Assigner?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=Letter+Assigner&aq=f&aqi=g2g-m1&aql=t&oq=

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
 
Letter Assigner?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=Letter+Assigner&aq=f&aqi=g2g-m1&aql=t&oq=
Click to expand...


That's it. Great. Thanks. I spelled it wrong, LetAssign and Letter
Assign. Instead of LetAssig and Letter Assigner. I've spelled it
wrong for 10 years. :(

Now, can one of you XP guys tell Pete how to make it work in XP?

Isn't there some way to do things that autoexec.bat did?

Some of the links are dead ends, but this one works:
http://www.brothersoft.com/letter-assigner-download-8298.html
 
I've found that with the external hard disks (and flashdrives etc.) that
once I give them a unique Volume Label (e.g. "1Gig External", "500Mg
External", "2Gig SD Card" etc.) AND I set it to use a specific drive letter
using XP's disk management utility that provided I use the same USB port to
reconnect it, it gets the same drive letter.
Click to expand...

Maybe that's my situation too. I always use the same port, because I
have a cable always plugged into the back, and unplug the drive at the
front. And I gave each partition on the external drive a meaningful
name.
 
mm said:
Maybe that's my situation too. I always use the same port, because I
have a cable always plugged into the back, and unplug the drive at the
front. And I gave each partition on the external drive a meaningful
name.
Click to expand...

With what you said, that'd be my guess. More or less same situation here
cable wise. I've a number of usb mass storage devices and I've dictated
every one to use a different drive letter when connected. It seems to "hold"
after doing what I first mentioned. That said, I can't say the Card Reader I
have has a "volume label" and yet it also seems to get reassigned same 4
drive letters. Note - I leave gaps between many of the assigned letters.
 
"Pip" - This is exactly what I was [trying to] say, in my over wordy way...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




pjp said:
I've found that with the external hard disks (and flashdrives etc.) that
once I give them a unique Volume Label (e.g. "1Gig External", "500Mg
External", "2Gig SD Card" etc.) AND I set it to use a specific drive
letter using XP's disk management utility that provided I use the same
USB port to reconnect it, it gets the same drive letter.

Tim Meddick said:
What is sauce for the goose.....

Just as you can "reserve" a drive-letter to a removable drive, by
attaching it to the system, assigning the drive-letter you want it to
have using the "diskmgmt.msc" - Disk Management MMC plug-in.

Then, by simply using the same port to subsequently re-attach the
removable drive, the drive should always be assigned the same
drive-letter (no matter if it is the next available letter or not).

Thus, if all other drives are configured in this way, it will always
leave any drive-letter you want left unused, having "assigned"
drive-letters for all your known removable drives. As I said above, so
long as you re-attach them always using the same port to do so, they
should always take up the same drive-letter.

The problem comes if you run out of different USB ports for all the
removable drives you have.

If you end up having to use a single USB port for two different
memory-sticks (lets say), then it's doubtful that the drives will always
be assigned the same letter and they will end up sometimes swapping the
two originally assigned letters for that port.

But if you just go out and buy yourself another cheap & cheerful USB hub
to meet your needs, you should be able to keep all your drives allocated
separate and consistent drive-letters.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




(PeteCresswell) said:
Periodically, when using some app that's not capable of opening
up a UNC, I map "D:" to my NAS box's "Data" folder.

But when that share is not active, every time I plug something
into the USB port that could be construed as a drive, XP assigns
"D:" to it - but keeps the share name "Data".

Is there any way to prevent this - i.e. to make XP assign some
other drive letter than "D:" without the user having to manually
intervene with MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management | {drive}
Change Drive Letter and Paths?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I think it's got something to do with a link that Windows gives to a volume
using it's "Disk ID" as a reference. The next time Windows "sees" a
certain Disk ID, it re-assigns the same drive-letter (mount-point) / volume
label / icon in Windows Explorer.

I think it may do this by recording all this information in the registry
under :


HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2\CPC


....because under this key, you find sub-keys named with the various UIDs
that contain the Disk IDs - each containing a reg-dword value "Data" that
appears to actually contain the Volume UID / Volume Label / Icon file
specified for that volume.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
I think it's got something to do with a link that Windows gives to a volume
using it's "Disk ID" as a reference. The next time Windows "sees" a
certain Disk ID, it re-assigns the same drive-letter (mount-point) / volume
label / icon in Windows Explorer.
Click to expand...

Well this sounds like something they borrowed from Letter Assigner.

I might say "stole" except the idea wouldn't be that hard to come up
with. But I'll bet he used it first.
I think it may do this by recording all this information in the registry
under :


HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2\CPC
Click to expand...

When I finish reading War and Peace, I'll take a look there. (I
don't know why I'm being sarcastic. I'll probably look there soon.)
...because under this key, you find sub-keys named with the various UIDs
that contain the Disk IDs - each containing a reg-dword value "Data" that
appears to actually contain the Volume UID / Volume Label / Icon file
specified for that volume.
Click to expand...

Well, we're talkin gabout XP, right? I have mountpoints2, but I
don't even have \CPC I do have \A through \P plus \Y and \Z, which
corresponds to the drives i have when everything is connected, but
there is no information in them.

Excpet for I, they all have 2 items,
(default) which is (value not set) and
Baseclass which is Drive

Letters E and higher have a 3rd item.
AutorunStatus which is a bunch of nulls, funny B's, funny I's, and
some x'5F s which I don't think could relate to my drive id's or
partition names.

Letter I, which is the first physical partition, iirc, on the external
hard drive, has
Autorun with DefaultIcon in it and
Shell with Autorun in it with Command in that and the command is
I:\Setup.exe

C, D, and E on my only internal hard drive,
F and G are the Sanza flash drive,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, and P are the external hard drive.
Y and Z are CD or DVD drives.

For some reason, I once knew, H and I are out of order.
 
Yes, well, XP though it is, sometimes, inexplicably, the entire CPC sub-key
"dissapears"!!

It's one of those infuriating abberations that XP displays from time to
time - like when it deletes the iconcache for no reason and all your
desktop items are inexplicable thrown all over the place...

In the same way, if XP feels like getting rid of the MounPoints2\CPC
sub-key, it will also not display the right custom icon for drives like
CD-ROMs, and may forget the usual drive-letter for a removable drive.

But it will usually be re-built and last a good couple of months.

(Actually, when it happens on my system, I have the CPC sub-key backed up
and simply restore it!)

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
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