setting a drive letter

[Stephen Larivee]

I am new to Windows 7, about one month now. I have a USB drive connected
and use it for backups daily. Today it went from being one drive letter to
another. That messes up the backups. Is there a way of forcing the
computer to use one letter only for a USB port????

 

[Big Steel]

I am new to Windows 7, about one month now. I have a USB drive connected
and use it for backups daily. Today it went from being one drive letter
to another. That messes up the backups. Is there a way of forcing the
computer to use one letter only for a USB port????

I guess you can try this. I never saw the issue on Vista, once the USB
HD was assigned a letter, it was always the same drive letter when ever
I used it. I use the USB HD on Win 7, and so far, it has not changed
letters.

<http://mintywhite.com/vista/assign-a-permanent-letter-to-a-usb-thumb-drive-2/>

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

I am new to Windows 7, about one month now. I have a USB drive
connected and use it for backups daily. Today it went from being one
drive letter to another. That messes up the backups. Is there a
way of forcing the computer to use one letter only for a USB port????

Drive letters are assigned to devices, not USB ports. If you assign a
particular drive letter to a plug in device, like a flash drive, it
should remain the same each time you plug it in. If you have not
assigned a drive letter, it will take the next logical drive available,
which may change if other devices have been enabled. You can assign the
same drive letter to more than one device as long as they are not all
active at the same time. Can you be more specific? What kind of USB
drive is changing from what drive letter to what drive letter?

 

[Seth]

I guess you can try this. I never saw the issue on Vista, once the USB HD
was assigned a letter, it was always the same drive letter when ever I
used it. I use the USB HD on Win 7, and so far, it has not changed
letters.

<http://mintywhite.com/vista/assign-a-permanent-letter-to-a-usb-thumb-drive-2/>

A) That does still work on Win7 like in previous Windows versions with the
caveat as long as something else doesn't snag that letter before the device
is plugged in

B) Why the hell the author took that long convoluted way to get to Disk
Management is boggling. There are at least 2 easier\quicker ways that
immediately come to mind (right click "Computer" and choose "Manage" or
START-->diskmgmt.msc).

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

A) That does still work on Win7 like in previous Windows versions
with the caveat as long as something else doesn't snag that letter
before the device is plugged in

B) Why the hell the author took that long convoluted way to get to
Disk Management is boggling. There are at least 2 easier\quicker ways
that immediately come to mind (right click "Computer" and choose
"Manage" or START-->diskmgmt.msc).

Or "Start>Programs>Administrative Tools>Computer Management," although
using the Computer context menu is my usual method, too.

 

[Stephen Larivee]

Drive letters are assigned to devices, not USB ports. If you assign a
particular drive letter to a plug in device, like a flash drive, it
should remain the same each time you plug it in. If you have not
assigned a drive letter, it will take the next logical drive available,
which may change if other devices have been enabled. You can assign the
same drive letter to more than one device as long as they are not all
active at the same time. Can you be more specific? What kind of USB
drive is changing from what drive letter to what drive letter?

I keep a 16 gig USB drive in the "J" drive all the time. Today when I
turned the computer on, it became the "F" drive. Those drives are USB
drives on my computer. The 16 gig drive is always in the same USB port.

 

[Monty]

Drive letters are assigned to devices, not USB ports. If you assign a
particular drive letter to a plug in device, like a flash drive, it
should remain the same each time you plug it in. If you have not
assigned a drive letter, it will take the next logical drive available,

I use the same USB flash drive for updating software on a few PCs
where the owners either are not confident of installing updates or do
not have an internet connection. For these PCs (and my own), I assign
drive letter "B" to the flash drive. This drive letter does not
change if additional drives are installed in any PC.

which may change if other devices have been enabled. You can assign the
same drive letter to more than one device as long as they are not all
active at the same time. Can you be more specific? What kind of USB
drive is changing from what drive letter to what drive letter?

Monty

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Steve.

I keep a 16 gig USB drive in the "J" drive all the time.

No. As Crash said:

Drive letters are assigned to devices, not USB ports.

When you plug in a new device, Disk Management doesn't know what to call it,
so it assigns the next available letter. But if you right-click that device
(in Disk Management) and click Change Drive Letter and Path, you'll get a
menu of available letters that you can use. Once you've assigned a specific
letter this way, Disk Management will TRY to always use the same letter for
it, EVEN if it is moved to a different USB port. Of course, if that device
is removed and reconnected, the previous letter might not be available at
that moment, so DM must once again search for the next available letter and
assign that - at least, for the current session.

Many different types of devices can be assigned "drive" letters. "Drive"
letters are never assigned to physical devices, but to partitions or
"volumes" on those devices. So a single HDD can be divided into multiple
volumes and each volume is assigned a separate "drive" letter. While CD/DVD
disks and USB flash drives are seldom partitioned into multiple volumes,
they certainly can be, and each volume gets a separate letter. And when we
plug in a camera, it gets a "drive" letter. (I don't know about network
drives, but I understand they are treated similarly.) My new multi-card
reader has 4 slots (SD, CF, etc.), and a card inserted into each of them
will get a separate letter (actually, each partition on each card will get a
letter) until we run out of alphabet.

A volume's letter is mostly for the benefit of us humans, anyhow. The OS
doesn't really need to see letters. Win7 Setup often creates a small
"reserved" partition (typically before the traditional Drive C to use as
the System Partition, and does not assign a letter to it. You can see this
unlettered partition - if it exists - in Disk Management.

I don't know how your flash drive became Drive F:, but I suspect some
easily-overlooked change in your hardware configuration triggered that. My
guess is that if you now tell Disk Management specifically to change that
flash drive's letter to "J", it will stick, even if other devices come and
go.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3508.1109) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Stephen Larivee" wrote in message

Drive letters are assigned to devices, not USB ports. If you assign a
particular drive letter to a plug in device, like a flash drive, it
should remain the same each time you plug it in. If you have not
assigned a drive letter, it will take the next logical drive available,
which may change if other devices have been enabled. You can assign the
same drive letter to more than one device as long as they are not all
active at the same time. Can you be more specific? What kind of USB
drive is changing from what drive letter to what drive letter?

I keep a 16 gig USB drive in the "J" drive all the time. Today when I
turned the computer on, it became the "F" drive. Those drives are USB
drives on my computer. The 16 gig drive is always in the same USB port.

 

[Stephen Larivee]

Hi, Steve.


No. As Crash said:


When you plug in a new device, Disk Management doesn't know what to call
it, so it assigns the next available letter. But if you right-click that
device (in Disk Management) and click Change Drive Letter and Path, you'll
get a menu of available letters that you can use. Once you've assigned a
specific letter this way, Disk Management will TRY to always use the same
letter for it, EVEN if it is moved to a different USB port. Of course, if
that device is removed and reconnected, the previous letter might not be
available at that moment, so DM must once again search for the next
available letter and assign that - at least, for the current session.

Many different types of devices can be assigned "drive" letters. "Drive"
letters are never assigned to physical devices, but to partitions or
"volumes" on those devices. So a single HDD can be divided into multiple
volumes and each volume is assigned a separate "drive" letter. While
CD/DVD disks and USB flash drives are seldom partitioned into multiple
volumes, they certainly can be, and each volume gets a separate letter.
And when we plug in a camera, it gets a "drive" letter. (I don't know
about network drives, but I understand they are treated similarly.) My
new multi-card reader has 4 slots (SD, CF, etc.), and a card inserted into
each of them will get a separate letter (actually, each partition on each
card will get a letter) until we run out of alphabet.

A volume's letter is mostly for the benefit of us humans, anyhow. The OS
doesn't really need to see letters. Win7 Setup often creates a small
"reserved" partition (typically before the traditional Drive C to use as
the System Partition, and does not assign a letter to it. You can see
this unlettered partition - if it exists - in Disk Management.

I don't know how your flash drive became Drive F:, but I suspect some
easily-overlooked change in your hardware configuration triggered that.
My guess is that if you now tell Disk Management specifically to change
that flash drive's letter to "J", it will stick, even if other devices
come and go.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3508.1109) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Stephen Larivee" wrote in message


I keep a 16 gig USB drive in the "J" drive all the time. Today when I
turned the computer on, it became the "F" drive. Those drives are USB
drives on my computer. The 16 gig drive is always in the same USB port.

Thank you, and all the other, for all the ideas put forth. I will try
reassinging the drive letter to "J" and see how that works out.

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

Hi, Steve.


No. As Crash said:


When you plug in a new device, Disk Management doesn't know what to
call it, so it assigns the next available letter. But if you
right-click that device (in Disk Management) and click Change Drive
Letter and Path, you'll get a menu of available letters that you can
use. Once you've assigned a specific letter this way, Disk
Management will TRY to always use the same letter for it, EVEN if it
is moved to a different USB port. Of course, if that device is
removed and reconnected, the previous letter might not be available
at that moment, so DM must once again search for the next available
letter and assign that - at least, for the current session.

Many different types of devices can be assigned "drive" letters.
"Drive" letters are never assigned to physical devices, but to
partitions or "volumes" on those devices. So a single HDD can be
divided into multiple volumes and each volume is assigned a separate
"drive" letter. While CD/DVD disks and USB flash drives are seldom
partitioned into multiple volumes, they certainly can be, and each
volume gets a separate letter. And when we plug in a camera, it gets
a "drive" letter. (I don't know about network drives, but I
understand they are treated similarly.) My new multi-card reader has
4 slots (SD, CF, etc.), and a card inserted into each of them will
get a separate letter (actually, each partition on each card will get
a letter) until we run out of alphabet.

A volume's letter is mostly for the benefit of us humans, anyhow.
The OS doesn't really need to see letters. Win7 Setup often creates
a small "reserved" partition (typically before the traditional Drive
C to use as the System Partition, and does not assign a letter to
it. You can see this unlettered partition - if it exists - in Disk
Management.

I don't know how your flash drive became Drive F:, but I suspect some
easily-overlooked change in your hardware configuration triggered
that. My guess is that if you now tell Disk Management specifically
to change that flash drive's letter to "J", it will stick, even if
other devices come and go.

Well said. I would just add that if you want to make a drive letter
secure for a particular device, pick one several steps up the list of
available drive letters. Instead of J, use X or something. They don't
have to be contiguous.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I am new to Windows 7, about one month now. I have a USB drive connected and
use it for backups daily. Today it went from being one drive letter to
another. That messes up the backups. Is there a way of forcing the computer
to use one letter only for a USB port????

In addition to the other ideas presented, I have chosen a different
approach to the same problem.

In the same dialog where you assign a drive letter, you can instead
assign the device (not the port!) to an empty folder, what I call a
mount point (as a relic of my Unix days). Then your refer to the drive
by that folder's name.

It's in the same management dialog where you assign a drive letter.

Just choose "Mount in the following empty NTFS folder" and choose one
that you have pre-made for the purpose.

Don't rename or remove the folder when you're finished

I do it for the same reason - keeping a backup scheme form losing track
of the drive.

Caution - don't include the mount point itself among the files to
backup.

 

[DJT]

Hi, Steve.


No. As Crash said:


When you plug in a new device, Disk Management doesn't know what to call it,
so it assigns the next available letter. But if you right-click that device
(in Disk Management) and click Change Drive Letter and Path, you'll get a
menu of available letters that you can use. Once you've assigned a specific
letter this way, Disk Management will TRY to always use the same letter for
it, EVEN if it is moved to a different USB port. Of course, if that device
is removed and reconnected, the previous letter might not be available at
that moment, so DM must once again search for the next available letter and
assign that - at least, for the current session.

Many different types of devices can be assigned "drive" letters. "Drive"
letters are never assigned to physical devices, but to partitions or
"volumes" on those devices. So a single HDD can be divided into multiple
volumes and each volume is assigned a separate "drive" letter. While CD/DVD
disks and USB flash drives are seldom partitioned into multiple volumes,
they certainly can be, and each volume gets a separate letter. And when we
plug in a camera, it gets a "drive" letter. (I don't know about network
drives, but I understand they are treated similarly.) My new multi-card
reader has 4 slots (SD, CF, etc.), and a card inserted into each of them
will get a separate letter (actually, each partition on each card will get a
letter) until we run out of alphabet.

A volume's letter is mostly for the benefit of us humans, anyhow. The OS
doesn't really need to see letters. Win7 Setup often creates a small
"reserved" partition (typically before the traditional Drive C to use as
the System Partition, and does not assign a letter to it. You can see this
unlettered partition - if it exists - in Disk Management.

I don't know how your flash drive became Drive F:, but I suspect some
easily-overlooked change in your hardware configuration triggered that. My
guess is that if you now tell Disk Management specifically to change that
flash drive's letter to "J", it will stick, even if other devices come and
go.

RC

I have several USB Sticks that I assign to various drive letters.

Every so often the computer seems to get its knickers in a knot and I
lose all the drive letter assignments and have to do it again.

No great problem


DJT