How do you permanently assign a letter to external hard drives?

[db84124]

Good evening All,
……. so here I am again on my favourite sub-forum.
This isn’t really a “problem”; just an improvement in my computer setup.
Only having 60 Gb of storage on my ageing laptop, I now have three external hard drives and three flash drives.
As you well know, when a drive is connected to XP (with SP 3 installed), it is assigned automatically an identification letter which is simply the first unused letter in the alphabet, more or less. This means that my Vodafone dongle (with incorporated 2 Gb memory) becomes J:\. If I then remove the dongle, and insert my Victorinox 4 Gb drive, this too becomes J:\
What I would like to do is permanently assign, say, the Vodafone drive with the letter J:\, the Victorinox drive K:\, my CBA drive L:\, and so on.
This would mean that the transfer of files, say, from K:\ to J:\ would always involve the same two drives.
How do I permanently assign a letter to each of my drives? David

 

[bobsummers]

Co mi Sta David, happy new year to you and anyone else in my 2nd home country Italy.

On your question I don't think you can permanently index you storage devices, as you connect they pickup the next alphabetic number automatically as in maths 1-2-3-4 drive (A-B-C-D DRIVE).

Why would you do it anyway? as if you have 2 storage gizmo's you can send files to them via your computer.

Bob

 

[ChrisM]

David,

Found this online, if you can make sense of it:

Geoff wrote:
> I have a USB connected external hard drive, which I use for backups so keep
> it turned off most of the time. Problem is if I've plugged in my Ipod (or
> any other device) the original drive letter assigned to the hard drive
> changes when I do turn it on. As a consequence when I try to run my backup
> program is says that the backup files are not available.
> Is there anyway you can allocate a permanent drive letter to an external USB
> hard drive?


You can change the drive letter assignments in the Windows
Disk Management (Start -> Run -> diskmgmt.msc).
Right click on the drive -> Change drive letter

Windows saves letter assignments, but exactely one assigment
per letter only. Windows searches for availlable drive letters
from C upwards. So, use a 'high' letter which Windows will
never assing to another drive.​

Chris

 

[bobsummers]

David, Found this online, if you can make sense of it:
Geoff wrote:
> I have a USB connected external hard drive, which I use for backups so keep
> it turned off most of the time. Problem is if I've plugged in my Ipod (or
> any other device) the original drive letter assigned to the hard drive
> changes when I do turn it on. As a consequence when I try to run my backup
> program is says that the backup files are not available.

Not surprised that the files where not available, the drive may have been conected by USB but it was not turned on!!

Good find Chris. I also believe you can also name your storage gizmos?

 

[Betty Hopper]

Hello db 84124 ,

Having just read your detailed post ! I presume that, like me you are a beginner???????

The only help I can offer is, do as I do, Get that 'andsome young chap from down the
road to 'ave a look !!! { on second thoughts, 'praps in your case it should be a young

Hang on whilst I remove my tongue from my cheek ! { or cheak ? }
Lady ? }

 

[db84124]

Buona sera, Bob. Sto benissimo, grazie; tu, come stai? Thanks for your contribution, Bob. As I tried to explain in my initial posting, I'd like to assign a definite letter to a specific hard drive and flash drive so that I know immediately which of my external memories is connected to another. If I place a drive into a USB port, Microsoft tells me it's, say, G:\ ; I'd like to see at a glance that it's my Vodafone pen, my Transcend pen, my CBA drive, or my My Book, etc., etc. Each of these drives becomes G:\ if it's the first to be connected to my computer - except the My Book which is always M:\. As my My Book is always M:\, I believe it's possible to permanently assign a particular letter to any given external memory (or storage).

Chris, thank you very much for your input. I'll put it into operation as soon as I have an uninterrupted hour to dedicate to my plight. I think you could very well have the solution, but I remain a little sceptical whether this method causes a permanent change. Thanks for going to the trouble of carrying out some on-line research.

Yes, Betty, I do consider myself a beginner at this game. Unfortunately I'm a battler who enjoys a challenge and although there's no real difference between asking the information I would like from fellow Forum members or a pretty girl down the road, I've chosen the former because I know from experience that there some extremely knowledgeable, selfless and generous people on this Forum.