Help w/USB flash drives!!!

Noo Noo et al,

Here at my University, we're getting more and more people that are bringing documents, etc. on "pen drives". The OS in the general use labs is XP.

Our campus machines map F: to our main Novell server.

When you plug the drive in, you might get a warning about a high-speed device being plugged into a non-high-speed USB port. No big deal with this. Closing this warning allows the new hardware install to continue.

What is a big deal is that when you look for the drive, it isn't there.

Running MMC Disk Management, you see the assigned drive is F: - already assigned to the Novell Mapping, and the Novell Client for Netware won't let F: go. And it shouldn't...

Is there a registry entry that I can add/hack that will allow me to re-assign the drive letter to P: - for Pen drive?

Now, this needs to either be a config file change or a registry hack. Our general access PC's auto rebuild with Rembo. So, if we can set the "image" to always assign ALL pen drives to P:, it would really help!

Thanks mucho in advance,

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

It isn't exactly what you asked, but if you were to move other removable media drives like CDRoms and DVD's higher in the list, perhaps Y&Z, it would make available letters below F so users can add an additional drive without using Computer management...

When running the Novell Login Script, F: is explicitly mapped - it's for general access. Granted, this is a legacy drive letter, but changing that means touching many, many (like 1400) machines. Not an option.

Still researching and any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

When you plug a pen drive in, can you get to the properties to change the drive letter, much as you can for a cdrom?

Does it stay there?

Wonder if the inf that it installs can be modified?

I am going to bring in a couple of CF USB reader/writers tomorrow along with the SanDisk Cruzer Mini that the student brought to me today.

If it's a one time deal, I'll post what I did here so others don't have to go through the h&ll I am with this looming over me.

If NooNoo don't know, I'm up the well known creek without a paddle...

Nothing like an unknown to challenge the gray matter!

Thanks again and we'll continue looking...

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

Here's what you can do if you run into this problem :

Move drive letters below F: upwards. We moved our Zip drives to Z: (yes, quite original) and our CD-R/RW's to R: (again, original) - that leaves D: and E: for pen drives - and one kid brought three in and wanted to access all three at once!!! Wish I was rich like these students...

I was really hoping to automate setting all USB Generic Storage Devices to P: - a seemingly impossible task. Or at least, have XP skip F: and go to G:-R: to look for open letters that wouldn't conflict with Novell's Client for Netware (4.83 SP2).

At least if I can save one person from the madness I endured, it will be worth it!

Go well into the world,

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

Glad you got it sorted! Perhaps an email to ms about this would be a good idea?

We run NetWare servers all over the country and none of them have an F drive for the exact same reasons you explained in this thread. Our first network drive letter is H. That leaves letters ABCDEFG for local drives.

Edit your login script...

I just tried this on three XP machines with two different Lexar Jump Drives. One drive is the Lexar Jump Drive 128MB USB1.0, the other a Lexar Jump Drive Pro 256MB USB2.0.

If F: is already mapped, it goes to G: and so on.

Apparently the problem occurs if the drive is USB2.0 and a high speed USB port is availible, and you plug the drive into a USB1.0 port. If a USB2.0 port is not on the machine, then you get the "high speed message" but it will be mapped to the next letter.


btw - I succesfully plugged both drives into one machine and transfered data.

Hope this helps shed some light on the problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Poseidon

I just tried this on three XP machines with two different Lexar Jump Drives. One drive is the Lexar Jump Drive 128MB USB1.0, the other a Lexar Jump Drive Pro 256MB USB2.0.

If F: is already mapped, it goes to G: and so on.

Apparently the problem occurs if the drive is USB2.0 and a high speed USB port is availible, and you plug the drive into a USB1.0 port. If a USB2.0 port is not on the machine, then you get the "high speed message" but it will be mapped to the next letter.


btw - I succesfully plugged both drives into one machine and transfered data.

Hope this helps shed some light on the problem.

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Well this is exactly what I expected would happen !, so its the mmc console not taking into account any mapped drives then, is it ?

Do you just need to click the little box that says 'mapped drives persist' so that the letter won't be avilable on boot (being reserved for your novell share)? - mmm seems 'very possible' to me ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by confus-ed

Well this is exactly what I expected would happen !, so its the mmc console not taking into account any mapped drives then, is it ?

Do you just need to click the little box that says 'mapped drives persist' so that the letter won't be avilable on boot (being reserved for your novell share)? - mmm seems 'very possible' to me ;)

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OK - I'll byte...

Where is this little box?

This is Novell's Client for XP, NOT Microsoft's. I saw no such box in either MMC or Novell's client setup.

Please advise...

Thanks,

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kpataska

OK - I'll byte...

Where is this little box?....

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'Usually' you'd create a network map yourself ... right click my computer, map networked drive, there's a little box 'reconnect at login' (sorry confus-ed with the wording from 98 ! ;)) ... but here you are creating the mapped drive with a login script, so my thinking was that perhaps this didn't 'persist' as far as windoze MMC was concerned (being 're-created' at every boot) & that was the cause of your woes ....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by confus-ed

'Usually' you'd create a network map yourself ... right click my computer, map networked drive, there's a little box 'reconnect at login' (sorry confus-ed with the wording from 98 ! ;)) ... but here you are creating the mapped drive with a login script, so my thinking was that perhaps this didn't 'persist' as far as windoze MMC was concerned (being 're-created' at every boot) & that was the cause of your woes ....

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Confus-ed et al,

This is on a machine using Novell's Client for Netware - no Mickeysoft Client, which makes me wonder if there would be any issue... ICK!

Under such, DiskMgmt sees the drive as F: - Novell simply maps over it, and you cannot access it until you remap it to a letter that Novell isn't using.

Again, the solution, for this particular problem, is to remove drive letters less than F: - we moved E: in this circumstance (the Zip drive which is being used less and less these days) to Z: (no longer a search drive in our setup) and thus freed up a letter for USB Generic Mass Storage Devices!

Huzzah!

Now, the kid that wants to use more than one at once is just up a creek... Good old school method - copy source to temp, copy temp to destination.

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kpataska

Again, the solution, for this particular problem, is to remove drive letters less than F: - we moved E: in this circumstance (the Zip drive which is being used less and less these days) to Z: (no longer a search drive in our setup) and thus freed up a letter for USB Generic Mass Storage Devices!

Huzzah!

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That was what I said in the begining...what did you do change your mind? :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kpataska

Confus-ed et al,

...Again, the solution, for this particular problem, is to remove drive letters less than F: - we moved E: in this circumstance (the Zip drive which is being used less and less these days) to Z: (no longer a search drive in our setup) and thus freed up a letter for USB Generic Mass Storage Devices!..

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Err d'uh, I can read. I can see that you were happy & had a solution that worked for you, before I posted ...

My point was that you shouldn't have had to be doing anything if your drive was permantently mapped not re-mapped at each startup.... :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MacGyver

We run NetWare servers all over the country and none of them have an F drive for the exact same reasons you explained in this thread. Our first network drive letter is H. That leaves letters ABCDEFG for local drives.

Edit your login script...

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My school also maps the user folder (the first Network drive) to the H: drive, the best reason being is that H: is short for Home drive, which is pretty logical.

I know this teacher who has the following drives, all using a letter:

• Main Boot HD
• 50x CD Drive
• CDRW
• Removable HD
• Zip 100
• and a Compact Flash reader on the HP Printer

I did have to do some re-mapping, but W2K was a bit better at mapping drives then when he had W98 installed.

I am most happy that we have an open area to discuss things, but you people are nuts! ;-)

It's too bad that the Novell Client doesn't talk to the Microsoft OS and tell it "Dude - I'm using drive X: - don't hand it out, K?"

The old clients used to do this, but now with XP, it doesn't happen.

We do have a solution, albeit not the best IMHO.

Thanks everyone,

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s