Fixing Drive Letter Confusion in XP

[CCT]

This crops up a lot more now that everyone uses multiple external devices and many people are also adding/changing internal drives to suit varying needs. So, in an attempt to help people out in understanding and correcting these issues, here goes: (corrections gratefully accepted);


Drive letter assignment happens automatically in XP, with sometimes disappointing results.

If USB devices are switched from port to port, and if hard or optical drives are added and removed, letter assignments can become 'confused' in XP. ( I have no experience or info re Firewire in this regard).

XP wants to assign letters in a specific order for specific devices, and it CAN become confused when swapping drives on and off.

To better control this, a user can manually assign letters that remain attached to the device, even if the device is a USB mounted drive/flash chip.

The BOOT drive (usually 'C') should NOT be changed.


Click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disk Management. This is where (usually), you will make the assignment changes.

Let's say you have drives C, D, E and F.

C is the Boot drive, D is a data drive, E is your cd/dvd and F is a connected external USB drive.

These would also show as something like: Disk 0 = C, Disk 1 = D, CD ROM = E, and Disk 3 = F.



To change a hd or cd letter, Right Click on the Disk 'X' panel (tan background), and you will be offered a menu that says, in part, 'Change Drive Letter and Paths...'.

To change a connected USB drive letter, Right Click on the next panel to the right (white background) and you get the same option.

Fixed drives can also be Right Clicked on in the top panel.

I don't have one, but I imagine Flash Drives/Chips are similar on USB ports.

So, change the letter, go through all the clicks and OK's necessary, and there you have it, and now and whenever you connect that drive, it will be seen as that letter.


These letters can also be 'switched' or removed in the registry, which is good to know since a dead drive doesn't let you use this procedure, although uninstalling it should clear the entries.

HKLocalmachine, Current Control Set, System, Mounted Devices

There are 2 entries for each device here - the entry with the drive letter can be 'renamed' (just switch the letter part, not the whole name) and that letter will be used on next reboot. A defective drive that is no longer used can be deleted by removing both entries (make sure to match the keys to the right before doing so as they do not always list in order).

My personal recommendation is to keep letters down to about 'H' free for internal devices and,as you connect external devices you will use frequently, once they are connected, assign a letter in reverse order, ie, first device connected get 'Y' (keep 'Z' for a virtual device name).