While trying to get my new DVD+/-RW drive to work, I came
across a drive letter assignment curiosity. My computer
is set up as follows:

IDE 0 - Master = 40 Gig hard disk #0
IDE 0 - Slave = SONY DVD reader
IDE 1 - Master = 40 Gig hard disk #1
IDE 1 - Slave = _NEC DVD+/-RW writer

On boot-up, the BIOS routine recognizes all the drives in
the order shown above, and the Local_Machine section of
the Registry also indicates the correct order, but
Explorer (and other programs) show drive letters as
follows:

Hard disk #0 = C:
DVD Reader = D:
DVD Writer = E:
Hard disk #1 = F:

My DVD writer is also "demoted" to CD status, according
to the icon that is assigned to it! I suspect this drive
lettering anomaly is the reason I can't get my DVD writer
to work.

I have the latest BIOS update in my Pentium III machine
and I did a clean install of WinXP, but the problem
persists. Anyone know of information on how XP assigns
drive letters? It is obviously different from the way
Win2000 does.

"Tom Land" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:056901c359dd$1fc5b140$(E-Mail Removed)...
> While trying to get my new DVD+/-RW drive to work, I came
> across a drive letter assignment curiosity. My computer
> is set up as follows:
>
> IDE 0 - Master = 40 Gig hard disk #0
> IDE 0 - Slave = SONY DVD reader
> IDE 1 - Master = 40 Gig hard disk #1
> IDE 1 - Slave = _NEC DVD+/-RW writer
>
> On boot-up, the BIOS routine recognizes all the drives in
> the order shown above, and the Local_Machine section of
> the Registry also indicates the correct order, but
> Explorer (and other programs) show drive letters as
> follows:
>
> Hard disk #0 = C:
> DVD Reader = D:
> DVD Writer = E:
> Hard disk #1 = F:
>
> My DVD writer is also "demoted" to CD status, according
> to the icon that is assigned to it! I suspect this drive
> lettering anomaly is the reason I can't get my DVD writer
> to work.
>
> I have the latest BIOS update in my Pentium III machine
> and I did a clean install of WinXP, but the problem
> persists. Anyone know of information on how XP assigns
> drive letters? It is obviously different from the way
> Win2000 does.

XP allows one to change drive letters. Go to:

Control Panel/
Administrative Tools/
Computer Management/
Storage/
Disk Management

To get the drive letters you want you may have to change the
letters two or more times. For example in your case if you want
the second hard drive to be drive D then you will have to
reletter the CD's to different letters first.

Bq