CONTROLLING DRIVE LETTERS: At the BIOS level? Somewhere else? (Windows2000 Professional)

[CURIOUS ANGEL]

Hey all.

MY COMPUTER
is SCSI for the express purpose of being able to break the IDE barrier
and add multiple gadgets and gewgaws in the future. I use it in my
graphics-intensive home-based work. Notwithstanding the characteristics
of its motherboard and OS, it is a STANDALONE (I have no need of
passwords, since I'm the only one who ever uses it). I label the
computer “P6DGU” (the model of its Supermicro motherboard) and here are
the relevant stats + the intended drive layout:

SCSI PIII (2000 MHz)
2 GB RAM
AMI BIOS
6-BAY TOWER
WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL
PROMISE IDE CONTROLLER

A:\……FLOPPY
C:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“MICROSOFT”………………(18 GB) IBM
Ultrastar DDYS-T18350N
D:\……IDE …… [[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“DOWNLOAD”………………(2 GB) Maxtor 72004 AP
E:\……IDE…………………ZIP-DISK………“EJECT”………………… (100 MB) Iomega
F:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]…… “FILES” ………………………(181 GB) Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
G:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“GRAPHICS”…………………(181 GB) Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
H:\……IDE………………DVD±R/RW………“_______________”……(16X) NEC ND-3520A
I:\ ……IDE………………DVD±R/RW………“_______________”……(16X) NEC ND-3520A
J:\……IDE………………CD-ROM…………“(CABLED AUDIO)”………(4X) SONY
K:\……IDE………………CD-R/RW ………“(RE-WRITEABLE)”………(24X) TDK Velo

===================================================================
STRATEGIES FOR RESTRAINING MICROSOFT FROM MANIPULATING DRIVE LETTER
ASSIGNMENTS
Weeks ago I ran into major grief by connecting/unconnecting drives whose
drive letter assignments had been manipulated either during WINDOWS 2000
PROFESSIONAL Setup or after. I want to understand what steps I can take
to prevent a reoccurrence of the nightmare I ran into with my ATAPI
drives, in particular. I know of two ways I can control IDE drive
assignments:
1.) Physically cable one drive-per-W2K-reboot, in the order I wish
2.) Modify drive letters from within W2K using
……………Control Panel \ Administrator Tools \ Computer Management \ DISK
MANAGEMENT

The conflict with Option 1 arises from my need to install W2K from a CD
drive: I have yet to figure out how to successfully back out of an
install using one of my CD drives ->and have it STICK. I can't tell you
how many times I had all but
……………A:\……FLOPPY
……………C:\……SCSI HDD
……………D:\……IDE DVD±R/RW
connected, whereupon 4 reboots (and drive connects) later what was in
the queue to be H:\ (the IDE DVD±R/RW drive first used to install W2K's
CD Setup) reclaimed the ghost of its prior D:\ . . . and sent the whole
architecture of my drive layout to hell in a handbasket.

Like it's Evil Twin, Option 2 likewise manipulated my drive letter
assignments through Control Panel - but if anything, the Control Panel
option was WORSE: I was flabbergasted at the liberties Microsoft took
with changing my drive assignments. One boot my Zip Drive was E. Then
my IDE Maxtor HDD would get E . . . and Zip became <snip, you get the
picture>.

(put me through option 2 again and I'll just give up and shoot myself lol)

Indeed, the only drive that ever stayed put and remained the ONE thing I
ever wanted it to be was my C drive. When I asked myself why that was,
I realized that it was because I had effectively restrained Microsoft at
the BIOS level:
……………C: is jumpered to be SCSI "Device 1" (not 0, and I hope THAT isn't
an issue)
……………"Device 1" is what I configured to boot to, and then saved, through
the onboard SCSI utility
……………"SCSI" is what I configured to boot to, and then saved, through AMI
BIOS

===================================================================
MY QUESTIONS:

Can I somehow set the Master/Slave settings in AMI BIOS in such a way
that my layout (above) will not only be honored . . . Microsoft will be
FORCED, at BIOS level, to recognize (for example) J:\ as my old Sony 4X
.. . . E:\ as my EJECT Zip Disk drive . . . K:\ as my TDK etc.?

How do I jumper the 2 CD drives when my DVD drives are ALREADY jumpered
for Master and Slave? Come to that — how should I be jumpering ANY of
the IDE drives, especially since my 2 GB HDD is slated to be Drive D:\ ?

Two (of the 6) IDE devices will need to go on that Promise card - any
suggestions as to which two?

Anything special I should do as to the cabling?

Should I still resort to CABLE/BOOT, CABLE/BOOT to force the drive
letters? Then . . . how do I safely back out of the DVD drive used to
first set up W2K and place it 4 drives down the hierarchy LATER in such
a manner that it will STICK?

Thanks for any and all help!

Angel

 

[Rod Speed]

MY COMPUTER is SCSI for the express purpose of being able to break the IDE
barrier and add multiple gadgets and gewgaws in the future.

SCSI has passed its useby date for that, its done with USB and firewire now.

I use it in my graphics-intensive home-based work. Notwithstanding the
characteristics of its motherboard and OS, it is a STANDALONE (I have no need
of passwords, since I'm the only one who ever uses it). I label the computer
“P6DGU” (the model of its Supermicro motherboard) and here are the relevant
stats + the intended drive layout:

SCSI PIII (2000 MHz)
2 GB RAM
AMI BIOS
6-BAY TOWER
WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL
PROMISE IDE CONTROLLER

A:\……FLOPPY
C:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“MICROSOFT”………………(18 GB) IBM
Ultrastar DDYS-T18350N
D:\……IDE …… [[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“DOWNLOAD”………………(2 GB) Maxtor
72004 AP E:\……IDE…………………ZIP-DISK………“EJECT”………………… (100 MB) Iomega
F:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]…… “FILES” ………………………(181 GB) Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
G:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“GRAPHICS”…………………(181 GB) Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
H:\……IDE………………DVD±R/RW………“_______________”……(16X) NEC ND-3520A
I:\ ……IDE………………DVD±R/RW………“_______________”……(16X) NEC ND-3520A
J:\……IDE………………CD-ROM…………“(CABLED AUDIO)”………(4X) SONY
K:\……IDE………………CD-R/RW ………“(RE-WRITEABLE)”………(24X) TDK Velo

===================================================================
STRATEGIES FOR RESTRAINING MICROSOFT FROM MANIPULATING DRIVE LETTER
ASSIGNMENTS

2K doesnt do that much.

Weeks ago I ran into major grief by connecting/unconnecting drives
whose drive letter assignments had been manipulated either during
WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL Setup or after. I want to understand what steps I
can take to prevent a reoccurrence of the nightmare I ran into with my ATAPI
drives, in particular. I know of two ways I can control IDE drive
assignments:
1.) Physically cable one drive-per-W2K-reboot, in the order I wish

That only applys with the initial location of the drive on the cable, it
doesnt apply when they are moved after the initial allocation of a letter.

2.) Modify drive letters from within W2K using
Control Panel \ Administrator Tools \ Computer Management \ DISK MANAGEMENT

The conflict with Option 1 arises from my need to install W2K from a
CD drive: I have yet to figure out how to successfully back out of an
install using one of my CD drives ->and have it STICK. I can't tell
you how many times I had all but
……………A:\……FLOPPY
……………C:\……SCSI HDD
……………D:\……IDE DVD±R/RW
connected, whereupon 4 reboots (and drive connects) later what was in the
queue to be H:\ (the IDE DVD±R/RW drive first used to install W2K's CD Setup)
reclaimed the ghost of its prior D:\ . . . and sent the whole architecture of
my drive layout to hell in a handbasket.

The main trick is to physically disconnect everything but the
drive you are installing 2K on and the cdrom drive you are
installing it from for the install and then add the rest of the
drives back in after the install has completed.

Like it's Evil Twin, Option 2 likewise manipulated my drive letter
assignments through Control Panel - but if anything, the Control Panel
option was WORSE: I was flabbergasted at the liberties Microsoft took
with changing my drive assignments. One boot my Zip Drive was E. Then my IDE
Maxtor HDD would get E . . . and Zip became <snip, you get the picture>.

Doesnt happen if they arent present during the 2K install.

(put me through option 2 again and I'll just give up and shoot myself lol)

Indeed, the only drive that ever stayed put and remained the ONE thing I ever
wanted it to be was my C drive. When I asked myself why that was, I realized
that it was because I had effectively restrained Microsoft at the BIOS level:

Nope, its just how the OS does things, it doesnt change the
letter of the boot drive at all from what it used first in the install.

……………C: is jumpered to be SCSI "Device 1" (not 0, and I hope THAT isn't an
issue)
……………"Device 1" is what I configured to boot to, and then saved, through the
onboard SCSI utility
……………"SCSI" is what I configured to boot to, and then saved, through AMI BIOS

===================================================================
MY QUESTIONS:

Can I somehow set the Master/Slave settings in AMI BIOS in such a way that my
layout (above) will not only be honored . . . Microsoft will
be FORCED, at BIOS level, to recognize (for example) J:\ as my old
Sony 4X . . . E:\ as my EJECT Zip Disk drive . . . K:\ as my TDK etc.?
Nope.

How do I jumper the 2 CD drives when my DVD drives are ALREADY jumpered for
Master and Slave?

The master and slave jumpering applys to a single cable.
You need a master and slave on each cable.

Come to that — how should I be jumpering ANY of the IDE drives, especially
since my 2 GB HDD is slated to be Drive D:\ ?

Thats got nothing to do with the drive letters.

Two (of the 6) IDE devices will need to go on that Promise card - any
suggestions as to which two?

They dont really like optical drives much.

Anything special I should do as to the cabling?

Not relevant to drive letters.

Should I still resort to CABLE/BOOT, CABLE/BOOT to force the drive letters?

Wont work.

Then . . . how do I safely back out of the DVD drive used to first set up W2K
and place it 4 drives down the hierarchy LATER in such a manner that it will
STICK?

Just use the disk management to change the letter.

The other thing to realise is that 2K doesnt even need drive letters
at all. You may well be getting obsessed about nothing much at all.

Thats not true of all software tho.

 

[Peter]

What Promise IDE card do you use?
I have encountered some problems when using it for optical drives.

Do you plan to setup your system from scratch (no file systems on hard
drives)?

Do you need to keep changing drives arrangements after OS installation?

If you answer is YES and NO respectively, just connect one SCSI
disk (IBM Ultrastar DDYS-T18350N) with SCSI ID0 and one
optical drive (DVD-RW) to motherboard IDE as a master.
Configure BIOS options.
Boot W2K istallation CD, install OS. Install SP 4,
assign distant letter (R or so) to optical drive.
Connect other drives, partiton and format them as needed.
At the end, connect other optical drives and ZIP, assign drive letters.

As long as you do not disconnect your hard drives, letters
should stay intact.

 

[J. Clarke]

Hey all.

MY COMPUTER
is SCSI for the express purpose of being able to break the IDE barrier
and add multiple gadgets and gewgaws in the future.

What is this "IDE barrier"? No SCSI drives are available with capacity to
match the largest IDE drives, so that can't be the "barrier" you're talking
about.

I use it in my
graphics-intensive home-based work. Notwithstanding the characteristics
of its motherboard and OS, it is a STANDALONE (I have no need of
passwords, since I'm the only one who ever uses it). I label the
computer ?P6DGU? (the model of its Supermicro motherboard) and here are
the relevant stats + the intended drive layout:

SCSI PIII (2000 MHz)

Nope. I've got a P6DGU too--very nice board, but it doesn't take anything
that runs 2000 MHz. It does take two PIII/1000s, which is better than a
single 2000 MHz processor for some purposes and not as good for others.

2 GB RAM
AMI BIOS
6-BAY TOWER
WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL
PROMISE IDE CONTROLLER

A:\??FLOPPY
C:\??SCSI??[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]???MICROSOFT???????(18 GB) IBM
Ultrastar DDYS-T18350N
D:\??IDE ?? [[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]???DOWNLOAD???????(2 GB) Maxtor 72004
AP E:\??IDE???????ZIP-DISK????EJECT???????? (100 MB) Iomega
F:\??SCSI??[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]?? ?FILES? ?????????(181 GB) Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
G:\??SCSI??[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]???GRAPHICS????????(181 GB) Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
H:\??IDE??????DVD±R/RW????_______________???(16X) NEC ND-3520A
I:\ ??IDE??????DVD±R/RW????_______________???(16X) NEC ND-3520A
J:\??IDE??????CD-ROM?????(CABLED AUDIO)????(4X) SONY
K:\??IDE??????CD-R/RW ????(RE-WRITEABLE)????(24X) TDK Velo

===================================================================
STRATEGIES FOR RESTRAINING MICROSOFT FROM MANIPULATING DRIVE LETTER
ASSIGNMENTS

Microsoft doesn't manipulate drive letter assignments.

Weeks ago I ran into major grief by connecting/unconnecting drives whose
drive letter assignments had been manipulated either during WINDOWS 2000
PROFESSIONAL Setup or after.

Are these _your_ drives? If so then somewhere along the way if the drive
letters were not the defaults then _you_ assigned the letters.

I want to understand what steps I can take
to prevent a reoccurrence of the nightmare I ran into with my ATAPI
drives, in particular. I know of two ways I can control IDE drive
assignments:
1.) Physically cable one drive-per-W2K-reboot, in the order I wish
2.) Modify drive letters from within W2K using
?????Control Panel \ Administrator Tools \ Computer Management \ DISK
MANAGEMENT

Yep. That's the tool that exists for the purpose.

The conflict with Option 1 arises from my need to install W2K from a CD
drive: I have yet to figure out how to successfully back out of an
install using one of my CD drives ->and have it STICK. I can't tell you
how many times I had all but

"Back out of an install"? Once you've started the install you either finish
it or you don't. There is no "back out".

?????A:\??FLOPPY
?????C:\??SCSI HDD
?????D:\??IDE DVD±R/RW
connected, whereupon 4 reboots (and drive connects) later what was in
the queue to be H:\ (the IDE DVD±R/RW drive first used to install W2K's
CD Setup) reclaimed the ghost of its prior D:\ . . . and sent the whole
architecture of my drive layout to hell in a handbasket.

Yep, it remembered what you set it to. So what's the objection to going
into disk management and changing the letter?

Like it's Evil Twin, Option 2 likewise manipulated my drive letter
assignments through Control Panel - but if anything, the Control Panel
option was WORSE: I was flabbergasted at the liberties Microsoft took
with changing my drive assignments. One boot my Zip Drive was E. Then
my IDE Maxtor HDD would get E . . . and Zip became <snip, you get the
picture>.

So assign the drive letters yourself.

(put me through option 2 again and I'll just give up and shoot myself lol)

Indeed, the only drive that ever stayed put and remained the ONE thing I
ever wanted it to be was my C drive. When I asked myself why that was,
I realized that it was because I had effectively restrained Microsoft at
the BIOS level:
?????C: is jumpered to be SCSI "Device 1" (not 0, and I hope THAT isn't
an issue)
?????"Device 1" is what I configured to boot to, and then saved, through
the onboard SCSI utility
?????"SCSI" is what I configured to boot to, and then saved, through AMI
BIOS

No, you had not "effectively restrained Microsoft at the BIOS level". Once
the machine has booted the BIOS is not utilized at all by Windows 2000. It
may use the CMOS setup information for reference but its operation is not
constrained by that information in any way.

===================================================================
MY QUESTIONS:

Can I somehow set the Master/Slave settings in AMI BIOS in such a way
that my layout (above) will not only be honored . . . Microsoft will be
FORCED, at BIOS level, to recognize (for example) J:\ as my old Sony 4X
. . . E:\ as my EJECT Zip Disk drive . . . K:\ as my TDK etc.?
No.

How do I jumper the 2 CD drives when my DVD drives are ALREADY jumpered
for Master and Slave? Come to that ? how should I be jumpering ANY of
the IDE drives, especially since my 2 GB HDD is slated to be Drive D:\ ?

Two (of the 6) IDE devices will need to go on that Promise card - any
suggestions as to which two?

Anything special I should do as to the cabling?

Should I still resort to CABLE/BOOT, CABLE/BOOT to force the drive
letters? Then . . . how do I safely back out of the DVD drive used to
first set up W2K and place it 4 drives down the hierarchy LATER in such
a manner that it will STICK?

Thanks for any and all help!

Look, what you're doing sounds crazy. Just set the damned machine up once,
and when it's running right don't monkey with it. If you _need_ to move
drives around then do a backup beforehand and restore afterwards.

If you are going to be plugging and unplugging drives then make sure that
all drives that will be connected to a given location have the same drive
letter assignment.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

MY COMPUTER is SCSI for the express purpose of being able to break the IDE
barrier and add multiple gadgets and gewgaws in the future.

SCSI has passed its useby date for that, its done with USB and firewire now.
Wotanidiot.

I use it in my graphics-intensive home-based work. Notwithstanding the
characteristics of its motherboard and OS, it is a STANDALONE (I have no need
of passwords, since I'm the only one who ever uses it). I label the computer
“P6DGU” (the model of its Supermicro motherboard) and here are the relevant
stats + the intended drive layout:

SCSI PIII (2000 MHz)
2 GB RAM
AMI BIOS
6-BAY TOWER
WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL
PROMISE IDE CONTROLLER

A:\……FLOPPY
C:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“MICROSOFT”………………(18 GB) IBM
Ultrastar DDYS-T18350N
D:\……IDE …… [[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“DOWNLOAD”………………(2 GB) Maxtor
72004 AP E:\……IDE…………………ZIP-DISK………“EJECT”………………… (100 MB) Iomega
F:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]…… “FILES” ………………………(181 GB) Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
G:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“GRAPHICS”…………………(181 GB) Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
H:\……IDE………………DVD±R/RW………“_______________”……(16X) NEC ND-3520A
I:\ ……IDE………………DVD±R/RW………“_______________”……(16X) NEC ND-3520A
J:\……IDE………………CD-ROM…………“(CABLED AUDIO)”………(4X) SONY
K:\……IDE………………CD-R/RW ………“(RE-WRITEABLE)”………(24X) TDK Velo

===================================================================
STRATEGIES FOR RESTRAINING MICROSOFT FROM MANIPULATING DRIVE LETTER
ASSIGNMENTS

2K doesnt do that much.

Weeks ago I ran into major grief by connecting/unconnecting drives
whose drive letter assignments had been manipulated either during
WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL Setup or after. I want to understand what steps I
can take to prevent a reoccurrence of the nightmare I ran into with my ATAPI
drives, in particular. I know of two ways I can control IDE drive
assignments:
1.) Physically cable one drive-per-W2K-reboot, in the order I wish

That only applys with the initial location of the drive on the cable,

Nope.
Only when there are 2 devices on the cable and they are interchanged.

it doesnt apply when they are moved after the initial allocation of a letter.

Only if they are recognized by an earlier name.

The main trick is to physically disconnect everything but the
drive you are installing 2K on and the cdrom drive you are
installing it from for the install and then add the rest of the
drives back in after the install has completed.

That's silly.

Doesnt happen if they arent present during the 2K install.

That is what the OP did.

Nope, its just how the OS does things, it doesnt change the
letter of the boot drive at all from what it used first in the install.




The master and slave jumpering applys to a single cable.
You need a master and slave on each cable.


Thats got nothing to do with the drive letters.


They dont really like optical drives much.


Not relevant to drive letters.

It does to the initial assingning of drive letters

Wont work.

Indeed not if a drive has been connected earlier.

 

[CURIOUS ANGEL]

(Everyone) when I refer to "backing out" of the DVD±R/RW IDE D:\ drive I
am referring to uncabling it after it has been used to install W2K from
the Setup CD . . . in order to "back it back in" 4-drive installs later
as H:\

The main trick is to physically disconnect everything but the
drive you are installing 2K on and the cdrom drive you are
installing it from for the install and then add the rest of the
drives back in after the install has completed.

Hi Rod, first thank you so much for the reply.

The "main trick" you refer to was precisely what I did in Option 1. I
can't stress this enough: W2K >>reassigned my drive letters (((AFTER)))
I had all of the drives set up. Here are the precise steps I went
through in Option 1:

=====================================
1. POWER OFF
CABLE
.. . . . . . A:\ FLOPPY
.. . . . . . C:\ SCSI HDD
.. . . . . . D:\ (one of my) DVD±R/RW
Nothing else connected
Power Up
=====================================
2. BIOS
.. . . . . . Confirm SCSI ID "1" is set to boot
.. . . . . . Confirm AMI BIOS boot order:
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FLOPPY
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SCSI
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ATAPI
.. . . . . . W2K Setup CD launches on D:\
.. . . . . . NTFS format C:\
.. . . . . . Install W2K
Reboot as prompted
=====================================
3. W2K \ RUN
Install from the files I burned to a CD
.. . . . . . Service Pack 4
.. . . . . . Rollup 1
.. . . . . . Explorer 6.0
.. . . . . . Patches
Reboot as prompted
=====================================
4. W2K \ DEVICE MANAGER
.. . . . . . Uninstall DVD±R/RW drive (D:\)
Power down
=====================================
5. POWER OFF
UNCABLE:
.. . . . . . D:\ DVD±R/RW
CABLE
.. . . . . . D:\ IDE 2 GB HDD
Power Up
W2K reports IDE 2 GB HDD as D:\
Good.
=====================================
6. POWER OFF
CABLE
.. . . . . . E:\ 100 MB ZIP DRIVE
Power Up
W2K reports IOMEGA ZIP DRIVE as E:\
Good.
=====================================
7. POWER OFF
CABLE:
.. . . . . . F:\ 181 GB SCSI HDD
Power Up
W2K reports 181 GB SCSI HDD as F:\
Good.
=====================================
8. POWER OFF
CABLE:
.. . . . . . G:\ 181 GB SCSI HDD
Power Up
W2K reports 181 GB SCSI HDD as G:\
Good.
=====================================
9. POWER OFF
CABLE:
.. . . . . . H:\ DVD±R/RW
Power Up
W2K reports DVD±R/RW DRIVE as . . .

D:\
And here is precisely where it begins manipulating my drive letters.
So I . . .
=====================================
10. W2K \ ADMINISTRATOR TOOLS
.. . . . . . Computer Management \ DISK MANAGEMENT
.. . . . . . RESET the drives to be what I want their letters to be
Reboot . . .

And invariably, perhaps not on the first reboot, but 2 or 5 or 10
reboots later — at some point ((AFTER)) I have corrected these
REconfigured drive letters through Disk Management — H:\ reclaims D:\ .
.. . and I go through this all over again.

This is why I was asking for a bulletproof method to lock down those
drive letters once and for damned all. I don't care how I do it, I just
need to DO IT.

I can have all of them cabled at once, during the initial W2K Setup,
reassign them to their correct sequence in Disk Management, and they
will NOT stick.

I can CABLE/REBOOT, CABLE/REBOOT (as I've just described in steps 1-10,
above) and I might get those drive letters to hang around for awhile . .
.. but sure as shootin' W2K will mess with them somewhere down the line.

Now I had one other thought which is crude, and I'd hate to have to
resort to it but I will if necessary:

I know how to generate the four W2K-Setup Boot floppies. I cannot
comprehend how W2K could be installed _in fact_ off of the equivalent of
less than 6 MB worth of data, but . . . could this be done?

Some kind of "shell" of W2K that would allow me to install my DVD±R/RW
IDE drive 5 drives down the "foodchain" as H:\?

Or would I butcher things miserably (or is this a moot point since a
shell install of W2K isn't even possible off of the 4-floppy setup set)?

I'll reply to your other comments in a subsequent post. Thank you again
Rod!

Angel

 

[CURIOUS ANGEL]

SCSI has passed its useby date for that, its done with USB and

firewire now.

Perhaps, but the P6DGU motherboard is the one I have. And no. I'm not
purchasing a new one.

That only applys with the initial location of the drive on the cable, it
doesn't apply when they are moved after the initial allocation of a

letter.

"they" is . . . the HDD position on the cable? . . . the cable being
disconnected? . . . the drive letter?

Doesn't happen if they aren't present during the 2K install.

Unfortunately it does. These drives are being rearranged ((AFTER)) the
computer has been fully assembled.

Nope, its just how the OS does things, it doesn't change the
letter of the boot drive at all from what it used first in the install.

If you read my post carefully that was the one exception I noted that
DID work. No, this problem is happening with the IDE DVD±R/RW drive
first used to install M2K. W2K appears to be collecting a footprint of
the original install . . . and stubbornly defaulting back to that first
footprint regardless of what I do. I mercifully have NO grief from my
SCSI C:\ boot drive, presumably because I've restrained Microsoft at the
BIOS level to boot to -->SCSI, whether it likes it or not.

Check.


The master and slave jumpering applys to a single cable.
You need a master and slave on each cable.

Well I learn something new every day. Very helpful Rod. Thank you!

That's got nothing to do with the drive letters.
Check.


They don't really like optical drives much.
Hmm.


Not relevant to drive letters.

Let me pause here a moment, and forgive me if this sounds stupid (I'm
learning and we all have to start somewhere lol). Okay, the whole
"Master / Slave" thing: Does that have _anything_ whatsoever to do with
DRIVE PRECEDENCE? In other words, can you manipulate the "seek" order
of the drives by their physical position on the cable?

letters?

Wont work.

Well that we can agree on at least lol.

Just use the disk management to change the letter.

.. . . which does not stick.

The other thing to realize is that 2K doesn't even need drive letters
at all. You may well be getting obsessed about nothing much at all.

Now THAT IS a scary thought! Most of the programs I use _must_, I
repeat, MUST have a file path that does not change. That is certainly
the case with programs; that is absoLUTely the case when linking to
graphics stored on my G:\ "Graphics" drive. If you don't think it would
be a nightmare to have these drive letters assigned arbitrarily,
consider having to manually go in and change the drive paths for
thousands of files. Yes, there are utilities that can do this in the
Registry -- and now you know WHY these utilities were created in the
first place -- but that is just ludicrous. Microsoft should not
meddle with my drive letters once assigned (whether through hardware or
software) PERIOD. There is nothing more frightening to me than your
comment that "W2K doesn't even need drive letters at all . . ."

Angel

 

[JAD]

boot device set to '0' SCSI ID?

firewire now.

Perhaps, but the P6DGU motherboard is the one I have. And no. I'm not
purchasing a new one.

letter.

"they" is . . . the HDD position on the cable? . . . the cable being
disconnected? . . . the drive letter?


Unfortunately it does. These drives are being rearranged ((AFTER)) the
computer has been fully assembled.


If you read my post carefully that was the one exception I noted that
DID work. No, this problem is happening with the IDE DVD±R/RW drive
first used to install M2K. W2K appears to be collecting a footprint of
the original install . . . and stubbornly defaulting back to that first
footprint regardless of what I do. I mercifully have NO grief from my
SCSI C:\ boot drive, presumably because I've restrained Microsoft at the
BIOS level to boot to -->SCSI, whether it likes it or not.


Well I learn something new every day. Very helpful Rod. Thank you!


Let me pause here a moment, and forgive me if this sounds stupid (I'm
learning and we all have to start somewhere lol). Okay, the whole
"Master / Slave" thing: Does that have _anything_ whatsoever to do with
DRIVE PRECEDENCE? In other words, can you manipulate the "seek" order
of the drives by their physical position on the cable?


Well that we can agree on at least lol.


. . . which does not stick.


Now THAT IS a scary thought! Most of the programs I use _must_, I
repeat, MUST have a file path that does not change. That is certainly
the case with programs; that is absoLUTely the case when linking to
graphics stored on my G:\ "Graphics" drive. If you don't think it would
be a nightmare to have these drive letters assigned arbitrarily,
consider having to manually go in and change the drive paths for
thousands of files. Yes, there are utilities that can do this in the
Registry -- and now you know WHY these utilities were created in the
first place -- but that is just ludicrous. Microsoft should not
meddle with my drive letters once assigned (whether through hardware or
software) PERIOD. There is nothing more frightening to me than your
comment that "W2K doesn't even need drive letters at all . . ."

Angel

 

[CURIOUS ANGEL]

What is this "IDE barrier"? No SCSI drives are available with capacity to
match the largest IDE drives, so that can't be the "barrier" you're talking
about.

You're confusing capacity with quantity. There is a limit to how many
IDE devices you can install; there is almost no limit to how many SCSI
devices you can install.

Nope. I've got a P6DGU too--very nice board, but it doesn't take anything
that runs 2000 MHz. It does take two PIII/1000s, which is better than a
single 2000 MHz processor for some purposes and not as good for others.

Yup. That's what I've got: Two 1000 MHz PIII's. I just love the MB
because of its generous assortment of ISA slots.

Microsoft doesn't manipulate drive letter assignments.

Well something is.

Are these _your_ drives? If so then somewhere along the way if the drive
letters were not the defaults then _you_ assigned the letters.

Read my first reply to Rod's post.

Yep. That's the tool that exists for the purpose.

I just wish it would stick.

"Back out of an install"? Once you've started the install you either finish
it or you don't. There is no "back out".

When I refer to "backing out" of the D:\ DVD±R/RW IDE I am referring to
uncabling it after it has been used to install W2K from the Setup CD . .
.. in order to "back it back in" 4-drive installs later as H:\.

Yep, it remembered what you set it to. So what's the objection to going
into disk management and changing the letter?

Oh it remembered what I set it to alright.
The problem is it won't FORGET.

So assign the drive letters yourself.

Read my first reply to Rod's post.

No, you had not "effectively restrained Microsoft at the BIOS level". Once
the machine has booted the BIOS is not utilized at all by Windows 2000. It
may use the CMOS setup information for reference but its operation is not
constrained by that information in any way.

I just have a hard time believing that the jumper & SCSI settings on the
(onboard SCSI and AMI) BIOS are purely coincidental to the fact that my
SCSI Drive C:\ happens to be the ONLY drive that retains its drive
letter. You may be right; I'm simply trying to isolate what is
different with the SCSI boot HDD from the ATAPI DVD±R/RW Drive used to
first install W2K, that is causing it (the ATAPI) to reclaim Drive "D"
as its letter even after it has been disconnected and another drive has
taken its place.

Check.

Look, what you're doing sounds crazy. Just set the damned machine up once,
and when it's running right don't monkey with it. If you _need_ to move
drives around then do a backup beforehand and restore afterwards.

If you are going to be plugging and unplugging drives then make sure that
all drives that will be connected to a given location have the same drive
letter assignment.

Don't "monkey" with it? Whose computer is this, Microsoft's or mine?
Why on earth should I (or anyone!) be content allowing Microsoft to
manipulate my drive letters? How would YOU like a system in which you
spend hours getting it set up just the way you like it . . . and wake up
two days later to find that the OS (or, let's not even go there)
"something" has reconfigured your entire architecture, and worse, will
not _reliably_ maintain the changes you make in Disk Management?

You've ruled out BIOS.
You've ruled out the OS.
I've described in detail both how I've cabled the drives and set up the
respective BIOS'.

That leaves me, and I again ask for guidance as to what exactly I'm
doing wrong since I'm running out of things to try.

Angel

 

[Rod Speed]

(Everyone) when I refer to "backing out" of the DVD±R/RW IDE D:\
drive I am referring to uncabling it after it has been used to install W2K
from the Setup CD . . . in order to "back it back in"
4-drive installs later as H:\

Rod Speed wrote:

Hi Rod, first thank you so much for the reply.

The "main trick" you refer to was precisely what I did in Option 1.

OK, you didnt say that very clearly at all.

I can't stress this enough: W2K >>reassigned my drive letters (((AFTER))) I
had all of the drives set up.

Dont believe that. You must have stuffed up the addition
of the extra drives after the install had completed.

Here are the precise steps I went through in Option 1:

=====================================
1. POWER OFF
CABLE
. . . . . . A:\ FLOPPY
. . . . . . C:\ SCSI HDD
. . . . . . D:\ (one of my) DVD±R/RW
Nothing else connected
Power Up
=====================================
2. BIOS
. . . . . . Confirm SCSI ID "1" is set to boot
. . . . . . Confirm AMI BIOS boot order:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FLOPPY
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SCSI
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ATAPI
. . . . . . W2K Setup CD launches on D:\
. . . . . . NTFS format C:\
. . . . . . Install W2K
Reboot as prompted
=====================================
3. W2K \ RUN
Install from the files I burned to a CD
. . . . . . Service Pack 4
. . . . . . Rollup 1
. . . . . . Explorer 6.0
. . . . . . Patches
Reboot as prompted
=====================================
4. W2K \ DEVICE MANAGER
. . . . . . Uninstall DVD±R/RW drive (D:\)
Power down
=====================================
5. POWER OFF
UNCABLE:
. . . . . . D:\ DVD±R/RW

That's where you stuffed it up. You should have just reassigned
the letter to what you wanted it to be, say R etc.

CABLE
. . . . . . D:\ IDE 2 GB HDD
Power Up
W2K reports IDE 2 GB HDD as D:\
Good.
=====================================
6. POWER OFF
CABLE
. . . . . . E:\ 100 MB ZIP DRIVE
Power Up
W2K reports IOMEGA ZIP DRIVE as E:\
Good.
=====================================
7. POWER OFF
CABLE:
. . . . . . F:\ 181 GB SCSI HDD
Power Up
W2K reports 181 GB SCSI HDD as F:\
Good.
=====================================
8. POWER OFF
CABLE:
. . . . . . G:\ 181 GB SCSI HDD
Power Up
W2K reports 181 GB SCSI HDD as G:\
Good.
=====================================
9. POWER OFF
CABLE:
. . . . . . H:\ DVD±R/RW
Power Up
W2K reports DVD±R/RW DRIVE as . . .

D:\
And here is precisely where it begins manipulating my drive letters.

Thats where you stuffed it up. If you had assigned it the letter R
say in step 4, and left it connected, that wouldnt have happened.

So I . . .
=====================================
10. W2K \ ADMINISTRATOR TOOLS
. . . . . . Computer Management \ DISK MANAGEMENT
. . . . . . RESET the drives to be what I want their letters to be
Reboot . . .

And invariably, perhaps not on the first reboot, but 2 or 5 or 10
reboots later — at some point ((AFTER)) I have corrected these
REconfigured drive letters through Disk Management — H:\ reclaims D:\
. . . and I go through this all over again.

This is why I was asking for a bulletproof method to lock down those drive
letters once and for damned all. I don't care how I do it, I just need to DO
IT.

See above.

I can have all of them cabled at once, during the initial W2K Setup, reassign
them to their correct sequence in Disk Management, and they will NOT stick.

I can CABLE/REBOOT, CABLE/REBOOT (as I've just described in steps 1-10, above)
and I might get those drive letters to hang around for awhile . . . but sure
as shootin' W2K will mess with them somewhere down the line.

It wont if you do it the way I explained.

Now I had one other thought which is crude, and I'd hate to have to resort to
it but I will if necessary:

I know how to generate the four W2K-Setup Boot floppies. I cannot
comprehend how W2K could be installed _in fact_ off of the equivalent
of less than 6 MB worth of data, but . . . could this be done?

Yes, but there is no point in going that route.

Some kind of "shell" of W2K that would allow me to install my DVD±R/RW IDE
drive 5 drives down the "foodchain" as H:\?

You just have to assign it the letter H in step 4 and dont remove it.

Or would I butcher things miserably (or is this a moot point since a
shell install of W2K isn't even possible off of the 4-floppy setup set)?

There is no such animal as a 'shell install' anyway.

I'll reply to your other comments in a subsequent post. Thank you again Rod!

No problem.

 

[Peter]

=====================================

4. W2K \ DEVICE MANAGER
. . . . . . Uninstall DVD±R/RW drive (D:\)
Power down
=====================================

Why uninstall?
Just change letter to R: or so.

5. POWER OFF
UNCABLE:
. . . . . . D:\ DVD±R/RW
CABLE
. . . . . . D:\ IDE 2 GB HDD
Power Up
W2K reports IDE 2 GB HDD as D:\
Good.

So you had 2GB disk formatted already?
That might complicate things later....

8. POWER OFF
CABLE:
. . . . . . G:\ 181 GB SCSI HDD
Power Up
W2K reports 181 GB SCSI HDD as G:\
Good.

Same as above.

=====================================
9. POWER OFF
CABLE:
. . . . . . H:\ DVD±R/RW
Power Up
W2K reports DVD±R/RW DRIVE as . . .

D:\

Because it remembered it as D:

And here is precisely where it begins manipulating my drive letters.
So I . . .
=====================================
10. W2K \ ADMINISTRATOR TOOLS
. . . . . . Computer Management \ DISK MANAGEMENT
. . . . . . RESET the drives to be what I want their letters to be
Reboot . . .

And invariably, perhaps not on the first reboot, but 2 or 5 or 10
reboots later — at some point ((AFTER)) I have corrected these
REconfigured drive letters through Disk Management — H:\ reclaims D:\ .
. . and I go through this all over again.

Because you did't manage drive letters properly from beginning.

This is why I was asking for a bulletproof method to lock down those
drive letters once and for damned all. I don't care how I do it, I just
need to DO IT.

Learn how MS W2K "Mount Manager" works.

Manage keys in:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]
manually, if you want to control Mount Manager behavior.

Find out which GUID belongs to which volume and assign key

I can have all of them cabled at once, during the initial W2K Setup,
reassign them to their correct sequence in Disk Management, and they
will NOT stick.

They would, if drives had no volumes/partitons at the time of W2K setup.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Perhaps,

No perhaps about it. And there is no 'IDE barrier', since
IDE drives are much bigger than the available SCSI drives.

but the P6DGU motherboard is the one I have. And no. I'm not purchasing a
new one.

No need to, just add USB and firewire
multiple gadgets and gewgaws in the future.

You cant even buy most of them in SCSI format anymore.

"they" is . . . the HDD position on the cable? . . .
Yes.

the cable being disconnected? . . . the drive letter?
Nope.

Unfortunately it does. These drives are being rearranged ((AFTER)) the
computer has been fully assembled.

Only because you confused it by temporarily removing the DVDRW drive.

If you read my post carefully that was the one exception I noted that DID
work.

That particular comment isnt even comprehensible.

No, this problem is happening with the IDE DVD±R/RW drive
first used to install M2K. W2K appears to be collecting a footprint
of the original install . . . and stubbornly defaulting back to that
first footprint regardless of what I do.

You didnt try reassigning the letter the DVDRW got
during the install in step 4. That will certainly work.

And that comment above was in reference to your comment
about constraining what MS does by what you did in the bios.
You didnt, 2K just doesnt reassign the boot drive letter. It isnt
even that easy to change it if you want to change it later.

I mercifully have NO grief from my SCSI C:\ boot drive, presumably because
I've restrained Microsoft at the BIOS level to boot to -->SCSI, whether it
likes it or not.

See just above.

Well I learn something new every day. Very helpful Rod. Thank you!

Let me pause here a moment, and forgive me if this sounds stupid (I'm learning
and we all have to start somewhere lol). Okay, the whole
"Master / Slave" thing: Does that have _anything_ whatsoever to do
with DRIVE PRECEDENCE? In other words, can you manipulate the "seek" order of
the drives by their physical position on the cable?

Nope. The drive that gets the command to seek first will do that first.

Well that we can agree on at least lol.

. . . which does not stick.

Yes it does if you change the letter then DVDRW got during the
install in step 4 and dont remove it while adding the extra drives.

Now THAT IS a scary thought! Most of the programs I use _must_, I repeat,
MUST have a file path that does not change. That is certainly
the case with programs; that is absoLUTely the case when linking to
graphics stored on my G:\ "Graphics" drive. If you don't think it
would be a nightmare to have these drive letters assigned arbitrarily,

I didnt say anything about arbitrarily, I JUST said that you
dont need to use drive letters at all, just use a fully qualified
path name using the drive name instead of a letter.

consider having to manually go in and change the drive paths for
thousands of files. Yes, there are utilities that can do this in the
Registry -- and now you know WHY these utilities were created in the first
place -- but that is just ludicrous. Microsoft should not
meddle with my drive letters once assigned (whether through hardware
or software) PERIOD. There is nothing more frightening to me than
your comment that "W2K doesn't even need drive letters at all . . ."

You're confused, I wasnt talking about changing drive letters,
just saying that drive letters arent even needed at all, you can
identify the drive by its name instead of a letter.

 

[CURIOUS ANGEL]

What Promise IDE card do you use?
I have encountered some problems when using it for optical drives.

Win2000 Promise Ultra100 TX2 (tm) IDE Controller
.. . . . . Device type: SCSI and RAID controllers
.. . . . . Manufacturer: Promise Technology
.. . . . . Location: Location 5 (PCI bus 0, device 20, function 0)
"This device is working properly."
.. . . . . Driver: Ultra.sys
.. . . . . File version: 2.00.0.39
(the date of the driver is 2002-08-22)

Do you plan to setup your system from scratch (no file systems on hard
drives)?

Do you mean . . . am I attempting a clean install from virgin (scrubbed
right down to their low-level) NTFS-formatted drives? YES.
Incidentally, I'm posting to you now while on my D:\ drive . . . that is
to say, what is SUPPOSED to be my D:\ drive -- my old 2 GB IDE Maxtor
drive, functioning (until I can get this issue buttoned down) as C:\ for
the time being. I have all my data backed up on CDs but I'm so
intimidated by my repeat attempts to get a drive architecture that STAYS
PUT, I'm not going to attempt the xxth install of Windows 2000
Professional without first making sure I've taken every known precaution
to restrain the ("something") that is snapping that DVD±R/RW drive back
to it's previous assignment of D: . . . despite having been physically
uninstalled and a HDD having taken its place, four reboots previously.

As long as you do not disconnect your hard drives, letters
should stay intact.

But . . . what about the DVD±R/RW drive? Because something is
definitely happening when I disconnect THAT. Incidentally, I failed to
mention one other option I've tried: At some point (can't remember,
it's all a blur lol) when I couldn't get the "something" to honor my
drive letters, I tried this (from a low-level format of _all four_ of
the HDDs):

I plugged in EVERTHING (heady! the way it is SUPPOSED to work damn it)
and proceeded with W2K Setup. The drives were a jumble of course (all
but sturdy C:\, the little SCSI that wouldn't quit lol) so I went into
Disk Management. I assigned the squirrelly DVD±R/RW drive to . . . T:\
I think it was (something out there) and then -->UNINSTALLED
E:\
F:\
G:\
H:\
I:\
J:\
K:\
Rebooted (holding my breath) and saw T:\ showing up like a trooper!
Hell yeah! Installed the 2 GB IDE HDD to D:\. Took! Cycled through
CABLE/BOOT installs of E:\...F:\...G:\... And then came H:\
"H"? "Hell"? (coincidence?) lol
Now, T:\ hadn't shifted up to this point -- it was there in Disk
Management as T -- so I clicked it to be H:\ and rebooted.

I got all of the drives configured, and some days passed when . . . yes.
There it was as D:\. AGAIN. I can't remember what it did to the
other drive letters but it was just a mess.

Do you need to keep changing drives arrangements after OS installation?

NO!!!!!!! That's my whole issue; I don't WANT the drive letters
changing after I've configured them.

If your answer is YES and NO respectively, just connect one SCSI
disk (IBM Ultrastar DDYS-T18350N) with SCSI ID0 and <snip>

Let me pause there, because I tossed this out in my first post. I don't
know that this would have anything to do with (anything) but, I have my
(18 GB) IBM Ultrastar DDYS-T18350N jumpered to be SCSI ID "1", not 0.
I'm almost embarrassed to say why lol. Well, okay. Where the drive is
located in my chassis, it's kind of tricky to get in there to change the
jumper. And, operating off of (what is probably my faulty understanding
of SCSI not to mention BIOS) I determined to "sequence" the ID order
consecutively as to the other two SCSI HDD's (the two Seagates). So --
the IBM got ID 1 . . . Seagate #1 got ID 2 . . . and Seagate #2 got ID
3. There is no SCSI drive withOUT a jumper (that is to say, ID'd at
"0"). A problem? Here I am. Correct my thinking.

Thanks Peter.

Angel

 

[CURIOUS ANGEL]

Rod, while I'm printing this, take a look at the reply I gave Peter. I
think I tried this "stuffed it up" fix already, if I'm reading your post
correctly.

I can't thank you enough -- all of you -- for being patient with me
while I troubleshoot this. I don't doubt I'm doing something wrong, I
just am trying to figure out what the hell it is . . .

Angel

 

[Peter]

What Promise IDE card do you use?

Win2000 Promise Ultra100 TX2 (tm) IDE Controller
. . . . . Device type: SCSI and RAID controllers
. . . . . Manufacturer: Promise Technology
. . . . . Location: Location 5 (PCI bus 0, device 20, function 0)
"This device is working properly."
. . . . . Driver: Ultra.sys
. . . . . File version: 2.00.0.39
(the date of the driver is 2002-08-22)

I might have used the same version. Problems were with DMA Mode
not sticking or high CPU utilization during optical drives read/writes.

Do you mean . . . am I attempting a clean install from virgin (scrubbed
right down to their low-level) NTFS-formatted drives? YES.

I mean completely empty drives. No partitions, volumes, nothing.

Incidentally, I'm posting to you now while on my D:\ drive . . . that is
to say, what is SUPPOSED to be my D:\ drive -- my old 2 GB IDE Maxtor
drive, functioning (until I can get this issue buttoned down) as C:\ for
the time being. I have all my data backed up on CDs but I'm so
intimidated by my repeat attempts to get a drive architecture that STAYS
PUT, I'm not going to attempt the xxth install of Windows 2000
Professional without first making sure I've taken every known precaution
to restrain the ("something") that is snapping that DVD±R/RW drive back
to it's previous assignment of D: . . . despite having been physically
uninstalled and a HDD having taken its place, four reboots previously.

Don't uninstall then. Why do you have to uninstall?

But . . . what about the DVD±R/RW drive? Because something is
definitely happening when I disconnect THAT. Incidentally, I failed to
mention one other option I've tried: At some point (can't remember,
it's all a blur lol) when I couldn't get the "something" to honor my
drive letters, I tried this (from a low-level format of _all four_ of
the HDDs):

I plugged in EVERTHING (heady! the way it is SUPPOSED to work damn it)
and proceeded with W2K Setup. The drives were a jumble of course (all
but sturdy C:\, the little SCSI that wouldn't quit lol) so I went into
Disk Management. I assigned the squirrelly DVD±R/RW drive to . . . T:\
I think it was (something out there) and then -->UNINSTALLED
E:\
F:\
G:\
H:\
I:\
J:\
K:\
Rebooted (holding my breath) and saw T:\ showing up like a trooper!
Hell yeah! Installed the 2 GB IDE HDD to D:\. Took! Cycled through
CABLE/BOOT installs of E:\...F:\...G:\... And then came H:\
"H"? "Hell"? (coincidence?) lol
Now, T:\ hadn't shifted up to this point -- it was there in Disk
Management as T -- so I clicked it to be H:\ and rebooted.

I got all of the drives configured, and some days passed when . . . yes.
There it was as D:\. AGAIN. I can't remember what it did to the
other drive letters but it was just a mess.


NO!!!!!!! That's my whole issue; I don't WANT the drive letters
changing after I've configured them.

Then stop disconnecting, reconnecting, uninstalling, etc.

Let me pause there, because I tossed this out in my first post. I don't
know that this would have anything to do with (anything) but, I have my
(18 GB) IBM Ultrastar DDYS-T18350N jumpered to be SCSI ID "1", not 0.
I'm almost embarrassed to say why lol. Well, okay. Where the drive is
located in my chassis, it's kind of tricky to get in there to change the
jumper. And, operating off of (what is probably my faulty understanding
of SCSI not to mention BIOS) I determined to "sequence" the ID order
consecutively as to the other two SCSI HDD's (the two Seagates). So --
the IBM got ID 1 . . . Seagate #1 got ID 2 . . . and Seagate #2 got ID
3. There is no SCSI drive withOUT a jumper (that is to say, ID'd at
"0"). A problem? Here I am. Correct my thinking.

It doesn't matter really. You can have your ID set to "one" and still boot
from that drive. More common is ID set to "zero" though.

Learn about "Mount Manager" as I said....That will help you.

 

[CURIOUS ANGEL]

So you had the 2 GB disk formatted already?
That might complicate things later....

It's, er, something of a blur Peter (the formats and reformats I did, I
mean). I can't reliably tell you who was coming and who was going to be
perfectly frank. Okay, if I remember this correctly . . . this was way
back at my first reinstall attempt. In fact, let me pause here to explain:

What prompted all of this was a massive virus infection. I was so
paranoid that it had crept into the MBS (not to mention onto my other
HDDs) I contacted both IBM/Hitachi and Seagate to ask them how I could
cream those HDDs to the point that NO virii could survive, and they
(each) advised a low-level format. To be on the safe side, I L-LF'd
every one of the HDDs. Now here is where it gets confusing: I can't
recall if I did all 4 of them >>while in W2K Setup, or . . . later
through Disk Management. All I know is that _every_ and I do mean EVERY
install attempt I performed, I commenced by doing a low-level format of
all four of the drives FIRST. This may appear to be overkill, but my
goal all along was (and remains) a ***squeaky-clean*** install.

In fact, when I first sat down to compose my lead post for this thread,
I had the whole sordid story of what brought me to the point of being
infected appear BEFORE the system stats and request for help. I decided
that I didn't want to scare people off from reading (what remains) the
core of the thread -- this drive letter issue -- by suffering you all to
wade through the soap opera that precipitated it lol. If you're so
inclined, and don't mind a spot of reading, I'll post it in a follow-up.
Just ask.

This is why I was asking for a bulletproof method to lock down those
drive letters once and for damned all. I don't care how I do it, I just
need to DO IT.

Learn how MS W2K "Mount Manager" works.

Manage keys in:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]
manually, if you want to control Mount Manager behavior.

Find out which GUID belongs to which volume and assign key
\DosDevices\\<letter>:
accordingly to your desire.

Well hell yeah. <picks up her 6-LB. Resource Kit, and searching the
index finds . . .>
Mount parameters, Page 1168
Mount points (see Volume Mount Points)
Mounted Media State, Removable Storage, Page 785
Mountvol tool, Page 774

No "Mount Manager" ?

They would, if drives had no volumes/partitions at the time of W2K setup.

Okay. Okay so there's definitely something happening during Setup
relative to my formatting the other drives >>at that time (?). I should
_not_ do so? I should leave them low-level formatted and NTFS through
Disk Management? Or something else?

Heavy. Thanks Peter.

Angel

 

[Peter]

So you had the 2 GB disk formatted already?
That might complicate things later....

It's, er, something of a blur Peter (the formats and reformats I did, I
mean). I can't reliably tell you who was coming and who was going to be
perfectly frank. Okay, if I remember this correctly . . . this was way
back at my first reinstall attempt. In fact, let me pause here to explain:

What prompted all of this was a massive virus infection. I was so
paranoid that it had crept into the MBS (not to mention onto my other
HDDs) I contacted both IBM/Hitachi and Seagate to ask them how I could
cream those HDDs to the point that NO virii could survive, and they
(each) advised a low-level format. To be on the safe side, I L-LF'd
every one of the HDDs. Now here is where it gets confusing: I can't
recall if I did all 4 of them >>while in W2K Setup, or . . . later
through Disk Management. All I know is that _every_ and I do mean EVERY
install attempt I performed, I commenced by doing a low-level format of
all four of the drives FIRST. This may appear to be overkill, but my
goal all along was (and remains) a ***squeaky-clean*** install.

In fact, when I first sat down to compose my lead post for this thread,
I had the whole sordid story of what brought me to the point of being
infected appear BEFORE the system stats and request for help. I decided
that I didn't want to scare people off from reading (what remains) the
core of the thread -- this drive letter issue -- by suffering you all to
wade through the soap opera that precipitated it lol. If you're so
inclined, and don't mind a spot of reading, I'll post it in a follow-up.
Just ask.

This is why I was asking for a bulletproof method to lock down those
drive letters once and for damned all. I don't care how I do it, I just
need to DO IT.

Learn how MS W2K "Mount Manager" works.

Manage keys in:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]
manually, if you want to control Mount Manager behavior.

Find out which GUID belongs to which volume and assign key
\DosDevices\\<letter>:
accordingly to your desire.

Well hell yeah. <picks up her 6-LB. Resource Kit, and searching the
index finds . . .>
Mount parameters, Page 1168
Mount points (see Volume Mount Points)
Mounted Media State, Removable Storage, Page 785
Mountvol tool, Page 774

No "Mount Manager" ?

Must be a "wrong" book ;-)
Do you Google?
or:
http://search.microsoft.com/search/...a&na=81&qu=&qp=mount+manager&qa=&qn=&c=10&s=0
or:
http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

setup.

Okay. Okay so there's definitely something happening during Setup
relative to my formatting the other drives >>at that time (?). I should
_not_ do so? I should leave them low-level formatted and NTFS through
Disk Management?

That's what I do.

But the key to success is to keep adding/attaching new devices without
removing/rearranging already configured ones.

 

[CURIOUS ANGEL]

You're confused, I wasn't talking about changing drive letters,
just saying that drive letters arent even needed at all, you can
identify the drive by its name instead of a letter.

Check!

 

[CURIOUS ANGEL]

GAG! Well. No wonder I didn't find "Mount Manager" anywhere in my
Resource Kit. Someone's produced a PDF--
5 MB
2004-07-15
http://www.esm-software.nl/documentation/Storagecentral/E-book SC5 VRTS.pdf
--217 PAGES LONG!

And from Microsoft . . .
HOW WINDOWS 2000 ASSIGNS, RESERVES, AND STORES DRIVE LETTERS
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=234048

So, 3 years later when I'm done reading the guide (juuuust kidding . . .

Alright. Peter.
Let's take it from the top.
Here's what I'm gonna do.
Please insert PRECISELY where/when I NTFS the remaining 3 drives.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1. Low-level format all 4 of the drives
2. Cable FLOPPY + 18 GB SCSI HDD + IDE DVD±R/RW DRIVE
3. NTFS 18 GB through Windows 2000 Professional Setup CD
In Windows 2000 DISK MANAGEMENT
4. Reassign DVD±R/RW drive to . . . T:\
5. Power down
6. Cable D:\ 2 GB IDE, boot
In Windows 2000 DISK MANAGEMENT
7. NTSF D:\, power down
8. Cable E:\ 100 MB ZIP IDE, boot, power down
9. Cable F:\ 181 GB SCSI, boot
In Windows 2000 DISK MANAGEMENT
10. NTSF F:\, power down
11. Cable G:\ 181 GB SCSI, boot
In Windows 2000 DISK MANAGEMENT
12. NTSF G:\, power down, boot
In Windows 2000 DISK MANAGEMENT
13. Reassign T:\ (DVD±R/RW) to -->> H:\, power down
14. Cable I:\ DVD±R/RW, boot, power down
15. Cable J:\ 4X SONY CD-ROM, boot, power down
16. Cable K:\ 24X TDK CD-R/RW, boot, power down
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

[Rod Speed]

Wotanidiot.

Your sig goes at the bottom, ****wit.

I use it in my graphics-intensive home-based work. Notwithstanding
the
characteristics of its motherboard and OS, it is a STANDALONE (I
have no need
of passwords, since I'm the only one who ever uses it). I label
the computer
“P6DGU” (the model of its Supermicro motherboard) and here are the
relevant
stats + the intended drive layout:

SCSI PIII (2000 MHz)
2 GB RAM
AMI BIOS
6-BAY TOWER
WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL
PROMISE IDE CONTROLLER

A:\……FLOPPY
C:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“MICROSOFT”………………(18 GB) IBM
Ultrastar DDYS-T18350N
D:\……IDE …… [[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“DOWNLOAD”………………(2 GB) Maxtor
72004 AP E:\……IDE…………………ZIP-DISK………“EJECT”………………… (100 MB) Iomega
F:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]…… “FILES” ………………………(181 GB)
Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
G:\……SCSI……[[[[[[[[[[HDD]]]]]]]]]]……“GRAPHICS”…………………(181 GB)
Seagate
ST1181677LCV ULTRA 160
H:\……IDE………………DVD±R/RW………“_______________”……(16X) NEC ND-3520A
I:\ ……IDE………………DVD±R/RW………“_______________”……(16X) NEC ND-3520A
J:\……IDE………………CD-ROM…………“(CABLED AUDIO)”………(4X) SONY
K:\……IDE………………CD-R/RW ………“(RE-WRITEABLE)”………(24X) TDK Velo

===================================================================
STRATEGIES FOR RESTRAINING MICROSOFT FROM MANIPULATING DRIVE LETTER
ASSIGNMENTS

2K doesnt do that much.

Weeks ago I ran into major grief by connecting/unconnecting drives
whose drive letter assignments had been manipulated either during
WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL Setup or after. I want to understand
what steps I
can take to prevent a reoccurrence of the nightmare I ran into with
my ATAPI
drives, in particular. I know of two ways I can control IDE drive
assignments:
1.) Physically cable one drive-per-W2K-reboot, in the order I wish

That only applys with the initial location of the drive on the cable,

Nope.

Yep.

Only when there are 2 devices on the cable and they are interchanged.

Wrong as always with the NT/2K/XP family.

Only if they are recognized by an earlier name.

There is no relevant 'name'

That's silly.
Nope.

That is what the OP did.

Wrong again.