Drive changes

[Skye]

Simple to those that know how but I'm stuck and wonder if some kind person
can help. Since installing an external DVD-RW it has somehow assigned itself
to F Drive after two weeks of being G drive and my external hard drive has
now changed to G drive from F. This is no problem with anything I have stored
other than the Norton Ghost back-ups as it can't access them now they are on
a different drive letter. Anyone know how to solve the problem please? I can
access the storage drive to change the letter but the letter on the DVD-RW
drive can't be changed, well, at least I can't see any way of doing it. I've
right clicked but there's no facility and I've found it in Device Manager but
again, I can't change the drive letter.
Thanks in advance.
Skye
--

 

[Alias]

Simple to those that know how but I'm stuck and wonder if some kind person
can help. Since installing an external DVD-RW it has somehow assigned itself
to F Drive after two weeks of being G drive and my external hard drive has
now changed to G drive from F. This is no problem with anything I have stored
other than the Norton Ghost back-ups as it can't access them now they are on
a different drive letter. Anyone know how to solve the problem please? I can
access the storage drive to change the letter but the letter on the DVD-RW
drive can't be changed, well, at least I can't see any way of doing it. I've
right clicked but there's no facility and I've found it in Device Manager but
again, I can't change the drive letter.
Thanks in advance.
Skye

Right click on My Computer/Manage and you can do it in there.

Alias

 

[Skye]

As I mentioned, there is no facility when right clicking to change the DVD-RW
drive, only the external hard drive letter can be changed and I need to put
this device back to F but I can't as the RW is using it.

 

[Alias]

As I mentioned, there is no facility when right clicking to change the DVD-RW
drive, only the external hard drive letter can be changed and I need to put
this device back to F but I can't as the RW is using it.

My drives list the internal drives first, C, D, then the optical drives,
E, F, and if I connect the external drive, G and H. It's possible that
you can't arrange it any other way but try turning off your computer,
pulling the plug to the computer, opening the case and disconnecting
your DVD drive and boot up with the external drive connected. If it's
now F like you want, turn off the computer again, unplug it, reconnect
the DVD drive and turn on the computer with the external drive connected
and see if it solves it. My fear is that whenever you disconnect the
external drive again, it will revert to back to the DVD being F.

Alias

 

[Skye]

Thanks for your help. The external hard drive which was F has not been
removed since installing the DVD-RW which installed to G. I've done a restore
to a previous time when everything was OK and it put everything right,
however, it seems that whenever I use the RW, it swaps to F leaving the
external hard drive on G for some reason. The Norton Backups are on F and
probably the easy way round the problem would be to get these backups to G
but I have no idea how to do that so that Norton can find them. Any clues on
this?
Skye

 

[Alias]

Thanks for your help. The external hard drive which was F has not been
removed since installing the DVD-RW which installed to G. I've done a restore
to a previous time when everything was OK and it put everything right,
however, it seems that whenever I use the RW, it swaps to F leaving the
external hard drive on G for some reason. The Norton Backups are on F and
probably the easy way round the problem would be to get these backups to G
but I have no idea how to do that so that Norton can find them. Any clues on
this?
Skye

Sorry, I won't put Norton on a computer and I am not familiar with it.
The normal way is internal drives/optical drives/external drives, in
that order. Personally, from what I've heard about Norton, I would
reformat and reinstall XP (the only true way to get rid of Norton) and
use Avast (free) for an anti virus and Comodo (free) for a firewall.
Back up everything you need to the external drive before reformatting
and reinstalling.

Alias

 

[Skye]

Hmmm, AVAST not very high up in the pop charts!!

Anti-Virus Software Reviews 2008
Listed in order of rating

BitDefender
Kaspersky
ESET Nod32
#4 Trend Micro (PC-Cillin)
#5 F-Secure Anti-Virus
#6 McAfee VirusScan
#7 Norton AntiVirus
#8 AVG Anti-Virus Pro
#9 CA Antivirus
#10 Norman Virus Control
#11 AntiVirusKit
#12 AVAST!
#13 Panda Titanium
#14 F-Prot
#15 PC Tools AntiVirus
#16 ViRobot
#17 WinAntiVirus
N/A CyberScrub AntiVirus
N/A The Shield Antivirus
N/A Windows OneCare Live

Thanks anyway!!

Skye

 

[Bob I]

Look up "Disk management" in Windows Help and Support, click the link
follow the steps.

 

[Alias]

Hmmm, AVAST not very high up in the pop charts!!

Anti-Virus Software Reviews 2008
Listed in order of rating

BitDefender
Kaspersky
ESET Nod32
#4 Trend Micro (PC-Cillin)
#5 F-Secure Anti-Virus
#6 McAfee VirusScan
#7 Norton AntiVirus
#8 AVG Anti-Virus Pro
#9 CA Antivirus
#10 Norman Virus Control
#11 AntiVirusKit
#12 AVAST!
#13 Panda Titanium
#14 F-Prot
#15 PC Tools AntiVirus
#16 ViRobot
#17 WinAntiVirus
N/A CyberScrub AntiVirus
N/A The Shield Antivirus
N/A Windows OneCare Live

Thanks anyway!!

Skye

And you got this list from? Avast is excellent. However, if you have a
high end computer and want the best and you're willing to pay for it,
use Kaspersky. Norton is famous for messing up computers. If you don't
believe me, go to Google and find the XP General newsgroup and search
for "Norton". There is no sensible reason why Norton would do that to
your drive letters.

Alias

 

[Gerry]

You can change any drive letter, except C, which will normally be taken
by the system (windows) partition.

If you wish to designate a drive/ partition F then you need to make
sure that the letter F is not currently being used. If it is you need to
change the current F to another and then you make your chosen drive /
partition F.

You can encounter problems when something on references a file or folder
on F but since the path to F was created the ddive partition has been
changed to G. This can be a nightmare scenario if hundreds / thousands
of folders and are involved.

The way the problem with drive letters often arises involves removeable
drives. If the letter of removable drive is before others in use then if
you remove the drive and restart the computer without reinstalling the
removable drive the next time the computer starts without the missing
drive the drive letters can be reallocated.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Skye]

Yes that's a great help although I have no idea what happened in this case as
none of the drives had been removed. The RW only assigned itself to F after
being used and pushed the external storage drive to G. At least I have some
idea how to sort it out from the advice you've and others have given. BIG
THANKS!!
Skye

 

[Gerry]

Skye

Glad to be able to provide some help.


--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Frank]

Simple to those that know how but I'm stuck and wonder if some kind person
can help. Since installing an external DVD-RW it has somehow assigned itself
to F Drive after two weeks of being G drive and my external hard drive has
now changed to G drive from F. This is no problem with anything I have stored
other than the Norton Ghost back-ups as it can't access them now they are on
a different drive letter. Anyone know how to solve the problem please? I can
access the storage drive to change the letter but the letter on the DVD-RW
drive can't be changed, well, at least I can't see any way of doing it. I've
right clicked but there's no facility and I've found it in Device Manager but
again, I can't change the drive letter.
Thanks in advance.
Skye

Remove the external devices from the PC, restart, then plug in the external HDD.
I don't use Ghost, I use Acronis and the drive letters very seldom match what
windows has. Another reason for labeling a drive.