Drive letters re-assigned :-(

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andrew J. Rozsa
  • Start date Start date
A

Andrew J. Rozsa

On the way to the annual OS reconstruction I had to do some stuff I am
still not clear what it was. I have 2 fixed (internal) drives, 3
FireWire (1394) drives, one CD-RW and one DVD drive. Had to
repartition drive C, because of the NTFS format (my Win 2K is an
upgrade from 98), re-installed the OS (Win 2K Pro) with SP4. Now the
drive letter assignments, as seen with the Disk Management are:

Disk 0 - C: (fixed) (NTFS)
Disk 1 - G: (fixed) (FAT32)
Disk 3 - H: (1394) (FAT32)
Disk 4 - I: (1394) - to be formatted after I recover the data with
R-Studio NTFS
Disk 5 - J: (1394) (NTFS)
CD-ROM 0 - E (DVD)
CD-ROM 1 - F (CD-ROM)
CD-ROM 3 - D (DVD)

Notice that D exists as a second DVD - when in fact, I have no second
physical DVD drive. Drive D: used to be the second fixed drive, but
during the install I "lost it" so in order to "see" its contents I had
to rename it G.

I can see them all with Windows Explorer, but, if I try to access D: I
get "Insert a CD in the drive." Ditto for drive E (which exists as a
physical drive). Once I do that, I might as well reboot, because
everything will start crawling and will never see the contents of
whatever CD I insert I the DVD drive. In effect, the DVD drive has
become useless. When recovering files from one of the external 1394s,
I see that R-Studio refers to drive D as a "Stealth DVD."

What in the world is a Stealth DVD and how do I kill it? How do I fix
the problem? Is it an improper letter assignment (software) or has the
physical DVD drive gone south??

PLEASE help. This is driving me nuts. I am really not looking forward
to either having to re-install the OS, or to buying another DVD drive
for this aging P-3.

Thanks in advance.

Best,

Andrew
 
I think I have seen this question before.

Without a similarly aberrant system to experiment with, I can only guess. My
first guess would be to see if Disk Manager will let you remove the errant
drive D. I would also look at Device Manager to remove the CD & DVD devices,
and let Window recognize them again, once your are happy with how you have
your other disks and partitions configured.

Failing that, if you are in the habit of "reconstructing" your OS annually,
reinstalling it again would certainly address this. And once you have a good
build: 1) take a drive image of it. 2) be careful with your system, so you
do not need to "reconstruct" it. The idea that one has to do so is
fallacious. I have never had to reinstall on OS, because I messed it up. I
have had to perform various kinds of maintenance, or remove ill-behaving
software, but never outright had to reinstall the OS.
 
:|drive D. I would also look at Device Manager to remove the CD & DVD devices,
:|and let Window recognize them again, once your are happy with how you have
:|your other disks and partitions configured.
Click to expand...

I think I may do that after I did my taxes. Just in case.

Would Partition Magic be a useful tool to keep things in order? I have
seen people rave about it for years, but never looked at it.
:|. 2) be careful with your system, so you
:|do not need to "reconstruct" it. The idea that one has to do so is
:|fallacious. I have never had to reinstall on OS, because I messed it up. I
:|have had to perform various kinds of maintenance, or remove ill-behaving
:|software, but never outright had to reinstall the OS.
Click to expand...

You probably don't try as many "nasty" programs as I do. I am
constantly looking for new solutions for more efficient ways of doing
something, and some of the programs misbehave. They will overwrite
drivers or yank them on uninstall, without letting you know. I tweak
for fun (I do something else for work altogether), and some of the
"suggestions" people make in different forums turn out to be
ill-advised. I am also beta-helping with the development of a
humongous and very complex piece of software used in our practice and
the developers are frequently bringing on some "improvements" that
turn out to be disasters in "real" world.

I will take your suggestions to heart. They sound solid.

Thanks, Greg, for the taking the time to reply so cogently.


Best,

Andrew
 
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