How do I Force CD/DVD Drive Letters stay put?

G

Guest

I apologize for the re-post, but I have been fighting this issue for a while
now, and am not making any progress.

Is there a way to positively Force Drive Letters?

Using the Managment console, I have set my CD and DVD (Both built-in IDE
devices) to "V" and "W" to avoid the constant re-lettering of these drives
due to the addition of removeable storage (USB memory devices or flash memory
cards).

For some reason, the next re-start after using a removable drive (either
with the drive in place, or removed), Windows XP forgets the letters that I
have reassigned the CD/DVD drives, and it reassigns new letters to them again
(and to the removable drive if still in place), to whatever configuration it
thinks appropriate at that moment (the letters vary). The end result is that
my CD-ROM and DVD-ROM always seemed to be labeled with a different drive
letter. The hard drives seem to stay put (except the SATA removeable one).
Another item I have noticed is that the change of some USB devices also
triggers the drive re-lettering.

I have already tried the phantom drive removal trick, and uninstalled and
reinstalled all of my drives (except C-drive) - several times - the
DevMgmtX-cmd/ uninstall and re-install of the devices - this may hold - not
always, until I introduce additional devices, that I get random drive letters
again.

The CD and DVD are the same IDE cable as slave and master - they do not work
with any other jumper settings. The hard drives are on the other IDE cable
as slave and master.

At this point, I have even tried a new primary hard drive and re-install of
Windows XP - same problem...

Is there a positive way force the drive letters to stay put? (e.g. a
registry edit?, start-up file edit?, anything?)

Additional details:
Computer is ABIT IC7-G M/B, Pentium 4, Windows XP Pro - SP2, 2 IDE
Harddrives, 1 IDE CD R/RW, 1 IDE DVD R/RW, USB Keyboard, Mouse, and
multifunction printer.
Removable items: USB Scanner, USB Memory stick, various memory cards (USB
Interface), and a removable SATA harddrive (used only occasionally).
I use a built-in card reader interface - so the cards always go into the
same slot, same slot also with the USB plug type memory devices.

Thank you for your help
 
M

MAP

John said:
I apologize for the re-post, but I have been fighting this issue for
a while now, and am not making any progress.

Is there a way to positively Force Drive Letters?

Using the Managment console, I have set my CD and DVD (Both built-in
IDE devices) to "V" and "W" to avoid the constant re-lettering of
these drives due to the addition of removeable storage (USB memory
devices or flash memory cards).

For some reason, the next re-start after using a removable drive
(either with the drive in place, or removed), Windows XP forgets the
letters that I have reassigned the CD/DVD drives, and it reassigns
new letters to them again (and to the removable drive if still in
place), to whatever configuration it thinks appropriate at that
moment (the letters vary). The end result is that my CD-ROM and
DVD-ROM always seemed to be labeled with a different drive letter.
The hard drives seem to stay put (except the SATA removeable one).
Another item I have noticed is that the change of some USB devices
also triggers the drive re-lettering.

I have already tried the phantom drive removal trick, and uninstalled
and reinstalled all of my drives (except C-drive) - several times -
the DevMgmtX-cmd/ uninstall and re-install of the devices - this may
hold - not always, until I introduce additional devices, that I get
random drive letters again.

The CD and DVD are the same IDE cable as slave and master - they do
not work with any other jumper settings. The hard drives are on the
other IDE cable as slave and master.

At this point, I have even tried a new primary hard drive and
re-install of Windows XP - same problem...

Is there a positive way force the drive letters to stay put? (e.g. a
registry edit?, start-up file edit?, anything?)

Additional details:
Computer is ABIT IC7-G M/B, Pentium 4, Windows XP Pro - SP2, 2 IDE
Harddrives, 1 IDE CD R/RW, 1 IDE DVD R/RW, USB Keyboard, Mouse, and
multifunction printer.
Removable items: USB Scanner, USB Memory stick, various memory cards
(USB Interface), and a removable SATA harddrive (used only
occasionally).
I use a built-in card reader interface - so the cards always go into
the same slot, same slot also with the USB plug type memory devices.

Thank you for your help



Hi John, I don't know for sure if this will help or not but try the edit on
line 30 left side.
Windows XP does not save user settings.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Are you making these changes in an admin account?
 

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