How do I Make Drive Letters stay put?

[Guest]

Is there a way to positively Force Drive Letters?

I have been fighting this issue for a while now, but am not making any
progress.

Using the Managment console, I have set my CD and DVD 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.

I have tried the DevMgmtX-cmd/ uninstall and re-install of the devices -
this holds until I introduce additional devices, that I get random drive
letters again.

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

Thank you for your help

 

[R. McCarty]

That issue will arise, if you plug USB peripherals into different sockets.
The way XP works, it retains information about USB devices. But if
you insert a known device into a different socket (Port if USB1(.1) XP
will re-enumerate a new instance. Best way to avoid this is use the same
socket for plugging in USB devices. Also, to get a clean slate you'll need
to create/set a System Environment Variable called:
DevMgr_Show_NonPresent_Devices
and set it's value = 1
Open Device Manager, Click View - tic/check "Show Hidden Devices"
Remove phantoms (grayed out or diminished in color) entries from:
- Universal Serial Bus Controllers
- Disk Drives
- Storage volumes
This should be done with all USB peripherals unplugged. You may also
need to clean up Phantoms from other categories such as Printers. But do
not remove Phantom entries from:
- Sound Devices
- System Devices
- Non-Plug & Play

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Is there a way to positively Force Drive Letters?

I have been fighting this issue for a while now, but am not making
any progress.

Using the Managment console, I have set my CD and DVD 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.

I have tried the DevMgmtX-cmd/ uninstall and re-install of the
devices - this holds until I introduce additional devices, that I
get random drive letters again.

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

That issue will arise, if you plug USB peripherals into different
sockets. The way XP works, it retains information about USB
devices. But if you insert a known device into a different socket
(Port if USB1(.1) XP will re-enumerate a new instance. Best way
to avoid this is use the same socket for plugging in USB devices.
Also, to get a clean slate you'll need to create/set a System
Environment Variable called: DevMgr_Show_NonPresent_Devices
and set it's value = 1
Open Device Manager, Click View - tic/check "Show Hidden Devices"
Remove phantoms (grayed out or diminished in color) entries from:
- Universal Serial Bus Controllers
- Disk Drives
- Storage volumes
This should be done with all USB peripherals unplugged. You may also
need to clean up Phantoms from other categories such as Printers.
But do not remove Phantom entries from:
- Sound Devices
- System Devices
- Non-Plug & Play

Not sure if that helps the OP.

The problem they are describing seems to be more with static drives
(CD/DVD) - of course - assuming those are IDE/SATA drives and not removeable
themselves. Although it is a good place to start..

Am I understanding your problem correctly (to John) that you are setting
static drives (CD/DVD that plug into your IDE/SATA connections and do not
get removed) and when you restart, your settings have changed back to what
they were before?

Does this happen *even* when you do not have any USB devices plugged in..?

In other words..

No devices in your PC (external) - including USB printers with smart card
readers, etc.. Reboot.
Log in as an administrative user.
Change the drive letters as you desire for your CD/DVD drives.
Reboot..

Do the drive letters stick?
Through several more reboots and logons?

Now - insert ONE USB device (drive letter obtaining device.)
Reboot.

Still sticking? Reboot a few times more..

Insert each device one at a time - without removing the old devices.. See if
that narrows it down - repeating the several reboots and drive letter
sticking each time.

 

[Guest]

I have already tried the phantom drive removal trick, and reinstalled all of
my drives - several times (in my original post).

I am not sure about the USB loctions, I use a built in card reader / USB
outlet, these interfaces do not change (e.g. only one outlet of each type,
and only one empty USB port for my data drives). I do use the same USB port
for multiple drives (one at a time of course) I think they all share the same
controller. In this case, it is not possible to plug a device into a
different location.

Any other ideas?

 

[Guest]

The CD/DVD devices are IDE, and not removable, I am always logged in as
administrator. I changed the drive letters using the My
Computer/Properties/Manage/disk management.

I have methodically tried every installed/uninstalled/start with
installed/startwith ininstalled and add combination I can think of, booted
and re-booted so many times over the last few months with the following
results:

No pattern that I can determine....

The drive letters stay if I add a USB memory device after it is running and
stable, but may be different upon restart if the device is removed.

As long as I just re-start, the drives seem to stay put most of the time -
but not always. When this happens, if I do not re-letter the drives, the
next time it may come up correctly - again, no pattern....

If I do anything different - add any type of memory deivce (memory card, USB
stick, external USB hard drive, removable IDE harddrive, etc.) the drive
letters change almost every time - but not always, and may, or may not change
back upon removal of the drive. I even switched to use the built-in USB
ports of the motherboard with the same results.

Also, if I leave a CD or DVD in the optical drive (any type, even music),
the drive letters may change, and may, or may not change back upon removal of
the disc.

Using different devices makes no difference, it may work with one device one
time, and not the next. The drive letters have stayed put with every device
I use at least a few times, and changed the rest of the time.