How is this possible?

[Richard]

My removeable zip drive is normally J:. Every so often out-of-the-blue it
becomes D: in "My Computer" and that then causes problems because
all the other drives move up a letter, Data that should go to a partition
goes into the partition physically nearer C: Yet, Partition Magic continues
to show D: as it normally is, the next partition on my HD up from C:.

 

[Arno Wagner]

My removeable zip drive is normally J:. Every so often out-of-the-blue it
becomes D: in "My Computer" and that then causes problems because
all the other drives move up a letter, Data that should go to a partition
goes into the partition physically nearer C: Yet, Partition Magic continues
to show D: as it normally is, the next partition on my HD up from C:.

The drive letter system is braindead. It will assign primary partitions
the first few letters, if it finds them. Sometimes even if they are
on removable disks. One reason this system is MS-only.

A way around is to assign a fixed drive-letter range to the
drive in the hardware configuration. I used to assign "Z:" to
the zip. You need to mark it as removable disk in
order to be able to do the letter-assigning yourself.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

The drive letter system is braindead.

It will assign primary partitions the first few letters, if it finds them.

That is DOS behaviour. Even OSes that don't use DOS use the letter
system and drive letters won't exibit that behaviour in that case.
Similarly when the bios is disabled for some devices and DOS doesn't
see them, that behaviour isn't seen.

Sometimes

Right, so even you should know that this has nothing to do with the
"letter system".

even if they are on removable disks.

That behaviour is from DOS, which relies on BIOS which normally
doesn't see removable drives unless by driver addition or by the
fact that they have been made to appear as fixed disk drives.

One reason this system is MS-only.

A way around is to assign a fixed drive-letter range to the drive
in the hardware configuration. I used to assign "Z:" to the zip.

Question is, will that help any when the ZIP drive is mistakenly
detected as a fixed diskdrive.

You need to mark it as removable disk in order
to be able to do the letter-assigning yourself.

Again, that may not be possible when the drive is already a removable
drive and detected as such.

 

[Richard]

The drive letter system is braindead. It will assign primary partitions
the first few letters, if it finds them. Sometimes even if they are
on removable disks. One reason this system is MS-only.

A way around is to assign a fixed drive-letter range to the
drive in the hardware configuration. I used to assign "Z:" to
the zip. You need to mark it as removable disk in
order to be able to do the letter-assigning yourself.

I go into Device Manager, but I cannot change the asignment for any of my
drives. I'm running WIN 98SE.

 

[Richard]

My removeable zip drive is normally J:. Every so often out-of-the-blue it
becomes D: in "My Computer" and that then causes problems because
all the other drives move up a letter, Data that should go to a partition
goes into the partition physically nearer C: Yet, Partition Magic continues
to show D: as it normally is, the next partition on my HD up from C:.

If DOS is assigning Zip drive to D, and I cannot select letter range in
Device Manager, can I put something in config.sys to set zip to J or even Z
drive?

 

[Jerry Peters]

If DOS is assigning Zip drive to D, and I cannot select letter range in
Device Manager, can I put something in config.sys to set zip to J or even Z
drive?

Is your zip detected by the bios? Otherwise you should be able to
change drive letter, at least I can on my 98SE system with a scsi
internal zip.

 

[Richard]

Is your zip detected by the bios? Otherwise you should be able to
change drive letter, at least I can on my 98SE system with a scsi
internal zip.

I fixed my problem. I installed the Iomega zip drive with the Iomega
software. When my PC rebooted it showed J drive.Woopee!

It's now another issure: I cannot figure out though, why the letter
assignment boxes for my drives are greyed-out in Settings in
Device Manager. It's a curiosity.

 

[DeepOne]

My removeable zip drive is normally J:. Every so often out-of-the-blue it
becomes D: in "My Computer" and that then causes problems because
all the other drives move up a letter

Get into the system BIOS setup, and tell it that there is nothing
connected where the Zip drive is installed - use NONE or Not Installed
rather than Auto (if there is a Zip-specific setting, you could also
try that). When you get this corrected, you should be able to assign
your Zip drive a letter in Device Manager.

I expect the "out-of-the-blue" situations are happening when you boot
with a disk in the Zip drive. If the BIOS is trying to control it as
a fixed hard drive, then it will not assign it a letter if there is no
disk in it (but it will if there is a disk in it).

 

[Slug]

A way around is to assign a fixed drive-letter range to the
drive in the hardware configuration. I used to assign "Z:" to
the zip. You need to mark it as removable disk in
order to be able to do the letter-assigning yourself.

Arno

How do you assign drive letters in XP? I know where the option is in
Win9X but I see no option in the same place under XP.

 

[Slug]

p.s. It's not a problem on XP anyway, I just see the drive letters
change when I plug in my pen drive under WinME.