How to setup drive letter sequence: Primary partitions, logical partitions, tehn DVD drives?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank Callone
  • Start date Start date
F

Frank Callone

Currently the drive letter assignments are a mess on computer I got for maintenance.

C: Primary partiton
D: DVD drive1
E: DVD drive2
F: Logical partiton

So how can I achieve that the drive letter assignments are AUTOMATICALLY as follows:

- at first ALL Primary partitions
- then all logical partitions
- then all DVD drives
- finally all possible temporary USB stick and DigiCam drives

These assignments should be automatically re-arranged when I e.g. add later a new
logical partition or remove a DVD drive.

How can I setup WinXP for this drive letter policy?

I have heard that there is a drive re-mapping tool somehere in WinXP.
I don't trust such manual drive mapping tools. Isn't there a automatic drive mapping according
to the guidelines above?

Frank
 
Frank Callone said:
Currently the drive letter assignments are a mess on computer I got for
maintenance.

C: Primary partiton
D: DVD drive1
E: DVD drive2
F: Logical partiton

So how can I achieve that the drive letter assignments are AUTOMATICALLY
as follows:

- at first ALL Primary partitions
- then all logical partitions
- then all DVD drives
- finally all possible temporary USB stick and DigiCam drives

These assignments should be automatically re-arranged when I e.g. add
later a new
logical partition or remove a DVD drive.

How can I setup WinXP for this drive letter policy?

I have heard that there is a drive re-mapping tool somehere in WinXP.
I don't trust such manual drive mapping tools. Isn't there a automatic
drive mapping according
to the guidelines above?

Frank
Click to expand...

Click Start / Run / diskmgmt.msc, then set your preferred drive letters. The
new settings will be permanent.
 
Frank Callone said:
Currently the drive letter assignments are a mess on computer I got for
maintenance.

C: Primary partiton
D: DVD drive1
E: DVD drive2
F: Logical partiton

So how can I achieve that the drive letter assignments are AUTOMATICALLY
as follows:

- at first ALL Primary partitions
- then all logical partitions
- then all DVD drives
- finally all possible temporary USB stick and DigiCam drives

These assignments should be automatically re-arranged when I e.g. add
later a new
logical partition or remove a DVD drive.

How can I setup WinXP for this drive letter policy?

I have heard that there is a drive re-mapping tool somehere in WinXP.
I don't trust such manual drive mapping tools. Isn't there a automatic
drive mapping according
to the guidelines above?
Click to expand...

If you do a clean install of an operating system then it will follow roughly
the order you specified. However, if it re-assigned drive letters as you add
or remove physical drives then you would probably find that it would break
the operating system or other software - as it wouldn't know where to find
files on the newly renamed drives. Imagine that you have a single primary
partition on the first hard drive - it would be assigned drive C:. If you
have a CD / DVD it will be assigned D:. If you do your installation from
drive D then Windows remembers that for future installations. If you then
added a secondary partition to that single hard drive, and create a logical
drive in it, by default Windows will assign it drive E:. If it automatically
re-assigned it to Drive D: then all your software installations that use the
CD / DVD would break. In the same way, if you install software on the
logical drive D:, and then added a second physical drive, with a primary
partition, if the OS followed your idea of re-assigning drive letters then
the new drive would become D: This would break all the software that was on
the original drive D:.

Why don't you trust the manual drive mapping? it's part of the operating
system and being manual allows you to check what you are doing - and revert
back if you break something. It sounds to me more like you can't be
bothered.

Alister
 
The date and time was Thu Apr 23 2009 03:09:48 GMT-0700 (Pacific
Daylight Time), and on a whim, (e-mail address removed) (Frank Callone)
pounded out on the keyboard:
Currently the drive letter assignments are a mess on computer I got for maintenance.

C: Primary partiton
D: DVD drive1
E: DVD drive2
F: Logical partiton

So how can I achieve that the drive letter assignments are AUTOMATICALLY as follows:

- at first ALL Primary partitions
- then all logical partitions
- then all DVD drives
- finally all possible temporary USB stick and DigiCam drives

These assignments should be automatically re-arranged when I e.g. add later a new
logical partition or remove a DVD drive.

How can I setup WinXP for this drive letter policy?

I have heard that there is a drive re-mapping tool somehere in WinXP.
I don't trust such manual drive mapping tools. Isn't there a automatic drive mapping according
to the guidelines above?

Frank
Click to expand...

Hi Frank,

It is automatic, just not how you want it. Use Disk Management (Start,
Run, type diskmgmt.msc and click OK). For a hard disk, click on the
partition and select, "Change Drive Letter and Paths". For a CD/DVD
drive, use the graphical display at the bottom and right click on the
drive. Change them as needed and reboot. There are instances where
this has to be re-done, but just make note of what letter you name them.


Terry R.
 
Frank Callone said:
Currently the drive letter assignments are a mess on computer I got for
maintenance.

C: Primary partiton
D: DVD drive1
E: DVD drive2
F: Logical partiton

So how can I achieve that the drive letter assignments are AUTOMATICALLY
as follows:

- at first ALL Primary partitions
- then all logical partitions
- then all DVD drives
- finally all possible temporary USB stick and DigiCam drives

These assignments should be automatically re-arranged when I e.g. add
later a new
logical partition or remove a DVD drive.

How can I setup WinXP for this drive letter policy?

I have heard that there is a drive re-mapping tool somehere in WinXP.
I don't trust such manual drive mapping tools. Isn't there a automatic
drive mapping according
to the guidelines above?

Frank
Click to expand...

If you do a clean install of an operating system then it will follow roughly
the order you specified. However, if it re-assigned drive letters as you add
or remove physical drives then you would probably find that it would break
the operating system or other software - as it wouldn't know where to find
files on the newly renamed drives. Imagine that you have a single primary
partition on the first hard drive - it would be assigned drive C:. If you
have a CD / DVD it will be assigned D:. If you do your installation from
drive D then Windows remembers that for future installations. If you then
added a secondary partition to that single hard drive, and create a logical
drive in it, by default Windows will assign it drive E:. If it automatically
re-assigned it to Drive D: then all your software installations that use the
CD / DVD would break. In the same way, if you install software on the
logical drive D:, and then added a second physical drive, with a primary
partition, if the OS followed your idea of re-assigning drive letters then
the new drive would become D: This would break all the software that was on
the original drive D:.

Why don't you trust the manual drive mapping? it's part of the operating
system and being manual allows you to check what you are doing - and revert
back if you break something. It sounds to me more like you can't be
bothered.

Alister
 
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