Removable Drive (USB Memory card) is assigned to a Mapped Drive Letter already in use

[Craig Roberts]

I'm a developer.

I have a directory mapped to G: to mimic the setup of a client system.

When I plugged in a removable drive it gets assigned to the existing G drive
and disappears.

I know I can reassign it using the Disk Management, but I don't think I
should have to do this every time I plug in a removeable drive. Is there a
way to tell Windows XP not to use a drive already assigned to a drive
letter?

Craig Lindstrom


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;297694
To work around this issue if the new volume appears in Disk Management,
specify a different drive letter for the new device or volume. To do this,
follow these steps: 1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2. Under Computer Management (Local), click Disk Management.
3. In the list of drives in the right pane, right-click the new drive
and then click Change Drive Letter and Path(s).
4. Click Change, and in the drop-down box, select a drive letter for
the new drive that is not assigned to a mapped network drive.
5. Click OK, and then click OK again.
Both the mapped network drives and the recently installed drive appear in
Windows Explorer.

 

[Pavel]

This could happened if you at one time assigned the G: to the removable
drive.
To correct this:
1. un-assign the current directory that is now mapped to the G:,
2. using Disk Management, remove a drive letter assignment to the removable
drive,
3. remove the removable drive,
4. re-assign G: to the mapped directory
5 .plug the removable back
It should now have new drive letter.

 

[Craig Roberts]

Pavel,

Thanks for a timely answer!

Craig

This could happened if you at one time assigned the G: to the removable
drive.
To correct this:
1. un-assign the current directory that is now mapped to the G:,
2. using Disk Management, remove a drive letter assignment to the
removable drive,
3. remove the removable drive,
4. re-assign G: to the mapped directory
5 .plug the removable back
It should now have new drive letter.

 

[Pavel]

I think you got it fixed. Same can happen with Mapped network drives, so be
careful. On the other hand, sometimes you do want to have a fixed drive
letter assigned to a removable USB drive, specially when more than one such
drive is used in which case it would be a good practice to use drive letters
from the end of the alphabet.