Strange problem with USB Drives..

[TomT]

I have an XP Pro SR2 PC,


1 Hard Disk - with 3 partitions (C: D: E

1 DVD ROM (G

1 DVD RW (F

USB Card Reader (J: K: L

2 Network Drives (mapped to H: I


When I plug a USB Hard disk or key drive, XP detects it, but does NOT
assign it a new drive letter..

If I go into Disk management, I can see the new drive, and it has been
assign an existing letter (H: or I

I can manually reassign it a new letter, but I have to do this every
time I use the USB drives..

This used to work fine... I think it stopped when I mapped the network
drives...

How do I fix this ???

Thanks

 

[CWatters]

This used to work fine... I think it stopped when I mapped the network
drives...

Try changing the two network mapped drives to the more usual Z: and Y: see
what happens.

 

[TomT]

Try changing the two network mapped drives to the more usual Z: and Y: see
what happens.

Will do...

I thought XP should allocate 2 available letters anyway !!

Cheers

 

[TomT]

Will do...

I thought XP should allocate 2 available letters anyway !!

Cheers

Changed the network drives to Y: & Z:

USB drive is now detected !!

Thanks

 

[CWatters]

Changed the network drives to Y: & Z:

USB drive is now detected !!

Jolly good.

 

[CWatters]

Will do...

I thought XP should allocate 2 available letters anyway !!

Yes WinXP normally allocates Z: Y: X: W: etc to mapped network drives

However I believe Mapped drives are remapped but not reconnected (red cross)
after a restart. I wondered if this confuses the USB detection process
somehow?

I usually set drive letter in three groups as follows..

A: floppy
C: HD1
D: HD2 or partion on HD1

L: CD
M: DVD
N: Compact Flash etc

Y: Mapped network Drive 1
Z: mapped network Drive 2

This means you can add another HD (E:, F: etc) or another DVD like drive
(O:, P:, etc) without any other drive letter changing. Your HD are always C:
D: etc and mapped drives are still always Y and Z:.