Weird Mapped Drive Issue

[Yeimi]

I work for a company running Windows 2000 SBS with an additional NT4
Server that houses a legacy database. All workstations run Windows XP
Professional. In order for the database to work properly, all users
must have drives F: and V: mapped to certain folders on the NT4
Server. A logon script on the 2K server automatically maps these
drives for users. It has worked fine for several years.

Recently, I've seen something happen that I've never previously
encountered. When people plug in external USB devices (such as a CD
burner or CF reader), that device takes over the F: drive letter. The
network drive disconnects and people cannot access the database. This
has happened on 3 machines now (but note that 10 other computers in
the office had external drives added without a problem).

I can *fix* the issue by disconnecting the network drive and remapping
it. However, some of these devices must be periodically removed and
then reconnected so I would like to get to the bottom of the problem.

Some other relevant facts:

-I'm rather anxious because around 6 months ago, a different machine
in the office started periodically disconnecting from the F: drive
without an external device being added.
-When users log into their machines, they sometimes get a message
balloon in the bottom right corner saying that "Windows could not
reconnect all network drives" but the drives are all properly mapped
when you look in My Computer. If any of them display as
"disconnected" and you double-click them, the drives open up just fine
and the disconnected status vanishes.

I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Jen Ricklin

 

[VManes]

Windoze is funny - I get almost the opposite problem with one particular PC.

It has only C: as fixed drive, network drives mapped to F:, G:, H:, opticals
set as M: and N:. When I inserted the USB drive, Windoze recognized it as
hardware ( made the bing bong, it shows up in Device manager) but it was not
visible in Explorer.

With a hint found on the web, Went into drive manager, where it was visible
with no drive letter F: attached! I reassign its letter to be E: (just
because it was close) and all is well. Removed the USB drive, reinstalled
it, and Windoze remembered to make it E:. Will it still remember this
whenever I have to reboot the machine? Time will tell.

Can anyone explain why Windoze can't be smart enough to give the USB drive
an unused letter? There's only twenty-damn-six of them available!!

Val
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Practice safe eating -- always use condiments.
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I work for a company running Windows 2000 SBS with an additional NT4
Server that houses a legacy database. All workstations run Windows XP
Professional. In order for the database to work properly, all users
must have drives F: and V: mapped to certain folders on the NT4
Server. A logon script on the 2K server automatically maps these
drives for users. It has worked fine for several years.

Recently, I've seen something happen that I've never previously
encountered. When people plug in external USB devices (such as a CD
burner or CF reader), that device takes over the F: drive letter. The
network drive disconnects and people cannot access the database. This
has happened on 3 machines now (but note that 10 other computers in
the office had external drives added without a problem).

I can *fix* the issue by disconnecting the network drive and remapping
it. However, some of these devices must be periodically removed and
then reconnected so I would like to get to the bottom of the problem.

Some other relevant facts:

-I'm rather anxious because around 6 months ago, a different machine
in the office started periodically disconnecting from the F: drive
without an external device being added.
-When users log into their machines, they sometimes get a message
balloon in the bottom right corner saying that "Windows could not
reconnect all network drives" but the drives are all properly mapped
when you look in My Computer. If any of them display as
"disconnected" and you double-click them, the drives open up just fine
and the disconnected status vanishes.

I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Jen Ricklin