SOLVED - How to keep the same drive letter for external HD

TenOC wrote:
I found the "problem"



The register assigns a letter based on the hard drive "serial number". Thus I can only have ONE HD labeled as W. The other need a different letter.

If you DIDN'T manually assign a drive letter you would not have to worry about it.

Done correctly, Windows will automatically assign the first available drive letter to the external drive when it is plugged in.

So If you have two partitions on your internal drive and a CD/DVD drive internally Windows would automatically set C:\ as the boot drive, second partition would be D:\, CD/DVD would be E:\..

That would mean each time you plug in any external HD (one at a time) it would automatically be assigned F:\..

This IS the way you should have set things up to keep it simple..

I don't understand why folks tend to complicate such a simple idea..

TenOC wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

Since the OP is only using ONE external drive at a time there is no reason to worry about the drive letter unless it is a shortcut on the desktop.

The backup program use the drive letter.

The "backup" software doesn't care what external drive is present, it just needs a drive with a drive letter it was setup for..

Even if the backup software were to make a backup on the wrong drive you CAN "fix" the problem by merely copying the errant backup file to the correct backup drive at a later time.

Should not be a deal breaker as long as a backup has been made, correct?

At least I would not be concerned..

I found the "problem"



The register assigns a letter based on the hard drive "serial number". Thus I can only have ONE HD labeled as W. The other need a different letter.

greenrvgreen wrote:
Has the OP tried manually renaming each drive, removing it, and then renaming the next? ISTR doing this once, for the very reasons the OP cited. As long as only one drive is connected at a time there will be no conflicts. If two are connected, one will get temporarily renamed according to the automatic renaming scheme. But when removed and reinserted alone it will have the original, manually renamed drive letter.

I only connect ONE drive at a time. I think when I connect the first drive it is "W" but when I connect the second or third drive they are "E". If I rename the E drive to W and reconnect it is W. Then when the First drive is reconnected it will be E.

Has the OP tried manually renaming each drive, removing it, and then renaming the next? ISTR doing this once, for the very reasons the OP cited. As long as only one drive is connected at a time there will be no conflicts. If two are connected, one will get temporarily renamed according to the automatic renaming scheme. But when removed and reinserted alone it will have the original, manually renamed drive letter.

Gdetrailer wrote:

Since the OP is only using ONE external drive at a time there is no reason to worry about the drive letter unless it is a shortcut on the desktop.

The backup program use the drive letter.

8.1 Van wrote:
Change, add, or remove a drive letter Windows 7

While that is the way to manually change the drive letter on a internal drive that is statically assigned, it may not be persistent on a external drive..

One could try it but typically on external drives the letter is dynamically assigned.

It is done for some good reasons, like if you plugged the external drive into another computer and it had that same drive letter dynamically assigned then the computer may reassign the dynamic letter in conflict and IMPORTANT drive on the PC and cause a program or OS to crash..

Since the OP is only using ONE external drive at a time there is no reason to worry about the drive letter unless it is a shortcut on the desktop.

8.1 Van wrote:
Change, add, or remove a drive letter Windows 7

Yes, this allows me to change the drive back to W. But I want the computer to automatically assign the letter W not E