Resolved USB Attached Drive does not retain assigned drive letter

I have a 1 TB WD "My Book" USB drive attached to a Windows XP Pro, SP3 system that recently started showing up as drive "G:" instead of drive "F:" as it had been assigned previously. With the drive detached and system rebooted, the first available drive letter is "F: ". In the past, this drive when attached, would be assigned F:, but now, it is assigned "G: ". I reassign F: to the drive, but it will not "stick" if I reboot the machine. It will come up as "G: ". This behavior started very recently. No new software has been installed. All the current critical or security updates are on the machine. Does anyone have an idea what may be causing this? or how to make the drive see the first available drive letter ( "F: ") ? Or, at least, how to make it retain what is assigned? Thanks.

 

The way I would look at it is that there is something (maybe briefly) getting allocated F: before the external drive is getting it's drive letter allocated. They are "fighting" for the F: letter.

Although you have not installed any software (good checking), these sorts of things can just start happening.

You don't have a Card Reader, do you?

Rather than have all the drives one after another, I would leave one blank, if I wanted to ensure that the drives kept their letter allocation. For example, if the DVD drive was D:, I might change it to L:, M: or N:, that way, when I manually set a drive letter, a "transient" drive could use (blank) D: and the rest should not be affected.

Unless you can find out what is "stealing" the F: letter, I would make it easier for the automatic allocation.

What might work is to remove the drive letters from the D: and E: drives and reset them again yourself (to the same letter). That might tell Windows that D:, E: and F: are set by you and should not be changed.

Matt

 

Since it's named "My Book ", assigning it drive letter "M:" might make it easy to remember?

 

I have tried deleting the D: and E: as well as the G: drives, and re-assinging them. Then did a restart to save the settings. No luck, the drive still reverts back to G: on a reboot. Is there anything that would be in the registry that could be causing this? My card reader is assigned to O:, P:, Q:, and R:. This has been this way for litterally years. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Does it happen all the time now? Does it ever go back to F:? If it does occasionally, I don't think it would be the registry.

Can you test by making one drive letter blank (D: or E: ) for a few reboots? Another could be to disable the Card Reader in the BIOS settings. Although...I might wonder about the Card Reader's drivers/software and try updating those. That's why I mentioned the Card Reader, I check for one if there is lettering problems.

I try to avoid an extended fight about drive lettering (what we call a punch-up ). I've thrown the towel in several times

The Card Reader would be my first check, that's where I have tracked the problem in the past. Whether you can defeat it is another question. I prefer taking the soft option and re-assign the drive lettering.

I doubt it is a matter of a quick registry modification.

Matt

 

Same here. I really don't care what drive letter it wants to use. I press [Winkey]+[E], plug in the USB drive and then watch the screen to see which new drive letter appears.

 

Resolution -- of sorts.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. The situation is not resolved, but has been rendered moot, as the motherboard has failed on the subject machine. Since I have not observed this behavior on other machines, maybe I will just blame the motherboard for now, and close this thread. Thanks again.

 

If the problem was being caused by failing hardware, there is no software solution available.

 

Resolution?

SpywareDr,

I agree. I have many Windows XP machines, none of which exhibit the behavior in question. I cannot be 100% sure the failing hardware was the cause of this problem, but the behavior started shortly before the failure.

Did I close this thread correctly?

Thanks.

 

Thanks for the update and marking the thread Resolved, although as you say, the reason can't be pinpointed exactly.

I have worked on hundreds (maybe thousands) of computers with problems. Identical computers mostly act identically, sometimes they don't . That's when I ask myself "Why? ".

If you had the onset of motherboard failure, I think you are right that it is the probable cause.

Some things I might share are: (maybe not related to your problem, but still I would like to share)

If the computer does something strangely, repeatedly, it may be due to bug in the BIOS. Try a BIOS upgrade (but read the instructions carefully).

At work, we come across (laptops) computers, where a user has not been able to insert a USB connector and have forced it in the wrong way. The connector is then "bent" and won't work. Then, they take it out and force it into other connectors, breaking those. If the USB connectors break...and they are soldered onto the motherboard, the mobo is then "broken" and will react in strange ways. [Drives the person trying to help crazy ]

Good chance for you to build a new PC

Matt
PS: Don't worry about closing the thread. You have marked it Resolved. The thread will be closed automatically later. If someone replies in the meantime, you won't be expected to answer.