USB card readers and drive letters

I have read conflicting reports on how USB card readers (camera memory cards) get drive letters assigned. Can anyone clarify exactly how and when Windows XP home assigns drive letters for these readers?

My concern is with the multi card readers. If I plug in a '7 in 1' USB card reader, does Windows XP attempt to assign 7 drive letters, or 1 drive letter for the entire device, or 1 drive letter per slot that has a memory card installed at that time?
What happens when you run out of drive letters?

Gordon

 

Hello Gordon,

The answer is 1 drive letter per slot that has a memory card installed at that time?

Can't tell you what happens if the system runs out of letters - never came close to that happening.

As an FYI, if you want to avoid proliferating drive letters for the same cards, plug them into the same port on the card reader consistently. If adding a new one, have the current one(s) plugged in so the new one does not displace a current one's letter.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi charlesvar,
I've noticed that explorer opens two drive letters for my multislot reader even tho it always contains only one card (always, the higher letter contains the files). On the other hand, for thumb drives with one internal memory, it correctly opens a single drive letter. Happens on three different XP machines. Just an observation, not a problem; have assumed a bug in XP for lack of another explanation. What do you think?

 

Hi Sparrow,

As far as I remember from a friend's system, it acts like a usb HUB, with the drive letter assigned to the HD or flash drive, but I may not be remembering correctly

Regards - Charles

 

Thank you. If worst case is 1 drive letter for the device and 1 for any active reader slot, then I can live with that.

Gordon

 

Just to add fuel to the fire, my Kingston TravelLite SD/MMC Reader initially showed up in Windows Explorer as drive G: (my hard drive has partitions C through F), but I assigned the letter K to it in Disk Management. Inserting an SD card in the reader does not add another drive letter.

 

Hi Jim,

This is one of the areas where XP can drive you crazy

Regards - Charles

 

Actually, I consider it one of the areas in which XP acts in a logical, consistent manner. (Though there are plenty of other areas where it drives me crazy!)