External Hard Drive Rename?

Hi. I know that you can change the name of any hard drive. I have an external hard drive (500 GB, FAT32), and it was always drive F:. Until yesterday. It changed to drive H:. Not a problem right, just change the name back in disc management and you're good to go, right? Wrong. The name F: is taken by a CD drive. I can't change the name of the new F: because it won't show up on Disc Management. When I click on it, it says: Insert disc into drive F:. It is drive F:! I use this external HD for all my files, games, etc. except for Firefox. I use Windows XP SP3. Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Thanks for any help,


Alpha

 

Use Disk Management to rename the CD-ROM drive back to whatever it was prior to this misstep and then you will be able to get the USB drive recognized as before.

Maybe I misunderstood. Post back if that doesn't work. Give full details of all drives recognized.

 

In the disc management list, the CD-ROM drive doesn't appear, so I can't rename it. I can, however, rename my external hard drive, but not to F: because of the aforementioned error.

 

I have these drives recognized currently:
C: drive
D: drive
E: drive
F: drive (the "CD Drive" that does nothing and is not on list)
H: drive (the drive with all my files, games, etc. and was previously the F: drive)

I also have flash drives, etc. that I could use.

 

Does the Cd-ROM drive show up in Device Manager? If so, right click and Disable it. Reboot and then you should be able to rename your external drive as you wish. Then you can later enable the CD-ROM drive.

You may have some problem with that CD-ROM drive since it should be showing up in Disk Management. Be sure you are scrolling down sufficiently to see all drives listed.

 

Thanks a lot for your help. No, sadly it doesn't show up in device manager. I tried clicking eject, and it did nothing. Just so you know, this isn't my "default" CD drive (such as E: ). If I had to, couldn't I change the path to a game from F: to H:? If my Battlefield 2 game's location was F:/Program files/ Battlefield 2, isn't there a way to change it to look in H:/Program files/ Battlefield 2?

 

I'd suggest unplugging the cables from the drive if it doesn't work. It is evidently affecting your system even though you can't use it.

After unplugging it, if the drive letter still isn't available, you may need to clean the Registry Key for Mounted Devices.

 

The thing is, I have no clue what or where the CD drive is. It has to be internal, but I've never seen it in My Computer until now.

 

That being the case, you will need to take it to someone versed in computer repair. It won't likely cost much if it's a bum CD-ROM drive, they're fairly inexpensive.

 

Ok. Thanks a lot for your fast and friendly help.