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Resolved External Hard drives letter.

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by BobbyScot, 2012/09/12.

  1. 2012/09/12
    BobbyScot

    BobbyScot Geek Member Thread Starter

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    My external hardrives individual identification letters, changed without any keyboard manual entry. Examples : EHD letter H changed to J - J to K - G to H - K to F. IHD C,D not changed. Can the drive letters be changed back to original settings. Backups have now changed from H to J?
     
    BobbyScot,
    #1
  2. 2012/09/12
    lj50 Lifetime Subscription

    lj50 SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Orb\right click Computer\Click on Manage\Click on DiscManagement. Right on the drive you want to change in the context menu click on Change Drive Letter and Paths.
     
    lj50,
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  4. 2012/09/12
    BobbyScot

    BobbyScot Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Is it required to delete(remove) all shown letter, then allocate required letter to appropriate drive? Or can the original allocated letter be reinstated? What caused the drive letters to be changed?
     
    BobbyScot,
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  5. 2012/09/13
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    A drive letter can only be used once - you cannot have duplicates. As your drive letters have, for some reason or another, changed the simplest way of freeing up the drive letters that you want to use is to .....

    Assign drive letters X, Y, Z to each of your external hard drives - this frees up the drive letters that you want to use, but which are currently assigned to the wrong drives. Note - you cannot 'delete' drive letters, only change them.

    Then assign the drive letter that you want to use for drive X, etc.
     

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    PeteC,
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  6. 2012/09/13
    lj50 Lifetime Subscription

    lj50 SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Thanks PeteC, Sorry BobbyScot for not getting back to you. I had a little accident with a knife last night that required a trip to the ER. It took me a little while just to post this. I guess I will be just reading for a while instead of posting.
     
    lj50,
    #5
  7. 2012/09/13
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Ij50 - sorry to hear of your misfortune - wish you a speedy recovery.
     
    PeteC,
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  8. 2012/09/13
    BobbyScot

    BobbyScot Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Lj50, I too sorry to hear of your misfortune and sincerely hope that you have a quick recovery. Regards BS.
     
    BobbyScot,
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  9. 2012/09/13
    BobbyScot

    BobbyScot Geek Member Thread Starter

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    PeteC, many thanks for suggestion on re-lettering External hard drives. I have encountered this error once or twice over the years, never have I found out as to what caused this error. Regards BS.
     
    BobbyScot,
    #8
  10. 2012/09/13
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    Plugging in a 4th drive could cause this.. And or plugging all three of your drives in a different order could cause it... Or the first one might not have gotten detected on a boot up...
     
    Steve R Jones,
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  11. 2012/09/13
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Changing the USB port that the drive is plugged into will cause Windows to "find new hardware" and use the "new" device. Because a letter was previously assigned to the drive via a different USB port, Windows will assign it a new drive letter, beginning with its first partition. The assigned drive letters are stored in the registry and if the drives are disconnected, the assigned letters and their hardware IDs can be removed, but usually never necessary to do so unless one has used 20+ different thumb drives.
     
    TonyT,
    #10
  12. 2012/09/13
    BobbyScot

    BobbyScot Geek Member Thread Starter

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    My thanks to all who contributed suggestions. In my case all four external hard drives have a no time been replugged in/out of the USB ports. However I do insert in/out a USB memory stick, that is used as as a feguard against Hard Drive possible failure. All drives lettering has now been restored satisfactory.
     
    BobbyScot,
    #11
  13. 2012/09/13
    fdamp

    fdamp Well-Known Member

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    I have an external 80GB hard drive that I use for storing data, particularly from Quicken, on which we run our bank accounts. Because we travel in our motorhome, we like to have the data available to DW's netbook rather than my desktop.

    I recently plugged our digital camera into the computer to download photos of a visit by relatives from Japan. The portable HD went from L: to M:.

    Thanks for the tip to identify it as the "Z:" drive. If I get that far, I have other management problems!
     
    fdamp,
    #12

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