USB Drive Letter

[Kingston]

Hey I was wondering if there is a way to set up a USB drive letter to remain constant. I use a portable hdd to backup my system every night and the backup uses drive letters. So I want to make sure that portable hdd has the same drive letter no matter what, is this possible?

[Joe Average]

I think this topic has been broached in the past, but there was never a conclusive answer either way. I don't think it's possible as Windows (or any OS really) will see the drive as removable storage and as such the assignment of drive letters will be automagic and in order as required.

I remember someone trying all sorts of weird solutions, batch files that looked for something on the USB stick like a tag file or the label and then using a command line switch for Disk Management to assign the drive letter automagically, etc - none of it really ever had any success at all.

[XOR != OR]

I think this topic has been broached in the past, but there was never a conclusive answer either way. I don't think it's possible as Windows (or any OS really) will see the drive as removable storage and as such the assignment of drive letters will be automagic and in order as required.Actually, it is just windows. Windows sucks handling USB storage devices.

I can't speak for how MacOSX does it, but I can say that linux handles this far more intelligently.

[Joe Average]

Neither OSX or any Linux distro really uses "drive letters"; they simply use the volume label of the device as the ID the user sees. With Vista it's possible to actually do this, believe it or not: you can set Vista (with a Registry hack) to not show drive letters, hence the volume label becomes the ID the user sees. As long as the volume label doesn't change, it'll always be... well... the same I guess. :)

[l3ender]

If (when the drive is plugged in), you go to disk management (start-->run "diskmgmt.msc"), you can right click on the drive and change the drive letter.

I've been able to do this...on both XP and Vista. I've done it with multiple flash drives and multiple external harddrives and it works after unplugging, rebooting, etc...so I don't see what the problem is.

[mcravenufo]

If you change the drive letter it might stay at that letter.
The reason I say this is because my wife had an issue where Windows was issuing a drive letter for her USB drive that was already assigned to a mapped network drive. This resulted in the USB drive not showing up in Explorer and unable to read and write files to it. I changed the drive letter of the USB drive in Disk Management to something that was not being used and the USB drive has used that letter from that point on.

[l3ender]

If you change the drive letter it might stay at that letter.
The reason I say this is because my wife had an issue where Windows was issuing a drive letter for her USB drive that was already assigned to a mapped network drive. This resulted in the USB drive not showing up in Explorer and unable to read and write files to it. I changed the drive letter of the USB drive in Disk Management to something that was not being used and the USB drive has used that letter from that point on.

That's why I changed it too. And after I changed it it has remained the same.

[heatlesssun]

Hey I was wondering if there is a way to set up a USB drive letter to remain constant. I use a portable hdd to backup my system every night and the backup uses drive letters. So I want to make sure that portable hdd has the same drive letter no matter what, is this possible?

Maybe your just wondering if there is a way to do this, but are you looking to solve a particular problem? To be honest, why would anyone or thing care about fixing a drive letter to a removable device. Not to be mean, I am really curious.

Also XOR != OR please say exactly how Linux is some much better at USB devices than Windows. In Windows, you plug in the drive, you see you files. What else is there?

Yes, drive letters kinda suck, but they are a legacy. Think of all of the Windows apps that would break if drive letters disappeared. So yeah, that was a bad design choice from 30 years ago.

[l3ender]

Maybe your just wondering if there is a way to do this, but are you looking to solve a particular problem? To be honest, why would anyone or thing care about fixing a drive letter to a removable device. Not to be mean, I am really curious.

Read the two posts above yours.

[heatlesssun]

If you change the drive letter it might stay at that letter.
The reason I say this is because my wife had an issue where Windows was issuing a drive letter for her USB drive that was already assigned to a mapped network drive. This resulted in the USB drive not showing up in Explorer and unable to read and write files to it. I changed the drive letter of the USB drive in Disk Management to something that was not being used and the USB drive has used that letter from that point on.

That's odd. That's the reason why the letters might change, in that some other resource is using it. I've got at around two dozen flash drives, and I'll plug several in at once sometimes. In this senario, having a drive fixed to a letter doesn't mean much I think.

[XOR != OR]

Also XOR != OR please say exactly how Linux is some much better at USB devices than Windows. In Windows, you plug in the drive, you see you files. What else is there?Well, getting a consistent mount point for one. Linux does away with the archaic drive letter concept; a block device is a block device. Once you define it in linux, it'll always be the same ( which most distros do automatically now a days anyway, and then mounts the device ).

Now mix this into a corporate environment, where you need consistency. Or any automated task involving the usb device.

[heatlesssun]

Well, getting a consistent mount point for one. Linux does away with the archaic drive letter concept; a block device is a block device. Once you define it in linux, it'll always be the same ( which most distros do automatically now a days anyway, and then mounts the device ).

Now mix this into a corporate environment, where you need consistency. Or any automated task involving the usb device.

I agree with you on the drive letter argument. You said quote "Windows sucks handling USB storage devices." That I disagree with. Drive letters suck.

It's intresting though that you mention corporate, automated, and USB flash drive in the same sentence. Lots of corporations ban or lock out flash drives and other removable media for obvious reasons.

[Joe Average]

As I said, with that little tweak in Vista, you end up with a more "*nix" or Linux-like behavior when it comes to drives (note I'm not saying drive letter assignments this time). When that tweak is applied, Vista just shows the volume label - if you never change the volume label, then it ends up looking/acting/working just like it would on OSX or some Linux distro.

Of course, internally Windows still works with drive letters, but to the user's POV, they don't see them anymore with that tweak in effect.