RickB Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 On my Win XPpro machine I have DVD and CD-RW drives which I like to use drive letters S: and W: respectively. I changed them from J: and K: (I have a partitioned hard disk to I:) using Disk Management. However, every time it boots it reverts back to J: and K:. I have an external drive assigned to X: and it does not change.How can I keep the drive letters from changing?Thanks in advance,Rick B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 Not sure if you followed these stepshttp://www.cae.wisc.edu/fsg/winxp/cd-rom.htmlif so I apologize for showing you something that you already know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickB Posted January 15, 2004 Author Share Posted January 15, 2004 Thanks for the reply.That's what I do every time I reboot my machine because for some reason they are now always reverting to J: and K: not what I set them to (S: and W:). It wasn't always like that, when I first loaded (fresh install) WinXPpro about 2 years ago it kept the settings and it keeps the settings now for other "drives" also (a Zip drive, Z:, an external drive X:, and 2 Sans Disk Image Mates J:, K:, L:, M: and Y:).I don't know if it may have been something I installed that forces the DVD and CD-RW drives to revert to J: and K: or maybe a registry entry somewhere, but I wouldn't know where to look.Thanks,Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 Hi Rick and welcome to SFNL Forums if you haven't already been officially welcomed :)When did this start happening? Had you installed any new programs that access the CD drive(s) or downloaded any Windows Updates?We could also use a little info on the computer itself. Make and Model if purchased from a retailer, or the motherboard model and type of CPU if you built it yourself.Thanks ... this info might give folks a little more to go on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickB Posted January 15, 2004 Author Share Posted January 15, 2004 Hi Fran,The Machine is a Dell Dim 4100, PIII 1GHz, 512MB mem, 80GB internal HD, 80 GB External HD (USB2), DVD, CD-RW, Zip, SansDisk ImageMate for CF cards and a SansDisk 6in1, Between these they use: A:-Floppy, C:, D:, E:, F:, G:, H: and I:-80GB internal,L:, M:, N:, O:-6in1, S:-DVD (prefered but switches to J: on reboot), W:-CD-Rom (Prefered but switches to K: on reboot), X:-80GB external, Y:-ImageMate, Z: Zip Drive.This has been occuring for a couple on months now. It very well could have started after installing a piece of software or a patch from Microsoft. But because I hadn't always looked at the drive designations I did not notice it until I tried to use the drive and saw that it had changed from what I had set it to.I run my machine 24/7 because I maintain a weather page (Avon Weatherhttp://rebunton.home.comcast.net/wx.htm) and have gone several weeks between reboots. It does not change until a reboot and it doesn't change when changing log-ins. It's getting very frustrating and any help would be appreciated.Thanks,Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 In searching for an answer, I found that others are having your problem too. And apparently this didn't start showing up till they updated to SP1 for WinXP.Does this sound like your scenario?Here's the page ... but no answer there yet since Feb 03:http://computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/fo...orum/53591.htmlStill looking ... but I hope others may have figured this out since I have not personally run into this problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickB Posted January 16, 2004 Author Share Posted January 16, 2004 Fran,That sounds like the exact problem I'm having, although I don't know if it was right after I installed SP-1 or not. I downloaded one flavor in August/03 and another in September. I belive I installed the second flavor that supposedly corrected some problems with the first. I know I was hesitant to install it because of some problems some people were having with it.I have searched the Microsoft Knowledge Base but was unable to find anything. Maybe I should contact Microsoft. They were very helpful when I was having a BSOD problem with a Palm USB adapter.Thanks,Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 I'm running WinXP SP1 and just tested this. I have 2 CD drives, one a reader, the other RW. I changed the drive letter on the reader only drive and rebooted. It was not changed after a reboot.I am up-to-date on all of MS patches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 Fran,That sounds like the exact problem I'm having, although I don't know if it was right after I installed SP-1 or not. I downloaded one flavor in August/03 and another in September. I belive I installed the second flavor that supposedly corrected some problems with the first. I know I was hesitant to install it because of some problems some people were having with it.I have searched the Microsoft Knowledge Base but was unable to find anything. Maybe I should contact Microsoft. They were very helpful when I was having a BSOD problem with a Palm USB adapter.Thanks,RickRick,If you do end up talking to Microsoft, please share the results and if they figure it out, maybe you could suggest they put it in their knowledge base too :'( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickB Posted January 16, 2004 Author Share Posted January 16, 2004 I would absolutly share any fix. At least I know it's not just me.I do have all the patches including the on that came out the other day.Thanks for your help,Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 The version of Remote Desktop Connection that comes with XP allows local drives to be accessible in the remote session and drives are automatically mapped from Z: backwards so maybe Microsoft made a change in SP1 to free up these end-of alphabet letters it other letters are free.What happens if you create dummy drive letter mapping for J:\ and K:\ to make then unavailable?If your computer were called "myserver" you would type in a Command Prompt Window:-net use j: \\myserver\c$ /persistent:yesThis would make J: identical to C: and the mappings would survive a reboot.Using Tweakui you could hide J: and K: if it bothered you to see them in My Computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickB Posted January 16, 2004 Author Share Posted January 16, 2004 Hi Ricardo,That would "fix" it cosmetically, but I would prefer a more permanent solution. I have submitted it to Microsoft so we'll see what happens.Thanks,Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitar Man Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 RickB,This is just a thought, but what if you ran TweakUI to set the drive letters YOU want and get rid of the others. There is a setting to do this in "My Computer/Drives". Just put a check in the boxes next to the drives you want to assign, leaving the remaining ones blank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 The version of Remote Desktop Connection that comes with XP allows local drives to be accessible in the remote session and drives are automatically mapped from Z: backwards so maybe Microsoft made a change in SP1 to free up these end-of alphabet letters it other letters are free.If Microsoft made a change like that, I would be affected by the same problem. But I don't experience this problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed_P Posted January 16, 2004 Share Posted January 16, 2004 The version of Remote Desktop Connection that comes with XP allows local drives to be accessible in the remote session and drives are automatically mapped from Z: backwards so maybe Microsoft made a change in SP1 to free up these end-of alphabet letters it other letters are free.If Microsoft made a change like that, I would be affected by the same problem. But I don't experience this problem. Me either. I'm current with XP Home maintenance, including SP1a, have a bunch of hd partitions, C:-O: plus my DVD-ROM is R: and my CD-RW is W:. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 OK scratch that idea then.I though the Tweakui feature only hid the drive letters and didn't disable them being assigned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitar Man Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Ricardo Posted on Jan 16 2004, 07:42 AM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tweakui you could hide J: and K: if it bothered you to see them in My Computer. Ricardo, looks like you were first in suggesting TweakUI. Oops... Sorry about that buddy ! But RickB never got back yet to tell us where he is on his problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickB Posted January 29, 2004 Author Share Posted January 29, 2004 Just an update--I've been working with Microsoft on this problem, so far no luck in finding a solution. Have booted into Safe Mode and the drive letters did not change on a reboot into Safe Mode. Tried diabling all non non MS services and all startup items but they still changed.Will let you know when we find a solution.Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 Just an update--I've been working with Microsoft on this problem, so far no luck in finding a solution. Have booted into Safe Mode and the drive letters did not change on a reboot into Safe Mode. Tried diabling all non non MS services and all startup items but they still changed.Will let you know when we find a solution.RickHave they recommend a complete reinstall yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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