Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: How do I stop Windows from reassigning my external drive letters?

I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm even writing this; it must be years of pent up rage. I have an accelerated Amiga 4000 with SCSI and IDE interfaces, a graphics card, A 6 CD changer, CD burners, a sound card, and a lowly 68060 processor running at 50 mhz and performing about 80 mips. I can create screen modes with virtually ANY hor and vert res and scan rate I want. I can digitize sound. It browses and e-mails and ftp's just perfectly on 3.0 mbps DSL (340KB per second)without a processor fan OR HEATSINK because it runs a preemptive multitasking OS called Amigados. Here's the point: By default the drives are named as follows: DF0 for the first floppy, DH0 for the first HDD, CD0 for the first CD, etc. But I can change that to almost anything I want; I name Seagate drives SE0 and Quantum drives QU0, etc. I agree with those who maintain that MS has set the computer industry back a decade or two. I find it unforgivable that MS got away with rushing out an extremely broken OS and was then allowed to slowly fix it over one or two decades and then, that they made any money at all or received any acclaim at all simply because people are too lazy to learn anything. Therefore I need to express my opinion that your answer is an even worse answer. Sitting next to the Amiga 4000 is a 3.0 gigahertz Northwood (Pentium) based machine and they are networked, so there's no need for any kind of response along the lines of "just 'cause you've never used Windows" or similar, because I have had the opportunity to compare Windows to a very good OS for years now, and I will continue to disagree. Finally, to stay on-topic, I need to add another option for preventing Windows from choosing your drive letters: Simply choose another OS, install it, learn how to use it, and name the drive whatever you want to name it. As a bonus, you won't be required to stare at "My Computer" or "My Documents" or "My Network Places" or any of that other somewhat cheesy stuff any more!

Then why are you stating that this function occurs errantly. I am Certified in Microsoft XP, Vista and all of the Software, and if you know how to use the OS it works just fine. This person wanted a little instruction, and you people have turned it into a who likes what better "Larry, MO & Curly" skit.

If you have something useful to help, write. If you just want to vent or have nothing to do but put down Microsoft, I am sure there is another forum for that.

I doubt it. you didn't understand the post.
The post is about a problem that needs to be fixed.
And saying junk it and get a new OS, isn't helping,
oh sure maybe in a *****'s mind.
Q= I have a flat tire on my American car.
A= That's why I buy foreign.
It bothers you that others don't praise MAC.
My religion is better than yours.
Come over to the better side.
Amen!

And we get posts taking up space and more importantly time,
like these.

IF there were as many mackedIt users as Microjunk, there would be
ATLEAST as many posts for help and problem solving.
Then guess what ?
You would would be a MS User haha!

Puma, all he is saying is, THIS IS THE PLACE FOR IT.

Try LINUX. The UBUNTU release is quite nice...

remember that Microsoft's main goal is to make money through marketing and advertising efforts. they are not interested in producing a perfect product. there are so many OSs available, why do people think they need windows? LOL

i agree... micro$oft is best at making money, not developing a decent OS for the masses... vista falls short on my expectations of an OS. my choices are Ubuntu Linux and BSD Unix

<b>USBDLM V4.1.0 - USB Drive Letter Manager for Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003 and Vista</b>


<b>What it is</B>

USBDLM is a Windows service that gives control over Window's drive letter assingment for USB drives. Running as service makes it independent of the logged on user's privileges, so there is no need to give the users the previlege to change drive letters.
It automatically solves conficts between USB drives and network or subst drives of the currently logged on user.
Furthermore you can define new default letters for USB drives and much more.



<b>What it not is</B>

USBDLM isn't a wonder tool. If Windows has problems with USB drives then USBDLM cannot fix it. Here are some tips for solving problems with USB drives.



<b>Getting Started</b>

When a removable drive (USB flash drive, flash card reader, portable hard drive) is attached for the first time, Windows mounts it to the first available 'local' drive letter. If there is a network share on this letter, Windows XP will use it anyway for the new USB drive because since XP network shares are specific to the current user and not visible in the context of the system where the letter is assigned. The USB drive then appears to be invisible.
You can change the letter assignments in the Windows Disk Management Console with a lot of mouse clicks but you have to do it again for every new device.
And, for USB devices that have no serial number (in violation of the USB standards) you have to do it too when you attach it to a different USB port. USBDLM can for newly attached USB drives

check if the letter is used by a network share of the currently logged on user and assign the next letter that is really available
reserve letters, so they are not used for local drives assign a letter from a list of new default letters, also dependend on many different criteria as the active user, drive type, connection (USB, FireWire), USB port, volume label, size and others assign letters for a specific USB drive by putting an INI file on the drive remove the drive letters of card readers until a card is inserted, show a balloon tip with the assigned drive letter(s) define autorun events depending on many different criteria many other things, see help file, available online as HTML version too.
All functions are applied to USB drives at the moment they are being attached, when the USBDLM service starts up and when a user loggs on.
USBDLM runs as Win32 service under Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003 and Vista. 64 Bit versions are untested but should work too.

<b>Here is the URL:
<i>http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html</i></b>

have u consider it defective?

PLEASE STOP WASTING PEOPLES TIME WITH STUPID RESPONSES. IF YOU CANNOT CONTRIBUTE ANYTHING HELPFUL, THEN GET A LIFE.

Hello,
You should have made your problem a NEW topic, not in this persons
problem.
Sounds like you either have a driver conflict, or there are some
devices that need to have drivers installed
(ones that aren't in WinXp), I have also seen fixes for problems like
this on the Microsft Knowledge base and or the maker of your drive.
Maybe try and disconnect your Camera and try it, if that doesn't work try it on the Cameras SLOT.

and I must apoligize - I have run ito several -sidetracks- that I have responded to DADSGETNDOWN as an example, its tooe asy to just respond - I was actually going to put my E-mail up there to take it outside the forum, because I realy don't have a clue how to split a track so the discussion can go on by itself , I'd apreciate advice ( though it is ouside the subject matter) because I agree - way toooooo many sidetracks but the a logical sidetracks - no offense to those that do - but heavely distract fro the matter at hand
Thanks - but please help us on how - and how to maintin the conection to thoe that responded PLEASE HELP US ALL

First thing you do is SEARCH for yuor problem by going to the MAIN
forums page, start of the forums if you will.
http://forums.cnet.com/
Either search in the box or click relevant topics and look or search
within those.
if that does not work or takes WAY to long ( after actually looking)
Go back to the forum home page, ther are links on every page
sometimes more than 1 and more than 2, that are easy to find, LOOK through the different forums available and choose logically 1 that
might fit you situation, then on the right hand side of the page
near the top there are BIG GREEN links that say Create a new thread.
CLICK IT.


I must be taking this post wrong so, that's as far as I will touch that.

Is this a SanDisk Flash Drive? SanDisk has a little piece of code that gets executed when you plug it in that can conflict with other applications running on your system. I had the same problem and it turned out to be conflicting with a MusicMatch Jukebox process called "mim.exe".

I killed the mim process and then inserted the Flash Drive -- worked fine.

Call the manufacturer's help desk and see if they can guide you through this problem.

I have found a program that runs in my system tray, so I can Unplug the correct USB device from my many devices that I have attached.

The program is called "USB Safely Remove" and produces the name and the drive letter when you place your mouse over the icon in the system tray. If you want to remove an item, you just click on it and it's removed! I usually don't promote programs, but I think this might help solve your issue.

Here is their website: http://safelyremove.com/

This is the "best" solution that I have found to the "letter assigning madness" that is part of the system. I think it beats going into the drive manager - each time - to try to "assign" something...that will not stick.

I hope this helps!
Cheers!