Comments on: Recently My External Hard Drive Has Been Spontaneously Changing From The F Drive To The G Drive And Back Again?

By: bklyn_40

bklyn_40 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:22:26 +0000

Are you consistenly plugging it into the same USB port?
That could be the issue.
Just because the drive letter is changing, it shouldn’t affect “finding” it unless you are using a shortcut.

By: JIM

JIM — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:23:12 +0000

When I’m in my “C” drive (Windows 7) and go into My Computer, the three partitions on my external show up as F.G. H
When I’m in my “E” drive (Vista) and go into My Computer, the same three partitions show up as F. H. I
I give each of my drives a name to avoid confusion

By: Mark M

Mark M — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:42:21 +0000

There is really NO WAY..that the DRIVE-Letter can change..once Windows[tm]has recognized the hardware..
===
It is advisable to have Windows[tm]choose the Drive Letter when formatting a HD Drive..
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I would SAVE all my Files..and Re-format the HD Drive..
Use the Logical Drive and a NTFS File System..with Default Allocation..
You may want to first DELETE the Partition..then perform the Re-Formatting..
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You should use Computer Management..Disk Management
..Delete the partition..then Format the Drive..
..HDD’s over 40-GBs are best as NTFS File Systems..
Allow Windows[tm]to choose the Drive Letter..
That should solve your problems.

By: ♂Dead Dog♀

♂Dead Dog♀ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:37:47 +0000

¶ here’s the rub:
a> when windows assigns a drive letter automatically it’s not a permanent assignment the first available letter goes to the first device plugged in so if you have 6 USB ports and 6 USB sticks / drives etc. and plug any one of them in, you won’t be guaranteed the same letter every time unless you always plug them in
in the same order every time
to avoid the problem of switching letters
the letters must be manually assigned by the user, this creates a registry entry
but if not done correctly the next new device will overwrite that entry
go to computer management
– select the external drive from the Disk Management section and manually assign drive letters different from the ones it keeps changing from
if your currently use 3 or 4 different USB devices requiring a letter then add 5 or more to the current internal fixed count
ie if your system is:
C: OS drive
D: Second HDD
E: CDDVD
F: second CD/DVD
skip at least
G: – K:
and then assign
L:
or
M: etc.
to the drive, this will certainly help protect the drive’s letters from “New” devices.
if you plug the drive in one day and find the letter has mysteriously changed again, there’s no need to delete everything and start over,
just open computer management again and re-assign the drive letter back to the original assignment ♀