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Windows XP mounting USB drive to same letter as previously mapped network drive

Windows XP mounting USB drive to same letter as previously mapped network drive

Why does Windows always mount a USB drive as the next drive letter after the last physical drive, even when that letter is already taken by a mapped drive, and is there any way to improve this behaviour?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 329
Total answers/comments: 2
Guest [Entry]

"For this kind of problem, USB Drive Letter Management (USBDLM) makes wonders. You can allocate drive letters to USB drives, make sure it does not interfere with network drives, ...

From their Getting Started section:

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. This is fixed
by SP3 in most situations. 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"
Guest [Entry]

"The Windows-native way to do this may be DISKPART. It works for me.

From the DISKPART> prompt use:

list volume

to identify the USB drive,

select volume {number}

to choose it then

assign letter={letter}

to set its drive letter."