USB drive letter issue...

[dredi]

Hi,

When I connect a USB Flash drive to a WinXP machine on the network. It consistantly wants to use a drive letter (E) which is already mapped to a network share. Instead of picking another free drive letter.

On my computer the drive letters are as follows:
Drive partitions are C: & D:
Network shares mapped on E:

Now I can change the letter for the USB drive but that has be done for each different USB drive used on a computer. If I disconnect the network share from E:, the USB Flash drive is happily available on the E: drive letter.

I can't change the network shares as it would break all the other things on my computer as E are used by other programs, logon scripts etc.

Why does WinXP insist on the network share E instead of picking another free letter ?

It seems like XP ignores the logical drives (network drives) as a valid drive letter, something to do with it weird drive assignment mechanism.

Another one of XP's.... Bugs.... I mean feature ???

Appreciate any help or info on how to sort this out.

regards

[Play_The_0dds]

have you tried setting the drive letter manually while it is hooked to the system, it should remember the setting once you have.(this is windows cant ever be sure)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307844

[dredi]

like I said in my previous post, I can change the drive letter manually but if another user uses the computer to use a different usb device, they have to change the drive letter again.

So this drive letter change has to be done for each usb device.


Looks like WinXP just does not consider a logical/Network drive as a physical drive letter mapping(C or D).

Stupid M$ OS does not know that a network drive mapped to a letter means that the letter is in use.

And I can't change the Network drive letter cause its tied in with a lot of other scripts for running network apps.

Hopefully someone or M$ itself will comeup with a fix for this silly bug in their OS.

[GeorgeAlefantes]

Drive Letters A: through E: have always been used by the PC as "local drives" reserved for floppies, hard drives, optical drives, etc.
Network drive mappings have always traditionally begun at drive letter F:.
Though additional local drives would use letters beyond the A: through E:, network drives should not use letters below F:.
Since your C: and D: are in use, the USB Flash drive seizes the next available local drive, E:, despite the fact that you have chosen to map it to a network drive.
Even your available network drive letters beginning at F: are at risk if you have enough local devices (internal card reader drives with four slots will grab the first four available letters after all of the other local drives).
This is undoubtedly why Microsoft has recommended that network drives be mapped from letter Z: backwards.

[Zaphod1620]

Unfortunately, that trick does not work either. I am the IT Director for a university. I have many computer labs, and I constantly am having to address this problem. All of my network drives begin with F:. Of course, XP will assign that letter to the USB drive as well.

If you begin your drive mappings with Z:, you will still not see the USB drive. It is now placed in Control Panel under "Scanners and Cameras". You cannot write to them from this area.

Assigning the drive letter will work for one person, if they continue to use the same USB drive. However, another USB drive, even the same make and model, will need to be manually assigned a drive letter.

I have learned to live with many of Microsoft's oversights, but this is one that should have been patched a long time ago. I usually stick with Win 2000 where possible, but CAD and visual arts software usually require XP. Shame on you Microsquat!

[4den2]

Hope it´s still in time and useful to you:
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools/15928.html

Regards,
4den2

[BeeDmoby]

Incorrect implementation of network drives letter may cause USB drives can not been seen by the restricted users even windows detect it as it was conflicting with the network drive letter. Users used their USB drive at home most likely detected as F: or E:. The only solution is re-mapped all your network drives start from mid range of drive letters (s:-z then roll down new shortcuts with the domain controller OR every time users call ask them plug in their USB drive then go to computer management remotely connect to their host > disk management to change the letter drive

Anyway research or survey b4 implement anything.

Cheers,
Bee. D Moby

[Maxt3rJF]

In fact, I have a little trick I often use.

We have 120 stations in our office and we met this issue so often. Our employees have 5 to 10 network mapped drives. What I did do fix the problem of mounted drives letters issues is that I set the CD-ROM drive letter to Z: so that I freed one drive letter (in our case E and so they could use their USB drives and keys and it always assign that drive letter. We informed everyone not to use that drive and that's it!