Windows 10: How to reserve a drive letter for usb hard drive

Discus and support How to reserve a drive letter for usb hard drive in Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware to solve the problem; My pc will not accept a second hard drive so I have attached one externally with usb. Its power supply is direct so it stays on until I turn it off.... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Drivers and Hardware' started by tcebob, Aug 19, 2017.

  1. tcebob Win User

    How to reserve a drive letter for usb hard drive


    My pc will not accept a second hard drive so I have attached one externally with usb. Its power supply is direct so it stays on until I turn it off. Currently it's drive E:. However, if it's off and I add a new drive the drive letters shuffle so that when I turn it on again it might be drive H:. My backup program (Ashampoo) thinks it is drive E: and will not find it.

    I have set hard drive to power off after 15 minutes for the internal drive but I have no control over the external one except to manually turn it on and off. I guess there is a control signal from the motherboard which deactivates the internal drive. Evidently that signal doesn't make it to the usb connection.

    How can I either:

    A. Permanently assign a letter to the drive

    or B. cause the system to power it down?

    :)
     
    tcebob, Aug 19, 2017
    #1
  2. BulldogXX Win User

    USB (A:\) floppy drive won't refresh it's contents when switching floppies in Windows 10 Anniversary 1607

    Drive letters A and B are reserved for internal floppy drives. Assign your USB-connected floppy drive a letter above D.
     
    BulldogXX, Aug 19, 2017
    #2
  3. Virtual memory problem

    Solved‼

    It looks as if Microsoft does not check the available space on drive A: and thinks it is a floppy.

    I split 20 GB off the A: disk, created a new primary partition with drive-letter V: and assigned the Virtual memory to V:

    It works, but Microsoft should speedily correct this error, Floppies are no longer available on modern PCs, but the size os the hard disks or SSDs is increasing, with the result, that for efficienter maintenence the HDs will be partitioned more and more
    until the user runs out of drive-letters‼ Some letters must be reserved for USB sticks and other USB devices.

    Perhaps a thorough revision of the idea of single character drive-letters should be regarded as an urgent task for creating an update‼
     
    Martin-Stephan C.A.M.de Rakovszky, Aug 19, 2017
    #3
  4. spunk Win User

    How to reserve a drive letter for usb hard drive

    Why can you not put in a secondary drive inside your computer? Do you not have any space? Or something else?
    You cannot set an external drive to power down when the computer powers down if the external has it's own power adapter.
    Press the Windows key+X choose Disk Management. In the lower pane, select your external drive and choose Change Drive Letter or Paths. Choose Change and choose the Drive letter E: (you may have to select a different drive letter, apply, then select E: and apply)This should keep the drive letter E: however, if you find it keeps getting bumped, then choose a drive letter lower in the Alphabet, like S: or T: or whatever.
     
    spunk, Aug 19, 2017
    #4
  5. Just a thought, but might help you.

    Don't know what external drive you have, but my Western Digital Elements (has it's own power supply) did some "strange" things to me for a while. Best solution for me is to leave it turned on and set the Power Management to stay ON in Device Manager.
     
    Wiley Coyote, Aug 19, 2017
    #5
  6. tcebob Win User
    1. The HP Pavilion computer I recently bought does not provide motherboard connections or internal space for a second HD. Had I known that I would not have chosen it.

    2. I changed the drive name to Z: and then plugged in a usb stick. Drive is still Z: so good suggestion. Windows warns that other programs might not like it. But I'm not running programs on it.

    3. Exterior drive is an Insignia box from Best Buy with a Seagate Pipeline HD 500 GB drive.

    4. How about a giant usb drive? Could I control the drive name for that?

    Thanks, Spunk and Clayton, for your input.
     
    tcebob, Aug 19, 2017
    #6
  7. spunk Win User
    Any drive, USB or otherwise that is assigned a drive letter in Disk Management that is not being used that is lower in the alphabet will hold it's drive letter
     
    spunk, Apr 5, 2018
    #7
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How to reserve a drive letter for usb hard drive

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