Windows 10: How to stop Windows 10 from automatically re-mapping my external hard drives to a different...

I am on Windows 10 on a laptop, Lenovo Legion Y540


I use several external hard drives. But now Windows keeps mapping the hard drives to a different letter. I have an important folder in Quick Access on one of those external hard drives, but when Windows changes the drive letter from D to F, now the pinned shortcut in quick access does not work. Plus there are other programs that rely on certain drive paths. I'll lay out the steps of this situation.


I have 2 external hard drives. We'll call them Drives #1 and #2.


1 When I first attached these 2 hard drives my computer, this is what Windows assigned. Drive 1 was mapped to F. Drive 2 was mapped to E. I'm fine with that.


2 I got a brand new hard drive to replace Drive 2. So I plugged in the existing "Drive 2", as well as the brand new hard drive. I transferred the stuff over from "Drive 2" to the "new Drive 2".


3 After that was all done, I eventually just had Drive 1 and "new Drive 2" plugged in. I noticed that, basically, Drive 1 and Drive 2new drive, now the drive letters were switched! Why did that happen? Why did the new drive steal the "F" name from Drive 1? Anyway, so then I used the "Create and format hard disk partitions" tool to switch the letters back. So "new Drive 2" is back to "E" like it's supposed to be, and Drive 1 is back to "F".


4 After that, I changed Drive 1 to "D". This was because on my old computer, the data in these folders was in a drive of letter "D", so I thought maybe it would fix some of the old shortcuts. So I changed it to D and everything was good.


5 Then I shut down the computer, and then unplugged the external hard drives. Later on I turned on the computer, inserted the new Drive 2, and then inserted one of my other backup drives. I then noticed that the backup drive was automatically re-pathed to D, even though that other Drive already was assigned to D drive 1 was.


It looks like if I get a brand new hard drive and connect it to the computer, it could steal any of the existing drive letters. Is there a fix for this?


Thanks


additional tags: change drive letters, harddrive, hdd, portable external hard drive, hard disk

:)

 

External Hard Drive stopping PC during start up

Hello,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community, we appreciate your interest in Windows 10.

I understand your concern that the PC will not reboot while connected with external hard drive.

I suggest you to do the following to detect the issue:

• Connect the hard drive to different port and check if the issue persists.
• Connect different hard drive to the same port and check.
• Connect different hard drives to different ports and check.

Please perform the above and let us know the status of this issue, we will be happy to help you further.

 

External hard drive not suppoted after anniversary update windows 10

To isolate the issue, we suggest that you perform the following steps below:

• Connect the external hard drive to the different port and check if the issue persists.
• Use different external hard drive to connect to the same port and check if same issue happens.

If the same issue happens after using different external hard drive to different ports, try to run
Hardware and Devices troubleshooter as it checks for common problem and make sure that any new devices or hardware connected to your PC is installed correctly. Here's how:

• Press Windows key from the keyboard, type Troubleshooting and select it.
• Click on view all option on the upper left corner of Troubleshooting window.
• Select the Hardware and Device options from the list.
• Click Next to run the Hardware and Device Troubleshooter.

After that, follow the steps on how to Install and Update drivers
in Windows 10.

Let us know how it goes.

Thank you.

 

Facing issue with Clickfree Automatic Backup external hard drive in Windows 10

Hi,

I am sorry to know that you are facing issues with back up external hard drive.

Lets run Hardware and Devices troubleshooter and check if that helps.

To open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter, follow these steps:

• Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog box.
• Type control in the Run dialog box, then press Enter.
• In the Search box in Control Panel, type
  troubleshooter, and then click Troubleshooting.
• Under the Hardware and Sound item, click Configure a device. If you are prompted to enter an administrator password or provide confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

If the issue persist, I suggest you to plug in your
back up external hard drive into a different USB port and check the if you get the error message as such. And if the issue persist, try plugging in a different
back up external hard drive and check the behavior.

If the issue still persist with a different
back up external hard drive also, then try the same procedure in a different computer device and check the behavior. This is to just make sure, if the issue is
back up external hard drive specific or computer device specific.

Please keep us updated with the status of your
back up external hard drive, to assist you further.

Regards,