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physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

Guest Cameramonkey

By Guest Cameramonkey
in Windows XP

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Guest Cameramonkey

Guest Cameramonkey

Posted
Posted

Anyone know why after 16 years and (6 major versions), windows STILL cant

tell that a drive has been mapped so that it doesnt re-use a drive letter for

things like card readers?

 

Have I been missing something all these years? I am getting tired of having

to manually configure a card reader in drive manager to not use F: because a

network share is already mapped to that letter.

 

anyone? (or has this been fixed in Vista and I havent run across it yet?)

 

And yes, I know that one fix is to map network drives from the bottom up,

but thats not really a fix. Thats just avoiding the problem.

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Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

 

"Cameramonkey" <Cameramonkey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:49DA7D9D-3059-4D90-9D2C-9DE61A12E779@microsoft.com...

> Anyone know why after 16 years and (6 major versions), windows STILL cant

> tell that a drive has been mapped so that it doesnt re-use a drive letter

for

> things like card readers?

>

> Have I been missing something all these years? I am getting tired of

having

> to manually configure a card reader in drive manager to not use F: because

a

> network share is already mapped to that letter.

>

> anyone? (or has this been fixed in Vista and I havent run across it yet?)

>

> And yes, I know that one fix is to map network drives from the bottom up,

> but thats not really a fix. Thats just avoiding the problem.

>

 

Anyone know why people still map networked drives to the low letters of the

alphabet, after more than 10 years of USB drives that will by design occupy

the first free drive letter? Maybe Microsoft should make the letters below

L: unavailable to mapped shares in order to drive this point home and stop

the moaning and bitching.

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

 

"Cameramonkey" <Cameramonkey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:49DA7D9D-3059-4D90-9D2C-9DE61A12E779@microsoft.com...

> Anyone know why after 16 years and (6 major versions), windows STILL cant

> tell that a drive has been mapped so that it doesnt re-use a drive letter

> for

> things like card readers?

>

> Have I been missing something all these years? I am getting tired of

> having

> to manually configure a card reader in drive manager to not use F: because

> a

> network share is already mapped to that letter.

>

> anyone? (or has this been fixed in Vista and I havent run across it yet?)

>

> And yes, I know that one fix is to map network drives from the bottom up,

> but thats not really a fix. Thats just avoiding the problem.

>

>

 

Assignment of USB drive letters happens before assignment of shared drive

letters, so this behaviour is to be expected. A reversal of this strategy

would cause the opposite problem with USB drive letters. Have a look at

USBDLM: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html.

Guest Cameramonkey

Guest Cameramonkey

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

Monitor: mapping from the bottom up doesnt fix the problem, it works around

it. Its the equivalent to : "doctor, it hurts when i do THIS." "then dont do

that.".

 

Pegasus: then how do you explain the behavior of a system that has been up

for days/weeks and you plug in a new device? the new device is stepping on a

drive that has been in place the entire time and what technically there

first. So its not always about processing physical drive letters first.

 

 

 

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>

> "Cameramonkey" <Cameramonkey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:49DA7D9D-3059-4D90-9D2C-9DE61A12E779@microsoft.com...

> > Anyone know why after 16 years and (6 major versions), windows STILL cant

> > tell that a drive has been mapped so that it doesnt re-use a drive letter

> > for

> > things like card readers?

> >

> > Have I been missing something all these years? I am getting tired of

> > having

> > to manually configure a card reader in drive manager to not use F: because

> > a

> > network share is already mapped to that letter.

> >

> > anyone? (or has this been fixed in Vista and I havent run across it yet?)

> >

> > And yes, I know that one fix is to map network drives from the bottom up,

> > but thats not really a fix. Thats just avoiding the problem.

> >

> >

>

> Assignment of USB drive letters happens before assignment of shared drive

> letters, so this behaviour is to be expected. A reversal of this strategy

> would cause the opposite problem with USB drive letters. Have a look at

> USBDLM: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html.

>

>

>

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

 

"Cameramonkey" <Cameramonkey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:1D043622-E7E8-428B-A4BF-F8C22DD8A84A@microsoft.com...

> Monitor: mapping from the bottom up doesnt fix the problem, it works

> around

> it. Its the equivalent to : "doctor, it hurts when i do THIS." "then dont

> do

> that.".

>

> Pegasus: then how do you explain the behavior of a system that has been up

> for days/weeks and you plug in a new device? the new device is stepping on

> a

> drive that has been in place the entire time and what technically there

> first. So its not always about processing physical drive letters first.

 

A new USB device will never grab the drive letter of an active mapped drive.

It will look for the first unoccupied drive letter.

Guest Tim Slattery

Guest Tim Slattery

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

"Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote:

>

>"Cameramonkey" <Cameramonkey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

>news:1D043622-E7E8-428B-A4BF-F8C22DD8A84A@microsoft.com...

>> Monitor: mapping from the bottom up doesnt fix the problem, it works

>> around

>> it. Its the equivalent to : "doctor, it hurts when i do THIS." "then dont

>> do

>> that.".

>>

>> Pegasus: then how do you explain the behavior of a system that has been up

>> for days/weeks and you plug in a new device? the new device is stepping on

>> a

>> drive that has been in place the entire time and what technically there

>> first. So its not always about processing physical drive letters first.

>

>A new USB device will never grab the drive letter of an active mapped drive.

>It will look for the first unoccupied drive letter.

 

No it won't! Cameramonkey is right, if you plug in a USB drive, it

will be assigned the first letter after the hard and optical drives,

even if a network share is mapped there. MS got this screwed up and

they've never fixed it in XP. I think it works right in Vista, can

anybody confirm this?

 

--

Tim Slattery

MS MVP(Shell/User)

Slattery_T@bls.gov

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

 

"Tim Slattery" <Slattery_T@bls.gov> wrote in message

news:mcaae4lt09b02ecfjuicda9ll7mantg44o@4ax.com...

> "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote:

>

>>

>>"Cameramonkey" <Cameramonkey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

>>news:1D043622-E7E8-428B-A4BF-F8C22DD8A84A@microsoft.com...

>>> Monitor: mapping from the bottom up doesnt fix the problem, it works

>>> around

>>> it. Its the equivalent to : "doctor, it hurts when i do THIS." "then

>>> dont

>>> do

>>> that.".

>>>

>>> Pegasus: then how do you explain the behavior of a system that has been

>>> up

>>> for days/weeks and you plug in a new device? the new device is stepping

>>> on

>>> a

>>> drive that has been in place the entire time and what technically there

>>> first. So its not always about processing physical drive letters first.

>>

>>A new USB device will never grab the drive letter of an active mapped

>>drive.

>>It will look for the first unoccupied drive letter.

>

> No it won't! Cameramonkey is right, if you plug in a USB drive, it

> will be assigned the first letter after the hard and optical drives,

> even if a network share is mapped there. MS got this screwed up and

> they've never fixed it in XP. I think it works right in Vista, can

> anybody confirm this?

>

> --

> Tim Slattery

> MS MVP(Shell/User)

> Slattery_T@bls.gov

> http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

 

I read what you write but I am unable to reconcile it with what I see on my

WinXP SP3 machine. Here is a list of my current drive assignments:

Drive Type State Label F/S Size Free Serial

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

C: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

D: Fixed ready CH-DATA FAT32 21471 15379 6AC29F96

E: Fixed ready CH-Drivers NTFS 21854 13850 39913A98

F: CDROM not ready

G: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

H: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

I: Network ready \\pegasus\c$ NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

 

After compiling the above list, I connected a brand new USB device.

According to your claim, it should grab drive letter I:. Here is the result:

Drive Type State Label F/S Size Free Serial

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

C: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

D: Fixed ready CH-DATA FAT32 21471 15379 6AC29F96

E: Fixed ready CH-Drivers NTFS 21854 13850 39913A98

F: CDROM not ready

G: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

H: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

I: Network ready \\pegasus\c$ NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

J: Removable ready BIG USB FAT32 1004 955 F0E1D960

 

Can you suggest a test that demonstrates the phenomenon you describe?

Guest smlunatick

Guest smlunatick

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

On Oct 2, 9:22 pm, "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I....@fly.com.oz> wrote:

> "Tim Slattery" <Slatter...@bls.gov> wrote in message

>

> news:mcaae4lt09b02ecfjuicda9ll7mantg44o@4ax.com...

>

>

>

> > "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I....@fly.com.oz> wrote:

>

> >>"Cameramonkey" <Cameramon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> >>news:1D043622-E7E8-428B-A4BF-F8C22DD8A84A@microsoft.com...

> >>> Monitor: mapping from the bottom up doesnt fix the problem, it works

> >>> around

> >>> it. Its the equivalent to : "doctor, it hurts when i do THIS." "then

> >>> dont

> >>> do

> >>> that.".

>

> >>> Pegasus: then how do you explain the behavior of a system that has been

> >>> up

> >>> for days/weeks and you plug in a new device? the new device is stepping

> >>> on

> >>> a

> >>> drive that has been in place the entire time and what technically there

> >>> first. So its not always about processing physical drive letters first.

>

> >>A new USB device will never grab the drive letter of an active mapped

> >>drive.

> >>It will look for the first unoccupied drive letter.

>

> > No it won't! Cameramonkey is right, if you plug in a USB drive, it

> > will be assigned the first letter after the hard and optical drives,

> > even if a network share is mapped there. MS got this screwed up and

> > they've never fixed it in XP. I think it works right in Vista, can

> > anybody confirm this?

>

> > --

> > Tim Slattery

> > MS MVP(Shell/User)

> > Slatter...@bls.gov

> >http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

>

> I read what you write but I am unable to reconcile it with what I see on my

> WinXP SP3 machine. Here is a list of my current drive assignments:

> Drive  Type       State      Label          F/S      Size    Free  Serial

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> C:     Fixed      ready      CH-SYSTEM      NTFS    16109    8631  BFCEEC74

> D:     Fixed      ready      CH-DATA        FAT32   21471   15379  6AC29F96

> E:     Fixed      ready      CH-Drivers     NTFS    21854   13850  39913A98

> F:     CDROM      not ready

> G:     Fixed      ready      CH-SYSTEM      NTFS    16109    8631  BFCEEC74

> H:     Fixed      ready      CH-SYSTEM      NTFS    16109    8631  BFCEEC74

> I:     Network    ready      \\pegasus\c$   NTFS    16109    8631  BFCEEC74

>

> After compiling the above list, I connected a brand new USB device.

> According to your claim, it should grab drive letter I:. Here is the result:

> Drive  Type       State      Label          F/S      Size    Free  Serial

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> C:     Fixed      ready      CH-SYSTEM      NTFS    16109    8631  BFCEEC74

> D:     Fixed      ready      CH-DATA        FAT32   21471   15379  6AC29F96

> E:     Fixed      ready      CH-Drivers     NTFS    21854   13850  39913A98

> F:     CDROM      not ready

> G:     Fixed      ready      CH-SYSTEM      NTFS    16109    8631  BFCEEC74

> H:     Fixed      ready      CH-SYSTEM      NTFS    16109    8631  BFCEEC74

> I:     Network    ready      \\pegasus\c$   NTFS    16109    8631  BFCEEC74

> J:     Removable  ready      BIG USB        FAT32    1004     955  F0E1D960

>

> Can you suggest a test that demonstrates the phenomenon you describe?

 

Remove your J: drive and then shutdown the XP. Reboot the XP with the

J: drive connected. It should be detected before the mappings occur

and could get I: instead.

Guest Bob I

Guest Bob I

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

 

 

Pegasus (MVP) wrote:

> "Tim Slattery" <Slattery_T@bls.gov> wrote in message

> news:mcaae4lt09b02ecfjuicda9ll7mantg44o@4ax.com...

>

>>"Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote:

>>

>>

>>>"Cameramonkey" <Cameramonkey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

>>>news:1D043622-E7E8-428B-A4BF-F8C22DD8A84A@microsoft.com...

>>>

>>>>Monitor: mapping from the bottom up doesnt fix the problem, it works

>>>>around

>>>>it. Its the equivalent to : "doctor, it hurts when i do THIS." "then

>>>>dont

>>>>do

>>>>that.".

>>>>

>>>>Pegasus: then how do you explain the behavior of a system that has been

>>>>up

>>>>for days/weeks and you plug in a new device? the new device is stepping

>>>>on

>>>>a

>>>>drive that has been in place the entire time and what technically there

>>>>first. So its not always about processing physical drive letters first.

>>>

>>>A new USB device will never grab the drive letter of an active mapped

>>>drive.

>>>It will look for the first unoccupied drive letter.

>>

>>No it won't! Cameramonkey is right, if you plug in a USB drive, it

>>will be assigned the first letter after the hard and optical drives,

>>even if a network share is mapped there. MS got this screwed up and

>>they've never fixed it in XP. I think it works right in Vista, can

>>anybody confirm this?

>>

>>--

>>Tim Slattery

>>MS MVP(Shell/User)

>>Slattery_T@bls.gov

>>http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

>

>

> I read what you write but I am unable to reconcile it with what I see on my

> WinXP SP3 machine. Here is a list of my current drive assignments:

> Drive Type State Label F/S Size Free Serial

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> C: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> D: Fixed ready CH-DATA FAT32 21471 15379 6AC29F96

> E: Fixed ready CH-Drivers NTFS 21854 13850 39913A98

> F: CDROM not ready

> G: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> H: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> I: Network ready \\pegasus\c$ NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

>

> After compiling the above list, I connected a brand new USB device.

> According to your claim, it should grab drive letter I:. Here is the result:

> Drive Type State Label F/S Size Free Serial

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> C: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> D: Fixed ready CH-DATA FAT32 21471 15379 6AC29F96

> E: Fixed ready CH-Drivers NTFS 21854 13850 39913A98

> F: CDROM not ready

> G: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> H: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> I: Network ready \\pegasus\c$ NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> J: Removable ready BIG USB FAT32 1004 955 F0E1D960

>

> Can you suggest a test that demonstrates the phenomenon you describe?

>

>

 

I believe the difference came with SP3. Sp2 exhibits the old

disappearing drive behavior.

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

 

"smlunatick" <yveslec@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:33c9ea11-419c-4541-ba01-cc16720c7176@q35g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

On Oct 2, 9:22 pm, "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I....@fly.com.oz> wrote:

> "Tim Slattery" <Slatter...@bls.gov> wrote in message

>

> news:mcaae4lt09b02ecfjuicda9ll7mantg44o@4ax.com...

>

>

>

> > "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I....@fly.com.oz> wrote:

>

> >>"Cameramonkey" <Cameramon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> >>news:1D043622-E7E8-428B-A4BF-F8C22DD8A84A@microsoft.com...

> >>> Monitor: mapping from the bottom up doesnt fix the problem, it works

> >>> around

> >>> it. Its the equivalent to : "doctor, it hurts when i do THIS." "then

> >>> dont

> >>> do

> >>> that.".

>

> >>> Pegasus: then how do you explain the behavior of a system that has

> >>> been

> >>> up

> >>> for days/weeks and you plug in a new device? the new device is

> >>> stepping

> >>> on

> >>> a

> >>> drive that has been in place the entire time and what technically

> >>> there

> >>> first. So its not always about processing physical drive letters

> >>> first.

>

> >>A new USB device will never grab the drive letter of an active mapped

> >>drive.

> >>It will look for the first unoccupied drive letter.

>

> > No it won't! Cameramonkey is right, if you plug in a USB drive, it

> > will be assigned the first letter after the hard and optical drives,

> > even if a network share is mapped there. MS got this screwed up and

> > they've never fixed it in XP. I think it works right in Vista, can

> > anybody confirm this?

>

> > --

> > Tim Slattery

> > MS MVP(Shell/User)

> > Slatter...@bls.gov

> >http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

>

> I read what you write but I am unable to reconcile it with what I see on

> my

> WinXP SP3 machine. Here is a list of my current drive assignments:

> Drive Type State Label F/S Size Free Serial

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> C: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> D: Fixed ready CH-DATA FAT32 21471 15379 6AC29F96

> E: Fixed ready CH-Drivers NTFS 21854 13850 39913A98

> F: CDROM not ready

> G: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> H: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> I: Network ready \\pegasus\c$ NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

>

> After compiling the above list, I connected a brand new USB device.

> According to your claim, it should grab drive letter I:. Here is the

> result:

> Drive Type State Label F/S Size Free Serial

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> C: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> D: Fixed ready CH-DATA FAT32 21471 15379 6AC29F96

> E: Fixed ready CH-Drivers NTFS 21854 13850 39913A98

> F: CDROM not ready

> G: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> H: Fixed ready CH-SYSTEM NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> I: Network ready \\pegasus\c$ NTFS 16109 8631 BFCEEC74

> J: Removable ready BIG USB FAT32 1004 955 F0E1D960

>

> Can you suggest a test that demonstrates the phenomenon you describe?

 

Remove your J: drive and then shutdown the XP. Reboot the XP with the

J: drive connected. It should be detected before the mappings occur

and could get I: instead.

 

==========

 

Yes, I know it will, because USB drive letter assignments happen before

network assignments. This is what I said before. Tim Slattery claimed

something quite different (and perhaps the OP too): "If you plug in a USB

drive, it will be assigned the first letter after the hard and optical

drives, even if a network share is mapped there."

Guest Tim Slattery

Guest Tim Slattery

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

"Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote:

>Yes, I know it will, because USB drive letter assignments happen before

>network assignments. This is what I said before. Tim Slattery claimed

>something quite different (and perhaps the OP too): "If you plug in a USB

>drive, it will be assigned the first letter after the hard and optical

>drives, even if a network share is mapped there."

 

My experience seems to be different than yours. I have a hard drive

partitioned into C: and D: and an optical drive that is E:. I also

have a number of mapped network drives. I've had to leave F: open,

because if I map a network share to F: it becomes unusable when I plug

a USB drive in. The USB drive gets the F: letter, and the mapped

network share disappears until I unplug the USB drive. Apparently this

behavior is not consistent but it does happen.

 

--

Tim Slattery

MS MVP(Shell/User)

Slattery_T@bls.gov

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

Guest Tim Slattery

Guest Tim Slattery

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

Bob I <birelan@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I believe the difference came with SP3. Sp2 exhibits the old

>disappearing drive behavior.

 

Maybe so. My computer here at work is SP2, my employer has not seen

fit to deploy SP3.

 

--

Tim Slattery

MS MVP(Shell/User)

Slattery_T@bls.gov

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

 

"Tim Slattery" <Slattery_T@bls.gov> wrote in message

news:7v4ce4hukhs5amp8ami94uvc9k4ittslki@4ax.com...

> "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote:

>

>>Yes, I know it will, because USB drive letter assignments happen before

>>network assignments. This is what I said before. Tim Slattery claimed

>>something quite different (and perhaps the OP too): "If you plug in a USB

>>drive, it will be assigned the first letter after the hard and optical

>>drives, even if a network share is mapped there."

>

> My experience seems to be different than yours. I have a hard drive

> partitioned into C: and D: and an optical drive that is E:. I also

> have a number of mapped network drives. I've had to leave F: open,

> because if I map a network share to F: it becomes unusable when I plug

> a USB drive in. The USB drive gets the F: letter, and the mapped

> network share disappears until I unplug the USB drive. Apparently this

> behavior is not consistent but it does happen.

>

> --

> Tim Slattery

 

I'd love to hear about a step-by-step procedure that would let me recreate

and confirm this event on my own machines. Did you try my own process, the

one I posted previously?

Guest John Wunderlich

Guest John Wunderlich

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

Tim Slattery <Slattery_T@bls.gov> wrote in

news:e65ce4p7vivdqppeqhlautm34q853oqej3@4ax.com:

> Bob I <birelan@yahoo.com> wrote:

>

>> I believe the difference came with SP3. Sp2 exhibits the old

>> disappearing drive behavior.

>

> Maybe so. My computer here at work is SP2, my employer has not seen

> fit to deploy SP3.

>

 

This has been documented by Microsoft and a Hot-Fix is available for

SP2. The article also says "we recommend that you wait for the next

software update that contains this hotfix." -- I assume this refers to

SP3.

 

See the following:

 

"New drive or mapped network drive not available in Windows Explorer"

<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297694>

 

HTH,

John

Guest John Wunderlich

Guest John Wunderlich

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

"Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in

news:urZFjwVJJHA.4568@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:

>

> "Tim Slattery" <Slattery_T@bls.gov> wrote in message

> news:7v4ce4hukhs5amp8ami94uvc9k4ittslki@4ax.com...

>> "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote:

>>

>>> Yes, I know it will, because USB drive letter assignments happen

>>> before network assignments. This is what I said before. Tim

>>> Slattery claimed something quite different (and perhaps the OP

>>> too): "If you plug in a USB drive, it will be assigned the first

>>> letter after the hard and optical drives, even if a network

>>> share is mapped there."

>>

>> My experience seems to be different than yours. I have a hard

>> drive partitioned into C: and D: and an optical drive that is E:.

>> I also have a number of mapped network drives. I've had to leave

>> F: open, because if I map a network share to F: it becomes

>> unusable when I plug a USB drive in. The USB drive gets the F:

>> letter, and the mapped network share disappears until I unplug

>> the USB drive. Apparently this behavior is not consistent but it

>> does happen.

>>

>> --

>> Tim Slattery

>

> I'd love to hear about a step-by-step procedure that would let me

> recreate and confirm this event on my own machines. Did you try my

> own process, the one I posted previously?

>

>

 

Are you using SP3? According to Microsoft, the fix for this is

included in SP3

 

<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297694>

 

HTH,

John

Guest Uwe Sieber

Guest Uwe Sieber

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

John Wunderlich wrote:

> Tim Slattery <Slattery_T@bls.gov> wrote in

> news:e65ce4p7vivdqppeqhlautm34q853oqej3@4ax.com:

>

>> Bob I <birelan@yahoo.com> wrote:

>>

>>> I believe the difference came with SP3. Sp2 exhibits the old

>>> disappearing drive behavior.

>> Maybe so. My computer here at work is SP2, my employer has not seen

>> fit to deploy SP3.

>>

>

> This has been documented by Microsoft and a Hot-Fix is available for

> SP2. The article also says "we recommend that you wait for the next

> software update that contains this hotfix." -- I assume this refers to

> SP3.

>

> See the following:

>

> "New drive or mapped network drive not available in Windows Explorer"

> <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297694>

 

 

Correct. What the SP3 did not fix is this scenario:

Letters C: + D: used for local drives, E: for an USB drive.

Remove the USB drive, create a network drive at E: and

reattach the the USB drive again. XP with SP3 will assign

E: anyway, the USB drive is 'hidden'. This is fixed in Vista.

 

 

Uwe

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)

Posted
Posted

Re: physical drive letters stepping on mapped drives. Why?

 

 

"Uwe Sieber" <uwe.sieber@nospam.nospam> wrote in message

news:OwFNvnjJJHA.1160@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> Correct. What the SP3 did not fix is this scenario:

> Letters C: + D: used for local drives, E: for an USB drive.

> Remove the USB drive, create a network drive at E: and

> reattach the the USB drive again. XP with SP3 will assign

> E: anyway, the USB drive is 'hidden'. This is fixed in Vista.

>

> Uwe

 

Good to see a precise and reproducible problem description! The USB drive

will, in fact, re-appear as soon as the network drive is disconnected (which

is, of course, pretty useless). Using the high letters of the alphabet for

networked drives will avoid the issue.

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