How to keep drives in correct order

My question is how do you keep your drives in their correct order after adding another drive?
All my data drives are external, USB Drives. I have 2 SSD drives and 2 HHD drives. The SSD drives are my normal data drives, and the two HHD drives are used for backup. The problem lies that each time I go to use my backup drives my primary, everyday drives lose their identity. I don't keep my backup drives on all the time. They are only turned on when I do a backup.
I will grant that this could be a normal occurrence in Windows, and you have no control as to which letter Windows will assign, but if you have already assigned a letter to a drive, shouldn't Windows keep that letter?
Just for an example, I use C, D, and E as my primary drives. Now I turn on, plug in, what have you another drive. My E drive now becomes G drive and the drive I just added becomes E drive or D drive.
This may be basic stuff, but I just don't get it.

xpac5896 said:

My question is how do you keep your drives in their correct order after adding another drive?
All my data drives are external, USB Drives. I have 2 SSD drives and 2 HHD drives. The SSD drives are my normal data drives, and the two HHD drives are used for backup. The problem lies that each time I go to use my backup drives my primary, everyday drives lose their identity. I don't keep my backup drives on all the time. They are only turned on when I do a backup.
I will grant that this could be a normal occurrence in Windows, and you have no control as to which letter Windows will assign, but if you have already assigned a letter to a drive, shouldn't Windows keep that letter?
Just for an example, I use C, D, and E as my primary drives. Now I turn on, plug in, what have you another drive. My E drive now becomes G drive and the drive I just added becomes E drive or D drive.
This may be basic stuff, but I just don't get it.

Click to expand...

Assigning Drive Letter to Removable Disks.
Windows will assign the available drive letter for removable disks after the current partition volumes. The problem is when you have multiple removable disks, the assigned letters will change every time which may confuse you. The good part is that you can assign a drive letter for your removable USB or external hard disk. Windows will remember the assigned letter and use the same whenever you insert the external drive. However, make sure to use the letters clearly away from the current and CD/DVD drives. For example, you can use X or Y or even A or B which are generally not assigned. (Quoted from the link below)

PS: I suggest not using; A, B, C, or D... all other alpha characters are okay.

I always assign drive letters by use of Disk Management. I would think that if a drive letter is being used, Windows would assign a letter that IS NOT being used as I keep my SSD drives on all the time except for the HDD drives which I turn on for doing the back up of C and D drives. I've never us A or B for drive letters and C drive is normally your primary drive so C is out altogether. I would guess that the reason for the confusion is because I will turn off D and E drive so that there is no mix-up in doing the backups. I have at one time accidentally backed up to the wrong drive, especially doing a cloning of C drive and lost all my data that I had on the drive. I guess because I turn off the drives Windows just assigns the next letter because of the drives not being there. So, I guess I answered my own question.

I have 2 x 4TB USB drives and assigned F: and G:, they normally don't get unplugged. C: & D: are partitions on the internal HDD and E: is the ODD. I maintain the 'old' method of reserving A: and B: for floppies, used to be for internals but works for Externals. I use the earlier Windows scheme that automatically assigned Z: for the first NAS drive on the network and if adding another work back up the alphabet, second would be Y: and so on, it did leave a lot of space for adding USB drives of any type.

I use the old method as well where B usually was the floppy drive. I've been fooling around with computers since around 1985 or so and I've never seen an A drive. I started with Windows 3.1 which I believe had about 7 or so 3.5 discs to install it. It is interesting to see the differences between then and now. We rely on computers to do everything for us, and we forget the old ways or don't have a backup plan when they go down, everything just stops. So, what is wrong with using paper and a typewriter or whatever to continue? Granted most people use the computer to pay their bills but what's wrong with using a stamp and an envelope to do the same? Yes, snail mail is slow, but it still gets the job done.

The problem is that you are turning off D & E so Windows regards those drive letters as being available for assignment.
I suggest you assign specific drive letters for all your drives except C:\ - all your removable drives [including all that you turn on/off even if they are internal ones].
Change Drive Letter - ElevenForumTutorials
I think it would help to avoid future mistakes if you started the drive letter assignments at H:\.

You do not say what you use to do your backups.
I use scripts and I include a section that seeks out my backup drives by name [label], detects their drive letters and uses those for the backup procedure.


Best of luck,
Denis

xpac5896 said:

I use the old method as well where B usually was the floppy drive. I've been fooling around with computers since around 1985 or so and I've never seen an A drive. I started with Windows 3.1 which I believe had about 7 or so 3.5 discs to install it. It is interesting to see the differences between then and now. We rely on computers to do everything for us, and we forget the old ways or don't have a backup plan when they go down, everything just stops. So, what is wrong with using paper and a typewriter or whatever to continue? Granted most people use the computer to pay their bills but what's wrong with using a stamp and an envelope to do the same? Yes, snail mail is slow, but it still gets the job done.

Click to expand...

My first computer was a black Hewitt Rand 80386/40MHz with 4MB RAM, 120MB HDD, 3.5" floppy and 5.25" floppy. First upgrade was to 8MB RAM, second to 210MB HDD, third to a Colorado Memory tape backup. Two years later I retired and a week after that was offered a job in a computer store, month later building computers, 3 a day including software install. Still working at it albeit not so much. The lady that owned the store got a good deal with me, didn't need any benefits and didn't have to pay Job Service to find a part-timer. I still have a number of old computers, oldest is a Toshiba Laptop [as was called back then] with MS-DOS 5 and Windows 3.1, battery is shot but still good with AC.

This link may be useful:

Try3:
D drive is nothing more than a repository for things like Computer programs, serial numbers, manuals, Pics, just general information, and all I do is copy all the folders to the backup. The second drive is a clone of C drive and I use Macrium Reflect for the cloning; this is nothing more than a safety measure should something go wrong.

xpac5896 said:

I use the old method as well where B usually was the floppy drive. I've been fooling around with computers since around 1985 or so and I've never seen an A drive. I started with Windows 3.1 which I believe had about 7 or so 3.5 discs to install it. It is interesting to see the differences between then and now. We rely on computers to do everything for us, and we forget the old ways or don't have a backup plan when they go down, everything just stops. So, what is wrong with using paper and a typewriter or whatever to continue? Granted most people use the computer to pay their bills but what's wrong with using a stamp and an envelope to do the same? Yes, snail mail is slow, but it still gets the job done.

Click to expand...

Huh?

Normal operation for (floppy) drives (assignment) was A: first, then B: if needed (as a second floppy drive), on every single system I used that had a floppy drive installed, since the '80s as well. Although, IIRC, there was a way to force the use of B: in some cases, by default, I saw and used A: as primary in single drive systems, and A: and B: in dual drive systems.

Berton said:

My first computer was a black Hewitt Rand 80386/40MHz with 4MB RAM, 120MB HDD, 3.5" floppy and 5.25" floppy. First upgrade was to 8MB RAM, second to 210MB HDD, third to a Colorado Memory tape backup. Two years later I retired and a week after that was offered a job in a computer store, month later building computers, 3 a day including software install. Still working at it albeit not so much. The lady that owned the store got a good deal with me, didn't need any benefits and didn't have to pay Job Service to find a part-timer. I still have a number of old computers, oldest is a Toshiba Laptop [as was called back then] with MS-DOS 5 and Windows 3.1, battery is shot but still good with AC.

Click to expand...

Nice. I have a repository with boot discs going back to DOS 3.3, including the Win 9x, ME, 2K and XP discs too. In case you want to upgrade, this repository includes DOS 5.0, 6.0, 6.21 and 6.22

My first was a Tandy 1000 EX with a 360k drive built in, a second external 360K drive and a whopping 256 kB of RAM lol. No hard drive (hard card as was then the vernacular).

xpac5896 said:

Try3:
D drive is nothing more than a repository for things like Computer programs, serial numbers, manuals, Pics, just general information, and all I do is copy all the folders to the backup. The second drive is a clone of C drive and I use Macrium Reflect for the cloning; this is nothing more than a safety measure should something go wrong.

Click to expand...

As Try said, though - when you disconnect the drive Windows frees up the drive letter. To keep them using the same drive letter every time, you'll need to keep them connected, or else force drive letter assignment for those external drives by software, it seems.

According to Can you force a USB HDD to always keep the same drive letter? someone mentions software that seems to accomplish this forced drive letter usage for USB connected drives.

The link to the software itself is:


From that website:

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
• reserve letters, so they are not used for local drives
• assign a letter from a list of new default letters, also dependent on many different criteria as the active user, drive type, connection (USB, FireWire), USB port, volume label, size and others
• extract the letter from the volume label
• assign letters for a specific USB drive by putting an INI file on the drive
• remove the drive letters of card readers until a card is inserted
• show a balloon tip with the assigned drive letter(s)
• define autorun events depending on many different criteria
• activate a basic protection against 'BadUSB' devices; USBDLM can ask on arrival of a USB keyboard or network device if it shall be activated
• many other things, see help file, available online as HTML version too

All functions are applied to USB drives at the moment they are being attached, when the USBDLM service starts up and when a user logs on.

USBDLM runs as service under Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7/8/10/11 and all their Server Editions.

Click to expand...

It certainly sounds like it may fit your needs as you want to be able to disconnect your drives and still have them maintain the letters when they are re-connected, which the Windows Drive Manager seems to want to do its own way instead of what you want it to do.

Give it a shot, I think you'll find it works perfectly.

xpac5896 said:

Try3:
D drive is nothing more than a repository for things like Computer programs, serial numbers, manuals, Pics, just general information, and all I do is copy all the folders to the backup. The second drive is a clone of C drive and I use Macrium Reflect for the cloning; this is nothing more than a safety measure should something go wrong.

Click to expand...

Have you taken the action I suggested?

Denis

Try3:
All my drive letters are assigned through Disk Management, I just don't stick a drive in and let Windows do its thing. I think assigning H and I to the drives sounds interesting and I just may do that. F is my Cd/DVD drive so that's not an option. I'm so used to drives being in sequence and assigning H and I may take a bit of getting used to. Johnlgault posted a little tid bit that I've never heard of and that is assign letters for a specific USB drive by pitting an INI. file on the drive. That sounds interesting because I've never heard of that before. (I don't have anyone around me that knows anything about computers let alone programming one. I must learn on my own. People are ccreatures ofg repotition, doing something once is OK but if you have to do ity again down the road, youn forget.

My main Win10 Desktop has C: and D: for the partitions on the internal HDD, E: for the ODD, F: and G: for 2 x 4TB USB drives and odd M: USB drive used only for reading files. My NAS drive is Z:. If I plug in a USB 3.5" floppy drive it is A:. Thumb drive will use whatever letter is still available, usually H:. My April Win11 Desktop has C: for the main drive, D: for the ODD and E: for a 2TB HDD I added later.