recently built a computer. after install the windows 7, i notice my drive letter keep disappear after every reboot. i have to assign a new letter each time after a reboot for it to appear under my computer. and all of the application in the hard drive is readable but can't not access because the path is undefined. what is going on, can someone help me fix this?
Are you describing a situation concerning a removable external USB drive's letter?
Or a second or other partition on your internal hard drive(s)?
Or you C-drive?? (that would seem to be impossible)
Can you please clarify. Also, if you could post a screenshot from DISKMGMT.MSC (full-screen maximized first, columns spread wider so that we can see the contents of each cell in the upper part of the presentation) when things are "normal", and then tell us which drive letter disappears at boot, it would be very helpful.
Also, you haven't filled in your System Specs so we don't know what your hardware looks like. Please complete that, or at least describe your machine in text.
Both internal? SATA or IDE on the WD? Or is the WD drive an external/USB drive?
Again, can you please post a screenshot from DISKMGMT.MSC.the ssd is fine but the WD hard drive's drive letter keep disappearing after each reboot.
Also, details on your machine constructions would be extremely helpful... certainly at least your motherboard and CPU and memory and video card, as well as any external USB removable devices. If it's a commercial manufacturer desktop or laptop, the manufacturer and model and any options would be important.
it's a corsair 400r case with a asus p8z68-v gen3 motherboard. intel core i5 2500k 6mb,kingston 8gb ddr3-1600 mhz, gtx 560ti 448 core, western digital 500gb caviar blue 7200rpm(the one with the drive letter missing after each reboot), crucial m4 64gb ssd, corsair hydro h60 cpu cooler, corsair 650ax 650w PSU. both drive is internal, i do not have any external drives and i attached a screenshot of the disk management.
Hi Owen ,
Is it just the drive letter?
I assume you can see it fine in diskmgmt and assign a letter after each restart?
So let's make sure your story is clear...
You reboot, and the E drive letter is not assigned. You look in Diskmgmt and you see the drive there, but with no drive letter. But both hard drives are shown as ONLINE. The WD drive is not shown as OFFLINE, is it?
The D drive (CD/DVD) is still assigned.
But the WD drive itself is still there, and shows all the same information about primary partition, NTFS, etc., as we see in the screenshot, but it shows no drive letter assigned.
So you right-click on that drive and select "change drive letter and paths..." and then assign E again. And then E remains in effect until the next boot when it again disappears and must be re-assigned once again.
Interesting.
You can also use DISKMGMT to change drive letters for your CD/DVD drive, which is currently D. Just for an experiment, how about re-assigning its letter to say F just for the moment, then change your WD drive letter to D. You can either leave your CD/DVD drive at F, or you can now rename it to E if you want. Anyway, I just want you to try D as the new WD drive letter, with the CD/DVD drive following it somewhere.
Then you can reboot and see what happens. Does D for the WD drive now get retained across boot? And does the E or F drive letter get retained for the CD/DVD drive?
I'm curious about how you got both of these drives into your system. Did you always have two drives, or did you have one drive (the WD) originally and then installed the SSD drive and somehow "cloned" your C-partition from the WD drive onto the SSD drive, thus freeing up the WD drive for re-purposed use as your "Games" drive?
In my experience, the loss of drive letters like this comes from a "collision" of disk signatures where two drives appear to Windows to be exactly the same physical drive (i.e. signature). Then one will show up as ONLINE and the other is shown as OFFLINE. You need to use the DISKPART and LIST DISK commands, and then SELECT DISK n and ONLINE DISK and EXIT commands, in order to reassign a new and unique disk signature to the problem disk (i.e. the one that is shown as OFFLINE) and then get a drive letter permanently assigned to it.
And this "collision" can really only normally come when you "clone" one hard drive into another, rather than building each one from scratch.
You haven't mentioned anything about ONLINE vs. OFFLINE, but that's certainly one "giant clue" about why that second drive's letter would disappear, and the steps you would normally use to permanently resolve the problem.
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