Assigned Drive Letters Keep Changing or Disappearing

[BuckSkin]

Okay, I have done this a gazillion times on this same machine and have never ran into this problem.

I got four new 2TB WD Black.
My intention is to use them in pairs, one working and the other a mirrored backup.
I like to do thse pairs as A and B, Y and Z, W and X, and so forth and so on --- yes, I have been using A and B on my main photo storage drives for years and nothing untoward has befallen me.

Now, I get my new HDDs and I make a few test runs to check things out and make sure everything is in working order.
Currently, they are USB-connected via a Inateck dual-HDD "toaster style" dock.
I have used this same dock many times i the past and have never had this issue.

I assigned W and X to a pair and load them with some information; W is the working drive and X will be it's backup mate; so far - so good.

Then, I do the same with U and V.

All seems to be fine with the world.

Then, I pop in U by itself ---- the durn thing is displaying as W; I change it back to U.

I then add the real W, turn the dock back on and stupid U has became W and it has removed the letter from real W

I change U back to U and put W back on W and it says it cannot mount W

I have to remove U from the dock, then put W on W and it then mounts as W

I turn the dock off and back on and W has became U

I take out real W and put in real U and U has now became W

I take out U and put in real W and it has now became U

If I put both in, it gives real U whichever letter it had last and removes the letter from real W and here we go again.

I never had this problem when W and X were in the dock; W was W and X was X; in fact, I have never had such a problem before.

My next plan of action is to make real W be U and real U be W and see if they will stay that way.

Any thoughts please and thanks for reading.

 

[samuria]

Are any cloned if so the drives will apear to windows as the same drive due to the disk signature

 

[BuckSkin]

Are any cloned if so the drives will apear to windows as the same drive due to the disk signature

Good question; but, no; nobody has been cloned.

I want to think it may be something to do with the dual-bay dock; but, I have swapped drives in and out of it many many times and never had this behavior before.

When I remember where I put my new Inateck enclosures, I will single them out in the enclosures and see if the drive letters will stay where I put them then.