Naming External hard drives

[jackdash]

I am using 3 external hard drives and noticed a couple of times there drive letters have changed.
Maybe I have had them unplugged for some reason I cannot remember, but it causes confusion with some files that use shortcuts.
I would like to know if it is possible to give the drives permanent drive letters also change there names?

Thanks
jack

 

[Kipper]

Wont be able to give them perm drive letters since they are externals and that will change as you power them up and down but you can change the names by right clicking on the drive Icon in the explorer window and selecting rename.

 

[sourpuss]

I'm pretty sure that's not correct. When I had Vista and a wd external usb drive, I permanently assigned it letter z through disk management.

 

[booklover]

Can't external drive letter designations be permanently changed through Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management?

From Disk Management right click on the drive to be permanently designated>Change drive letter and paths>Change>(from the dropdown menu select the drive letter to be permanently assigned to that drive)>OK

 

[Zepher]

My externals keep the same drive letter when I reboot or unplug them and then re-attach them.
I did use Disk Management to give them the drive letters they have since they needed to have specific letters.

 

[logicearth]

If you assign a drive letter, then disconnect the HDD. If you then connection some other device that uses drive letters and the next drive letter to be used is that one you assigned. Then you connect the external HDD it will no longer have the assigned drive letter. But as long as that case does not happen Windows should remember.

Just to recap. As long as the drive letter you assign is free when you connect your external HDD, it will use it.

 

[jackdash]

Thanks everyone.
jack

 

[mjf]

You are actually assigning letters to the partition. So you can assign letters to the various partitions of a multi-partitioned drive.

By picking high letters say "M, N, ......." I find you are unlikely that Windows will take the the letter on a tempoary basis for some other device.

 

[jackdash]

one last question:
I noticed alongside my internal and external hard drives there are about 5 drives listed as Removable Drives.
What are these also can I delete them?

Thanks
jack

 

[logicearth]

Do you have a memory card reader installed?

 

[jackdash]

Yes

jack

 

[logicearth]

That would be it then. I personally dislike it when they do that when they have no cards in but thats a driver issue.

 

[jackdash]

Thanks
The question is I have 5 icons named Removable Drive, so am I right in assuming only 1 of these will be for the card reader?
If so how would I find out which one, then wouldbe able to remove the others?

jack

 

[DeaconFrost]

Each one is for a different type of card that the reader can handle. Typically, the number of slots is the number of drive letters that will be used. There's no workaround for it, so I ended up doing away with my internal card reader in favor of a USB one I can plug in only when I need it.