Solved New Drives Plugged in New Notebook Need to Have Drive Letter Assigned

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm getting around to getting my new Lenovo Notebook set up prior to replacing the stock HDD with a Sammy 840 EVO and I'm having a couple of problems that have me stumped.

1. The first time I plug in an external drive, be it HDD or flash drive, via a USB port, I have to go into disk management to assign a drive letter to it even though it already has one and was working fine when I would plug it into my desktop machine. Once I assigned the drive letter, it would work fine from then on except for problem #2.

2. Once the drive has a drive letter reassigned, I have to go into Computer to find it since the little window with the Autoplay context menu doesn't appear. I've checked the Autoplay settings and have everything set to ask every time (the way I prefer it). What am I missing here?

Edit: Ok, this just got weirder. I just now tried plugging in the external HDD into the preferred USB 3.0 port and the little Autoplay window decided to pop up like a good little window should. After ejecting and disconnecting the drive, I then tried rebooting the computer, then plugging in the drive. The little window popped right up. Same for the flash drive I had trouble with before when I plugged it in. I then tried plugging the external drive in again and had to go into disk management yet again to reassign the stupid drive letter again. Yeeesh!

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Wow! 167 views and no responses. This really must be a stinker of a problem.

 

[tblob]

I use "USB Drive Letter Manager". Works great !!

USB Drive Letter Manager - USBDLM

 

[CKWD]

Hi there Lady Fitzgerald!

This is quite awkward as a problem.
What Lenovo Notebook do you have? It's new, correct?
Which is your OS?
If I understand correctly, you have inserted a new internal Sammy SSD in your notebook and in the case of plugging in an external hard drive or flash drive you need to always manually assign a drive letter and Autoplay doesn't work?
Perhaps the USB 3.0 port has worked better because it's ten times faster and can send and receive data simultaneously.
The drive letter you are assigning, is it always the same one or each time different? Also, which letter did the externals have on your other computer?

Cheers!

CK_WD

 

[jumanji]

Check whether this helps.

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Right click on Command Prompt and Run as administrator.
Then
diskpart [ENTER]
Against the DISKPART prompt
automount [ENTER]
Does it say "automatic mounting of new volumes disabled" ? Then
automount enable [ENTER]
"automatic mounting of new volumes enabled"

Close Command Window.

Done.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Check whether this helps.

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Right click on Command Prompt and Run as administrator.
Then
diskpart [ENTER]
Against the DISKPART prompt
automount [ENTER]
Does it say "automatic mounting of new volumes disabled" ? Then
automount enable [ENTER]
"automatic mounting of new volumes enabled"

Close Command Window.

Done.

Ding, ding, ding! Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Thanks and God bless your heart (and all your other internal organs)! I just knew it had to be some wacky, obscure setting! I followed the steps you so clearly listed (God bless you for that, also!), then tested it by connecting and disconnecting the HDD multiple times, occasionally rebooting the notebook. I also loaded my USB ports with flash drives. No more problem!

Now, excuse me while I go cancel my reservation at the loony bin.

 

[jumanji]

:roflmao:thriller, thriller, thriller .