Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Force USB Drives to use Drive Letter X

<< < (4/5) > >>

40hz:
I had a similar problem. But I didn't have a brilliant solution at the time so I used this workaround.

Instead of insisting on a specific drive letter, take advantage of the fact drive letters get assigned in next available letter sequence when a USB drive gets plugged in.

I just looked at the last fixed harddrive letter (in this case CDEFG were all being used), plugged in a USB key and assigned it one more than the next available letter which in this case is the letter is I. (I set the key to hold a backup of the system state data since I didn't want it to just sit there doing nothing BTW.)

We then set set the backup software to look for the H drive. Because with drive I now 'permanently' occupied by the USB key, it leaves a gap in the sequence, with the next available letter being H. If you remove and then immediately add (as in swap) an external drive, it will always assign it the same letter (H) since it's the next available in sequence (i.e. CDEFG_I).

So why create a gap in the letter sequence? Here's why: Anything that gets plugged in after that will get letter J or higher.

So as long as you're swapping H properly using the remove USB applet - and you immediately replace it with another drive - the drive letter shouldn't change. The backup drive will always get the letter that falls into the gap. And any additional USB drives will grab letter J or higher so it won't affect your designated backup drive letter assignment. No more having the backup drive's letter jumping around.

 :)

superboyac:
As a stop-gap measure, USB Safely Remove or Zentimo.
-cranioscopical (May 20, 2011, 04:12 PM)
--- End quote ---
This is what I use.  I know you guys want a free solution.  i did too, I tried really hard to make all the suggestions listed here work, but none of them were as nice and easy as USBSR/Zentimo.  Totally worth it to me.  Good program also.

Stoic Joker:
I just looked at the last fixed harddrive letter (in this case CDEFG were all being used), plugged in a USB key and assigned it one more than the next available letter which in this case is the letter is I. (I set the key to hold a backup of the system state data since I didn't want it to just sit there doing nothing BTW.)

We then set set the backup software to look for the H drive. Because with drive I now 'permanently' occupied by the USB key, it leaves a gap in the sequence, with the next available letter being H. If you remove and then immediately add (as in swap) an external drive, it will always assign it the same letter (H) since it's the next available in sequence (i.e. CDEFG_I).

So why create a gap in the letter sequence? Here's why: Anything that gets plugged in after that will get letter J or higher.-40hz (June 13, 2011, 07:29 AM)
--- End quote ---

Hm... Either there's a hole in your theory, or the server didn't read the same manuals that you did...  :-\ The used letters on that machine were:
C: - Physical
D: - CD-ROM
F: - Mapped Drive
S: - Physical

 So from what you're saying it should pick T: next, yes? It didn't/doesn't *Shrug* I got tired of fiddling with it and Moved the CD-ROM to M: (because I was Mad) so the backups could use D: without tripping over the mapped F: Drive (always a good time).

Don't ya just love it when what's supposed to happen and what does happen aren't even close...  :D

So as long as you're swapping H properly using the remove USB applet - and you immediately replace it with another drive - the drive letter shouldn't change. The backup drive will always get the letter that falls into the gap. And any additional USB drives will grab letter J or higher so it won't affect your designated backup drive letter assignment. No more having the backup drive's letter jumping around.-40hz (June 13, 2011, 07:29 AM)
--- End quote ---

Server headless - Caching disabled ... I'm thinking about filling the other USB parts with Silly Putty ... That'll keep the riff raff out.

40hz:
So from what you're saying it should pick T: next, yes?
-Stoic Joker (June 13, 2011, 11:46 AM)
--- End quote ---

Nope. It should have picked E: The next available drive letter - not the next letter available after the last drive letter you assigned.

Just checked it on our test server duplicating your setup above to be sure I didn't have my head someplace it shouldn't be.

C: - Physical
D: - CD-ROM
E: - Available (not assigned)
F: - Mapped Drive
G: - Available (not assigned)
S: - Physical

It assigns the external HD I plugged in the letter E. Installed a USB key and allowed it to be assigned a letter. The server chose G which is the next available letter since F has already been assigned as a mapped drive. Removed the drive in E, waited a minute and plugged it back in. It got assigned E again.  :)

C: - Physical
D: - CD-ROM
E: - USB External Drive for backup
F: - Mapped Drive
G: - Flash key (used to test since mapped F has already provided the gap between D and F)
S: - Physical

The reason why you want to have a gap is to have a predictable drive letter for auto assignment. If you have an available letter down low in the alphabet, that will be what gets picked first whenever you plug/unplug your backup drive. Stuff that gets installed afterwards will land above that. Which is no problem because you usually don't need to worry too much about what drive letter gets assigned. Or if you do, you assign it yourself (I always do BTW) in disk manager. As long as the device stays connected, an assigned letter won't change. And t it should be persistent after a reboot.

About the only time it might be a problem is if you have a bunch of USB storage devices that have been auto assigned a letter by a server which gets rebooted unexpectedly. In that case there is a definite chance those drive letters may get switched around if something goes awry with the USB discovery polling. But you should always check your system after a reboot anyway so...

:Thmbsup:

P.S. Moving the CD over to M (funny, I always use R ;D) makes the next available letter D - which will always get assigned to your backup drive as long as no other USB drive else gets plugged in first.  Works the same as my suggestion. 8)

Stoic Joker:
So from what you're saying it should pick T: next, yes?
-Stoic Joker (June 13, 2011, 11:46 AM)
--- End quote ---

Nope. It should have picked E: The next available drive letter - not the next letter available after the last drive letter you assigned.-40hz (June 13, 2011, 12:56 PM)
--- End quote ---

Okay, that's along the lines of the behavior I am used to/was expecting/experienced. Ya had me thinking I was missing something there for a bit.

USB and Servers are two things I generally like to keep away from each-other. But Tape is just too freaking expensive these days... *Sigh*

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page