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Reassign a USB Card Reader Drive Letter

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by rene_y 1 view

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I have a Windows '98 workstation whose drive mapping requires F: to be a specific folder on the network however when he plugs in his USB card reader it assumes the F: drive letter. I cannot find where I can either reassign the drive letter mapping for the USB card reader or pre-define the card reader to only accept a specific drive letter or range. I could reassign his network drive to another letter but then he would be inconsistent with all other users and require some proprietary batch programming.

Tried Tweak UI for Windows '98 but that utility only gives you an applet to hide specified drives. Any suggestions?

5 replies

by timwalsh

Since Win98 usually needs drivers to operate a USB device, here is what is happening:
1. Computer boots to Windows. During the pre-Windows boot process, drive letters are assigned to fixed and removable drives.
2. During the Windows boot process, drivers are loaded. Any devices using drive letters and that require drivers to be recognized get the drive letter assigned here.
3. The user logs-on. This also runs any batch files/log-on scripts which will assign drive letters to any drives being mapped. Or, if the drive is statically mapped through My Computer or Windows Explorer, the drive is mapped at this point as part of the user profile.

If it will work, try plugging the card reader in
after the user is already logged in.

Is the USB card reader assuming the F: drive letter, even if the mapped drive already exists (i.e. card reader is plugged in after drive is mapped)? If so, it may be hard coded into the device driver. Check the driver properties for any possibility for changing the letter assigned.

by thechas

For W98, you can change the assigned drive letter for removable media drives as follows:

Note: The drive must be connected, preferably with media present.

Right click on My Computer.
Select Settings.
Click on the Device Manager tab.
Expand branches as needed to see the USB drive.
Right click on the USB drive.
Select properties.
On the settings tab, set the drive letters to match the letter you wish to assign to the USB drive.
Click apply.

If you remove the drive, you may have tochange the letter assignment a couple of times for it to stick.

Another method is to use the utility Letter Assign from:
http://www.v72735.f2s.com/LetAssig/index.html

Chas

by rene_y

Thanks "TheChas". No settings available in device manager but the your suggested utility Letter Assign worked great. It took two reboots for it to assign the selected drive letters to the speicified devices but has been working perfect for a week now.

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