How to make Windows allocate a drive letter automatically ?

[Sebastian42]

I alter the contents of a HDD daily in one PC and then copy that new version to another HDD in a second PC. That second PC always requires me to add a drive letter to the target HDD. It a bit tiresome and I'd like to rectify that, so that a drive letter gets allocated automatically. What are my options - OTHER than leaving the target drive connected ?

 

[bassfisher6522]

Not quite sure what you mean.....but I think I get the gist of it. Is the drive in question on PC 1 a storage drive? If so I think you just need a HDD docking station. I use this one.......

Wavlink USB 3.0 to SATA I/II/III Dual Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station, for 2.5 or 3.5 Inch SATA HDD SSD, Support Offline Clone and Backup, UASP 6Gbps [ 2x12TB Support] - Newegg.com

Buy WAVLINK USB 3.0 to SATA I/II/III Dual Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5/3.5 Inch HDD/SSD with UASP (6Gbps), Support Offline Clone Duplicator Function [Max 16TB X2 ] with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

That should solve your problem all the way around.

 

[Sebastian42]

A docking station would connect by USB, and MY EXPERIENCE tells me that (in my system), that would slow up the copying process considerably - that is a price NOT worth paying to get a drive letter allocated automatically.

 

[clifford_cooley]

If you assign a drive letter manually. As long as that drive letter remains available, Windows will reconnect the drive to the same letter. Skipping a few letters will generally assure that letter will always be available.

 

[Sebastian42]

I'm sorry to have to say that my experience contradicts your claim. In my case the (two) letters remain available, but are NOT allocated until I do it 'manually' in Disk Management.

 

[clifford_cooley]

I misunderstood the question. Sorry about that. I was thinking you were trying to maintain a specific drive letter upon reconnect. I didn't notice that you were not being connected to a letter automatically.

My only question at this point. Is your ports set to removable devices in the system bios? I may be getting confused with USB but Ithink there is also a "removable device" setting in Windows somewhere. If I could remember those details, I would share them.

I have a dock on my machine and Windows will only reconnect to the drive, if the ports are set to removable devices. Otherwise a system reboot is required to reconnect.

 

[Sebastian42]

That sounds like a viable option - now to find the location of that 'removable device' setting !

 

[Sebastian42]

I have taken a different tack - but used the suggested method - and SO FAR it is successful. In Disk Management, I simply allocated late-in-the-alphabet letters to the drives concerned, and those letters are being remembered (auto-allocated).

Now, where to mark this thread as solved ?