How to reserve a drive letter for usb hard drive


  1. tcebob
    Posts : 481
    Windows 10 pro 1903 1862.145
       New #1

    How to reserve a drive letter for usb hard drive


    My pc will not accept a second hard drive so I have attached one externally with usb. Its power supply is direct so it stays on until I turn it off. Currently it's drive E:. However, if it's off and I add a new drive the drive letters shuffle so that when I turn it on again it might be drive H:. My backup program (Ashampoo) thinks it is drive E: and will not find it.

    I have set hard drive to power off after 15 minutes for the internal drive but I have no control over the external one except to manually turn it on and off. I guess there is a control signal from the motherboard which deactivates the internal drive. Evidently that signal doesn't make it to the usb connection.

    How can I either:

    A. Permanently assign a letter to the drive

    or B. cause the system to power it down?
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  3. spunk
    Posts : 4,782
    Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit 22H2
       New #2

    Why can you not put in a secondary drive inside your computer? Do you not have any space? Or something else?
    You cannot set an external drive to power down when the computer powers down if the external has it's own power adapter.
    Press the Windows key+X choose Disk Management. In the lower pane, select your external drive and choose Change Drive Letter or Paths. Choose Change and choose the Drive letter E: (you may have to select a different drive letter, apply, then select E: and apply)This should keep the drive letter E: however, if you find it keeps getting bumped, then choose a drive letter lower in the Alphabet, like S: or T: or whatever.
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  4. Wiley Coyote
    Posts : 1,097
    Windows 10 Home x64 Version 1809 (OS Build 17763.437)
       New #3

    Just a thought, but might help you.

    Don't know what external drive you have, but my Western Digital Elements (has it's own power supply) did some "strange" things to me for a while. Best solution for me is to leave it turned on and set the Power Management to stay ON in Device Manager.
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  6. tcebob
    Posts : 481
    Windows 10 pro 1903 1862.145
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    1. The HP Pavilion computer I recently bought does not provide motherboard connections or internal space for a second HD. Had I known that I would not have chosen it.

    2. I changed the drive name to Z: and then plugged in a usb stick. Drive is still Z: so good suggestion. Windows warns that other programs might not like it. But I'm not running programs on it.

    3. Exterior drive is an Insignia box from Best Buy with a Seagate Pipeline HD 500 GB drive.

    4. How about a giant usb drive? Could I control the drive name for that?

    Thanks, Spunk and Clayton, for your input.
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  7. spunk
    Posts : 4,782
    Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit 22H2
       New #5

    Any drive, USB or otherwise that is assigned a drive letter in Disk Management that is not being used that is lower in the alphabet will hold it's drive letter
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