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Computer Will Only Assign A Drive Letter To One Passport Drive

by Steven Wagenheim
9 replies
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Okay, here is the deal.

I have 2 passport drives. One contains software to run for my music business
and the other is for backing up data that I just got today.

When I plugged in the second passport drive, after it installed drivers and told
me it was ready for use, Windows wouldn't assign a drive letter to it.

To make a long story short, after a lot of experimenting, what I have discovered
is that only 1 passport drive will be assigned a letter at a time. The one that
Windows recognizes first gets the drive letter.

How can I make it so that I can have both passport drives plugged in and get
drive letters for each.

I am running Windows 7 64 bit.
  • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
    Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

    Okay, here is the deal.

    I have 2 passport drives. One contains software to run for my music business
    and the other is for backing up data that I just got today.

    When I plugged in the second passport drive, after it installed drivers and told
    me it was ready for use, Windows wouldn't assign a drive letter to it.

    To make a long story short, after a lot of experimenting, what I have discovered
    is that only 1 passport drive will be assigned a letter at a time. The one that
    Windows recognizes first gets the drive letter.

    How can I make it so that I can have both passport drives plugged in and get
    drive letters for each.

    I am running Windows 7 64 bit.
    If its one that you can slide the case off of, look and see if it
    can manually be changed to a slave. its a small two pin prong looking thing.
    on the drive itself you should have a diagram picture showing you how
    to set it.

    I have no idea if that will work. But it is the first thing i would try.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Originally Posted by kenmichaels View Post

      If its one that you can slide the case off of, look and see if it
      can manually be changed to a slave. its a small two pin prong looking thing.
      on the drive itself you should have a diagram picture showing you how
      to set it.

      I have no idea if that will work. But it is the first thing i would try.
      I can't slide the case off.
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      • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        I can't slide the case off.
        I know you can manually set drive letters in windows.
        How on 7 I am not sure. Ill see if i can figure it out for you real quick.

        should not be too hard. Give me 10 min, ill post back here how to
        do it or tell you I could not figure it out.

        edit
        Here you go that's from microsoft
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        • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
          Originally Posted by kenmichaels View Post

          I know you can manually set drive letters in windows.
          How on 7 I am not sure. Ill see if i can figure it out for you real quick.

          should not be too hard. Give me 10 min, ill post back here how to
          do it or tell you I could not figure it out.

          edit
          Here you go that's from microsoft
          What you gave me is for Windows Vista. I'm running Windows 7 64 bit. They are nothing alike.
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          • Profile picture of the author Horny Devil
            Banned
            Steve, these posts may help you.

            Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums

            Windows 7 x64 Quit Assigning Drive Letters Automatically

            How to Re-assign a Drive Letter on Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7 and 8)
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          • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
            Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

            What you gave me is for Windows Vista. I'm running Windows 7 64 bit. They are nothing alike.
            crap, copied link off wrong tab... sorry let me see if i can find it again.

            nm I see horny devil posted it ...
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            • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
              Between all the links you guys gave me and one more page I found on my own,
              I figured out how to do this. Absolutely insane. This is what I had to do in case
              anybody else has this same headache.

              1) Go to control panel and disk management.

              2) Find the drive that doesn't have a drive letter at the bottom of the screen.
              It should say inactive and give a reason why if you click on help. In my case it
              was because of a conflict with the other drive using the same resource or
              something.

              3) Change the inactive status to active.

              4) Go back up to the actual devices in disk management and assign a drive
              letter, except by making it active it automatically does this without telling you.
              So in trying to give it a drive letter it kept telling me it was an invalid
              parameter.

              5) Finally, I went to explorer and sure enough the drive was showing up as
              the F drive.

              Windows has to be the stupidest OS I have ever used in my life.

              Anyway, problem solved. I don't know if I have to do this each time I start
              up the PC (God I hope not) but at least I know how to get the drive a letter
              when I need it.
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              • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
                Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

                Between all the links you guys gave me and one more page I found on my own,
                I figured out how to do this. Absolutely insane. This is what I had to do in case
                anybody else has this same headache.

                1) Go to control panel and disk management.

                2) Find the drive that doesn't have a drive letter at the bottom of the screen.
                It should say inactive and give a reason why if you click on help. In my case it
                was because of a conflict with the other drive using the same resource or
                something.

                3) Change the inactive status to active.

                4) Go back up to the actual devices in disk management and assign a drive
                letter, except by making it active it automatically does this without telling you.
                So in trying to give it a drive letter it kept telling me it was an invalid
                parameter.

                5) Finally, I went to explorer and sure enough the drive was showing up as
                the F drive.

                Windows has to be the stupidest OS I have ever used in my life.

                Anyway, problem solved. I don't know if I have to do this each time I start
                up the PC (God I hope not) but at least I know how to get the drive a letter
                when I need it.
                If you do, next time, goto drive properties after you can see it and try changing the IRQ
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                • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
                  Originally Posted by kenmichaels View Post

                  If you do, next time, goto drive properties after you can see it and try changing the IRQ
                  I restarted the PC and the drive took so I think I'm good.
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