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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 22 for Windows => Topic started by: rsg on January 19, 2017, 03:36:40 pm

Title: Assigning letters to drives
Post by: rsg on January 19, 2017, 03:36:40 pm
As I understand it, Windows can assign different letters to external drives. If you take an external drive (with your music files) to another computer, it may be assigned a different letter when you plug it back in to your primary computer. This is when the fun starts: MC naturally does not recognize the drive letter. Re-assigning the drive with the original letter can be quite a challenge. So, you reconfigure auto-import to recognize the new drive letter. MC dutifully adds all the files from the drive (the same old drive but with a new letter). Can take a long time! And Bingo! You now have duplicates of every music file in MC. Now you have to delete the original files in MC by means of the "Files" branch of the tree. Seems to be rather a roundabout process, don't you think?

And yes, I have tried re-assigning the original letter in Computer Management (Windows 10), but the one letter I can't assign is the original one (!). Also tried right-click and renaming, but then I get two letters for the drive. No easy way to go back to the original letter (D: in my case)?

Or, am I missing something?
Title: Re: Assigning letters to drives
Post by: ~OHM~ on January 19, 2017, 03:52:34 pm
if d is in use you would not be able to use it...just change the device using d to something else then you should be able to assign d to what ever you want except c of course.

I have two external drives I have assigned to z and y I can take them to another pc and use them, when I bring them back to original pc and plug them into the exact usb port they revert back to z and y.
Title: Re: Assigning letters to drives
Post by: Antognini on January 19, 2017, 03:55:28 pm
Yes, my thoughts, too: D: is in use, and that's probably why you got a different drive letter when you plugged it back into the original computer. I'd use Disk Manager (type C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc in a command window) to find out who's using D: and then somehow move the offender to something else.
Title: Re: Assigning letters to drives
Post by: rsg on January 19, 2017, 04:00:22 pm
if d is in use you would not be able to use it...just change the device using d to something else then you should be able to assign d to what ever you want except c of course.

I have to external drives I have assigned to z and y I can take them to another pc and use them when I bring them back to original pc and plug them into the exact usb port they revert back to z and y.

That last point is well taken: the exact same usb port must be used when plugging back in to preserve the same letter designation (I am guessing here).
Title: Re: Assigning letters to drives
Post by: ferday on January 21, 2017, 07:40:03 am
You shouldn't need the same USB port, but you do need to assign a name at the other end of the alphabet, and probably update the links in jriver.  Not a lot of work but worth it

I'm currently running m, q, w, x and z and they all appear fine over multiple PC's and through USB hubs and so on.  Nothing is guaranteed with Windows but it's working good for over a year
Title: Re: Assigning letters to drives
Post by: rsg on January 22, 2017, 10:47:46 am
You shouldn't need the same USB port, but you do need to assign a name at the other end of the alphabet, and probably update the links in jriver.  Not a lot of work but worth it

I'm currently running m, q, w, x and z and they all appear fine over multiple PC's and through USB hubs and so on.  Nothing is guaranteed with Windows but it's working good for over a year

Yes, this is good advice. The problem is that my attempts to change the letter for a particular drive results in that drive being allotted two letters. Right now I am using an external drive like that: (D:) (B:)