Map pen drive (WXpHe)

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I run three pc’s on a peer to peer basis, pc2 also has a 4 port usb hub. When I plug in a pendrive it is shared and can be accessed from pc1 and pc3. Take out the pendrive, then re-insert it. I then have to enable sharing again before it is once more recognised. Is there any way to keep the pen drive shared? Many thanks in advance

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Instead of sharing the drive can you create a folder and share it?

Joe

--Joe

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Instead of sharing the drive can you create a folder and share it?

Joe

--Joe

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Ahhh, good question, Stephen!

I am seeking an identical solution:

Client uses a 512 USB pen drive to back up essential files at the end of each work day. This is facilitated via a batch file. Seeking a means to map a drive to the USB drive so that when it is unplugged, it will show unavailable and show available when plugged in – just like a regular network drive. We want to keep the drive assigned to the same letter, you dig?

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If you want to assign a drive letter to your USB Pen drive then you can use Disk Management

• Install the USB drive
• Right click on my computer
• Select Manage
• Select Disk Management on the left pane
• Right click the partition where the USB drive is currently mapped
• Select “Change Drive Letter and Path”
• Choose a drive letter that you won’t use for other purposes
  [/list]StuartR

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Hi, Stu ~

Unfortunately, this has already been tried and does not work. As soon as you unplug the USB pen drive, that drive letter is no longer assigned. Or if you remove another drive or device, then the next time you plug in the USB pen drive, the device will assume the next logical letter order assignment each time rather than the desired letter needed for sharing as in Stephen’s case or running a batch file in my case.

The drive needs to stay assigned just as would a mapped network drive. My notebook, for example, shows the drives existing but unavailable when I am not at work and subsequently available when jacked in.

I am thinking this may require a command line function along the lines of ‘net use’ + ‘persistent’, perhaps?

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Hi, Stu ~

Unfortunately, this has already been tried and does not work. As soon as you unplug the USB pen drive, that drive letter is no longer assigned. Or if you remove another drive or device, then the next time you plug in the USB pen drive, the device will assume the next logical letter order assignment each time rather than the desired letter needed for sharing as in Stephen’s case or running a batch file in my case.

The drive needs to stay assigned just as would a mapped network drive. My notebook, for example, shows the drives existing but unavailable when I am not at work and subsequently available when jacked in.

I am thinking this may require a command line function along the lines of ‘net use’ + ‘persistent’, perhaps?

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I believe that is is per design. Each time a USB device is plugged it it appears as a new device and the OS will search for a driver and then assign a drive letter as needed. You will find that this will also happen to the cameras that are plugged in.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Weellll, I’m not too sure that’s 100% true. I have a universal SmartDisk USB reader that I have set the three drive letters to M, N and P. My CD (burner) is assigned K. I had my machine partially down for a few days while I worked on what turned out to be a dead CD burner. During that time the SmartDisk reader was not connected. The new burner I inserted is now on a PCI IDE card, so it understandably didn’t get re-assigned to K when I fired up. But when I was ready to button it up and put the covers back on, the SmartDisk reader DID get reassigned to my three chosen letters. By the way, there are unused letters above and below these ranges, and I have three hard disk partitions assigned to R, S and T. Go figure.

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Hi, Al ~

What steps did you use to set the drive letters so they stuck when reconnected?

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I just used Disk Management to assign some letters in the upper alphabet just so it wouldn’t interfere with my partitioning of hard drives. Nothing else special and I never ever thought about something like disconnecting or whatever at the time I did it. When my new burner didn’t get the assigned letter is the only thing that caused me to notice.

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(Edited by mwolfman on 08-Jul-04 17:32. Asterisks in the subject.. again)

Hi, Al ~

This is originally how we tried to assign drive letters from ‘Disk Management’, but this will not work permanently for a USB flash drive unless you are using some accompanying software as Dave suggested.

If you remove a network drive or introduce a zip, hard, flash drive, etc. via USB, those drive letters are dynamically assigned by Windows (only in 2000 & XP). Yes, you may change them, but only for that session until it is pulled and once another device is introduced, moved or removed, the dynamic assignment is requeued.

I may have, however, discovered a way to permanently assign a USB flash device by mounting a local drive at an empty folder on an NTFS volume using a drive path instead of a drive letter. I have been playing around in Comp Mgmt and learned that each device is assigned a unique ID number based on some unique feature of the device. It seems to stick, is sharable and the folder is given a drive icon by Windows.

I need to do just a little more testing and trying to move, remove and bump drive letters to see if they will in fact remain static. If this works as imagined, this will suit both Stephen’s as well as my own needs.

I will report back with the results and details.

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(Edited by mwolfman on 08-Jul-04 17:32. Asterisks in the subject.. again)

Hi, Al ~

This is originally how we tried to assign drive letters from ‘Disk Management’, but this will not work permanently for a USB flash drive unless you are using some accompanying software as Dave suggested.

If you remove a network drive or introduce a zip, hard, flash drive, etc. via USB, those drive letters are dynamically assigned by Windows (only in 2000 & XP). Yes, you may change them, but only for that session until it is pulled and once another device is introduced, moved or removed, the dynamic assignment is requeued.

I may have, however, discovered a way to permanently assign a USB flash device by mounting a local drive at an empty folder on an NTFS volume using a drive path instead of a drive letter. I have been playing around in Comp Mgmt and learned that each device is assigned a unique ID number based on some unique feature of the device. It seems to stick, is sharable and the folder is given a drive icon by Windows.

I need to do just a little more testing and trying to move, remove and bump drive letters to see if they will in fact remain static. If this works as imagined, this will suit both Stephen’s as well as my own needs.

I will report back with the results and details.

Reply | Quote

I just used Disk Management to assign some letters in the upper alphabet just so it wouldn’t interfere with my partitioning of hard drives. Nothing else special and I never ever thought about something like disconnecting or whatever at the time I did it. When my new burner didn’t get the assigned letter is the only thing that caused me to notice.

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Hi, Al ~

What steps did you use to set the drive letters so they stuck when reconnected?

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Al,
I think you will find that the software that you have installed or was installed by the OEM is saving the settings. Since a memory stick plugged into a USB socket requires NO software just the XP drivers, then there is no software to save the settings with.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Al,
I think you will find that the software that you have installed or was installed by the OEM is saving the settings. Since a memory stick plugged into a USB socket requires NO software just the XP drivers, then there is no software to save the settings with.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Weellll, I’m not too sure that’s 100% true. I have a universal SmartDisk USB reader that I have set the three drive letters to M, N and P. My CD (burner) is assigned K. I had my machine partially down for a few days while I worked on what turned out to be a dead CD burner. During that time the SmartDisk reader was not connected. The new burner I inserted is now on a PCI IDE card, so it understandably didn’t get re-assigned to K when I fired up. But when I was ready to button it up and put the covers back on, the SmartDisk reader DID get reassigned to my three chosen letters. By the way, there are unused letters above and below these ranges, and I have three hard disk partitions assigned to R, S and T. Go figure.

Reply | Quote

I believe that is is per design. Each time a USB device is plugged it it appears as a new device and the OS will search for a driver and then assign a drive letter as needed. You will find that this will also happen to the cameras that are plugged in.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I’m inclined to think Dave is correct – the USB drives are not the same as a network drive. NET USE is intended for networked drives, not USB devices. Try it though, if it works, you’ve found a workaround.

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I saw a few posts in one of the MS XP newsgroups (using Google to search) suggesting that a user create a folder and map to it with ‘reconnect at logon’ checked. The user was mapping to the root/default share and that was failing when the device was reconnected. Don’t have a device to experiment with so can’t be more definite.

Joe

--Joe

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I saw a few posts in one of the MS XP newsgroups (using Google to search) suggesting that a user create a folder and map to it with ‘reconnect at logon’ checked. The user was mapping to the root/default share and that was failing when the device was reconnected. Don’t have a device to experiment with so can’t be more definite.

Joe

--Joe

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Hi, Mark ~

Yes, I agree with you and Dave regarding the manner in which the USB devices are designed to work and know the ‘net use’ syntax is intended for networked drives.

My hope is that through discovery and/or ingenuity, perhaps there might be a way to trick the system into associating an assigned drive letter to the USB device through Windows itself, using some arcane command line functions in conjunction with the ‘net use’ syntax, or maybe even an ‘.INF’ file stored on the USB device…….

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Hi, Mark ~

Yes, I agree with you and Dave regarding the manner in which the USB devices are designed to work and know the ‘net use’ syntax is intended for networked drives.

My hope is that through discovery and/or ingenuity, perhaps there might be a way to trick the system into associating an assigned drive letter to the USB device through Windows itself, using some arcane command line functions in conjunction with the ‘net use’ syntax, or maybe even an ‘.INF’ file stored on the USB device…….

Reply | Quote

I’m inclined to think Dave is correct – the USB drives are not the same as a network drive. NET USE is intended for networked drives, not USB devices. Try it though, if it works, you’ve found a workaround.

Reply | Quote

If you want to assign a drive letter to your USB Pen drive then you can use Disk Management

• Install the USB drive
• Right click on my computer
• Select Manage
• Select Disk Management on the left pane
• Right click the partition where the USB drive is currently mapped
• Select “Change Drive Letter and Path”
• Choose a drive letter that you won’t use for other purposes
  [/list]StuartR

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Hi, Stephen ~

After some very jejune as well as tedious testing w/ Win2K & XP locally & across the network, the solution I discovered works perfectly & will allow your pen or any flash drive to be statically assigned, recognized, & shared throughout your LAN or peer/peer setup.

The statements in my previous post standing accurate & noting that you must have at least one drive/partition fomatted NTFS, here are the steps to proceed:

1. Disconnect any removeable media devices > restart Windows
2. Connect your pen drive
3. Right-click ‘My Computer’ > ‘Manage’
4. ‘Computer Management’ > ‘Storage’ > ‘Disk Management’
5. On the menu bar > ‘View’ > ‘Top’ > ‘Disk List’
6. In the right-hand pane, right-click the appropriate drive under ‘Disk’
7. Select ‘Change Drive Letter & Paths…’ > ‘Add’ (‘Change’/’Assign’ will NOT work statically for removeable devices)
8. ‘Mount in the following empty NTFS folder:’ should be selected > ‘Browse’ button
9. Volumes/partitions that are NTFS & support drive paths will appear here
10. You may select any, but recommend the root drive which will typically be C:
11. Click ‘New Folder’ > name it ‘USB Drive’ or similar > ‘OK’ > ‘OK’> exit ‘Computer Management’
12. You will not see anything change in ‘Computer Management’ since it is a drive path & not a drive
13. Open ‘My Computer’ > click ‘Local Disk (C:)’ or drive you selected above
14. You will see a folder or a drive called ‘USB Drive’
15. Right-click > ‘Properties’ > ‘Sharing’ tab > check ‘Share this folder on the network’
16. Enter share name (recommend using the name of the drive folder but w/o spaces for command line net use syntax ease)
17. On your pc1, go to ‘Start’ > ‘Run’ > enter cmd > ‘OK’
18. Enter net use X: computernamesharenamedrivepathname /persistent:yes
    • ‘X’ will be a drive letter you choose to represent the pen drive
    • ‘computername’ is the name of the computer to which you wish to connect (which can be found in ‘My Computer’ properties)
    • ‘sharename’ is the name of that computer’s drive that is being shared (which can be found on the ‘Sharing’ tab of ‘Local Disk (C:)’ or appropriate drive’s properties)
    • ‘drivepathname’ is the name you designated in # 16 above (‘USB Drive’ or other)

Hi, Stephen ~

After some very jejune as well as tedious testing w/ Win2K & XP locally & across the network, the solution I discovered works perfectly & will allow your pen or any flash drive to be statically assigned, recognized, & shared throughout your LAN or peer/peer setup.

The statements in my previous post standing accurate & noting that you must have at least one drive/partition fomatted NTFS, here are the steps to proceed:

1. Disconnect any removeable media devices > restart Windows
2. Connect your pen drive
3. Right-click ‘My Computer’ > ‘Manage’
4. ‘Computer Management’ > ‘Storage’ > ‘Disk Management’
5. On the menu bar > ‘View’ > ‘Top’ > ‘Disk List’
6. In the right-hand pane, right-click the appropriate drive under ‘Disk’
7. Select ‘Change Drive Letter & Paths…’ > ‘Add’ (‘Change’/’Assign’ will NOT work statically for removeable devices)
8. ‘Mount in the following empty NTFS folder:’ should be selected > ‘Browse’ button
9. Volumes/partitions that are NTFS & support drive paths will appear here
10. You may select any, but recommend the root drive which will typically be C:
11. Click ‘New Folder’ > name it ‘USB Drive’ or similar > ‘OK’ > ‘OK’> exit ‘Computer Management’
12. You will not see anything change in ‘Computer Management’ since it is a drive path & not a drive
13. Open ‘My Computer’ > click ‘Local Disk (C:)’ or drive you selected above
14. You will see a folder or a drive called ‘USB Drive’
15. Right-click > ‘Properties’ > ‘Sharing’ tab > check ‘Share this folder on the network’
16. Enter share name (recommend using the name of the drive folder but w/o spaces for command line net use syntax ease)
17. On your pc1, go to ‘Start’ > ‘Run’ > enter cmd > ‘OK’
18. Enter net use X: computernamesharenamedrivepathname /persistent:yes
    • ‘X’ will be a drive letter you choose to represent the pen drive
    • ‘computername’ is the name of the computer to which you wish to connect (which can be found in ‘My Computer’ properties)
    • ‘sharename’ is the name of that computer’s drive that is being shared (which can be found on the ‘Sharing’ tab of ‘Local Disk (C:)’ or appropriate drive’s properties)
    • ‘drivepathname’ is the name you designated in # 16 above (‘USB Drive’ or other)

Hi, Stephen ~

Please note that when you reconnect your pen drive, your computer may still assign a new drive letter to it, but you simply disregard it as Windows still recognizes and will associate it with the drive folder you created.

In ‘My Computer’ > ‘Local Disk ©’ you will see your statically mounted drive folder ‘USB Drive’ that will have:

• a shared drive icon when the device is connected
• a shared folder icon when the device is disconnected [/list]

  If you try to connect from the other computers or your own to this mapped drive folder when the device is not connected, you will be greeted with ‘C:USB Drive refers to a drive that is unavailable…’ just like you would a normal unavailable mapped network drive.

  We have clients who are lackadaisical about backups, bump media drives around, etc., so this has resulted as a perfect solution to get the essential database & accounting files backed up with unattended ‘.bat’ files & off the premises in the event of an unfortunate occurrence of some disaster.

  If further clarification or questions are needed, please post back.

Reply | Quote

Hi, Stephen ~

Please note that when you reconnect your pen drive, your computer may still assign a new drive letter to it, but you simply disregard it as Windows still recognizes and will associate it with the drive folder you created.

In ‘My Computer’ > ‘Local Disk ©’ you will see your statically mounted drive folder ‘USB Drive’ that will have:

• a shared drive icon when the device is connected
• a shared folder icon when the device is disconnected [/list]

  If you try to connect from the other computers or your own to this mapped drive folder when the device is not connected, you will be greeted with ‘C:USB Drive refers to a drive that is unavailable…’ just like you would a normal unavailable mapped network drive.

  We have clients who are lackadaisical about backups, bump media drives around, etc., so this has resulted as a perfect solution to get the essential database & accounting files backed up with unattended ‘.bat’ files & off the premises in the event of an unfortunate occurrence of some disaster.

  If further clarification or questions are needed, please post back.

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