Musical drive letters

[videobruce]

Details:

Two SATA HDD's, each with two partitions. No Raid.

First partition on each is bootable and has XP loaded. I boot to one or the other by changeing the order in the Bios.

If I open 'My Computer' the list is; 

C: Backup1, D: Main1, E: Storage1 & F: Archive1

If I type "\\Videobruce1" in the address bar of a Explorer window I get;

C: Backup1, D: Archive1, E: Main1 & F: Storage

Why is this, how can I correct this and prevent it from happening again?

Edited February 6, 2009 by videobruce

[iamtheky]

arent those just the network share names in \\videobruce window?

you should be able to right click and name them whatever you want.

[videobruce]

Yes. The names don't match the drive letters (except 'C') when I access them by typing in a computer name instead of a actual IP address.

Using 'My Computer' all is well.

Are you saying the 'Network' share letter can be different than the 'My Computer' drive letter?

Edited February 6, 2009 by videobruce

[spacesurfer]

Yeah, it looks like you need to just edit the names in the sharing tab to correct it. It's not really a drive letter when you share, it's a description, which happens to be incorrrect.

[videobruce]

I never used "Map network drives" before. I have always just renamed the drives by right clicking in 'My Computer'. Ok, then what is the proper procedure to rename drive letters?

In my example, 12 drive letters altogether (not counting the floppy);

two HDD's, two partitions each

two optical drives

four media card slots (a drive letter for each)

one external HDD, two partitions

Also, how about the two bootable drive letters?

[iamtheky]

when you right click my computer and select explore - You are seeing the mountpoints

when you type \\videobruce into an explorer window - you are seeing a network view of your system and what shares are available. You see how they are folders and not drives? You can right click and rename those folders whatever you want.

[videobruce]

I took a closer look at the network view. I can't make out exactly what that icon is suppose to be, except it isn't the folder icon, at least it isn't what I see when I open up a drive letter.

I took a look using Properties and customize and see it is a open folder connected to what appears to be a pipeline with a document above the folder. I take it that is suppose to represent a network share?

Edited February 6, 2009 by videobruce

[iamtheky]

they are folders on pipes - (indicating a network share) which is of no consequence (because you can change the icon to whatever you want). Were you able to change the name?

double click - my computer - Right click the drive and go to sharing and security, you should see the share name that you are not fond of.

[videobruce]

double click - my computer - Right click the drive and go to sharing and security

You mean going to Sharing & Security after I right click on the drive letter and go to Properties?

Under Properties/General, it shows what it does in My Computer, under Properties/Sharing it shows what it does using a network address name. Different names, different drive letters.

Edited February 6, 2009 by videobruce

[spacesurfer]

What exactly do you want to do? Did you intentionally set up network sharing on your drives?

If so, then first of all, there's no reason to share all of your drives, especially since of of them I'm sure is your OS drive and you don't share your OS drive to anyone. I typically don't share whole drives. Only folders. But if I were to share a drive, it would be one that only contains documents/music/videos, etc. Not my OS!

Secondly, if you are sharing intentionally, then just rename it in sharing/security, if it is bothersome to you. Better yet, just get rid of any letter and keep only the description.

[videobruce]

I want to be able to access every partition from every PC. I do understand that opening a whole HDD has security issues, but I can deal with that. What I can't deal with is the changes M$ made from 2k to XP preventing me to do so easily without reinventing the wheel (so to speak).

When I set up a PC, I disconnect the other drive (if it has one) and I plan on having two bootable drives, one on the 1st partition of each drive to eliminate the possibility of corrupting the other drive (which has happened before).

I go to 'My Computer' and right click on each of the HDD partitions and choose 'Rename' as I did when I was running 2k (which didn't seen to cause a problem). I never have used 'Map network drive' since I never looked into it and didn't think it applied in my case.

I then seup up sharing, again by right clicking on each partition and created a new share and named it the same as I did by choosing 'Rename'. I was using 'Simple File Sharing' which I could never remember if it should or should not be used since 2k didn't have this.

When I change the boot order in the bios, booting to the other drive, I noticed the problem of the drive letters changing (other than the two bootable partitions). 

I realize that Simple File Sharing should be turned off, and I assume that I shouldn't use the 'Rename' right click option to rename the partitions. But, I'm not clear just what/where is the proper way to rename these drive letters so not to cause this apparent conflict between the two active partitions O/S's when I boot into one or the other.

Edited February 7, 2009 by videobruce

[videobruce]

if you are sharing intentionally, then just rename it in sharing/security, if it is bothersome to you. Better yet, just get rid of any letter and keep only the description.

"sharing/security" extactly where? By right clicking on the drive letter in 'My Computer'?

I want to keep the drive letters associated with the partitions (other than the two bootable) and would like to do so with the optical drives and media card slots, but that isn't as important.

Edited February 7, 2009 by videobruce

[spacesurfer]

By sharing/security, I mean changing the description, not actually the drive letters. If you want to change drive letters, then right click my computer, click manage, go to disk management, right click on the drive, then change drive letter. That allows you to actually reassign the drive letter for all drives except the OS drive. You SHOULD NOT and CANNOT change the OS drive letter.

So, if you want your drive letters consistent between two dual boot systems, then all except your OS drive letters can be changed. Once your OS drive letter is assigned, there is no way to change them.

[videobruce]

You SHOULD NOT and CANNOT change the OS drive letter.

I have never and would never consider doing so.

then right click my computer, click manage, go to disk management

I have no "Manage" when I right click on 'My Computer'. I do have 'Map network drive' and 'Device Manager' (which was custom added through nLite), but no manage or disk management.

[spacesurfer]

are you using xp professional of home? it should be present in the professional version.

if you don't see it, try typing compmgmt.msc in the run command. and you'll see disk management in storage section, provided that the computer management component is present in the home version of xp.

Edited February 7, 2009 by spacesurfer