Drive letter (CD, USB-memory stick)

hi there,

I'm looking for a way to sort out drive letters.
1. Use of drive letters B&C for usb-memory stick(s)/usb-dvd devices.
2. Fixed drive letter assignment for my CD-RW (connected to Primary-slave).

Here is my situation.
Via BootManager, eCS1.2 (installed onto a logical partition) starts up. 
Two window OSs are installed onto primary partitions, and no need to be 
accessed by eCS1.2.

When I rem "usbmsd.add" in config.sys, all usb-reserved(?) letters are

gone and my cd-rw is assigned to Drive C. Of course, then I cannot use a 
usb-memory stick.

any advice??

TIA!

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:30:20 UTC, yo <go4warp@netscape.net> wrote:

> I'm looking for a way to sort out drive letters.
> 1. Use of drive letters B&C for usb-memory stick(s)/usb-dvd devices.

You can never use driveletter B: for that, it is reserved for diskettes.
First usable driveletter is C:

> 2. Fixed drive letter assignment for my CD-RW (connected to
Primary-slave).

It does not really matter how it is connected, the driver will
reserve a driveletter for it, so you make that do what you want.

> Here is my situation.
> Via BootManager, eCS1.2 (installed onto a logical partition) starts up. 
> Two window OSs are installed onto primary partitions, and no need to be 
> accessed by eCS1.2.

OK, so do not assign any driveletter to them in LVM

> When I rem "usbmsd.add" in config.sys, all usb-reserved(?)
letters are 
> gone 

Hmm, that is a bit strange, normally if you have no USB devices attached,
no driveletters will be taken at that point, there is just a reserved
physical disk number for each possible USB disk.


>and my cd-rw is assigned to Drive C. 

Yes, if you did nothing special, it will get the first available driveletter,
and if your Warp/eCS partitions do not use C:, that will be assigned
to the first removable device being attached.

>Of course, then I cannot use a usb-memory stick.

Why not ?
It should get the next available driveletter, even if you had assigned C:
in the LVM info of the stick. In that case it automatially jumps to
the next free one.

> any advice??


Well, there is a better way to make the CDROM/DVD stick to
a specific letter, you can not influence it with LVM but you can
specify the LAST driveletter that should be reserved for
regular disks and USB stuff, using a setting in config.sys like:

	RESERVEDRIVELETTR=R

This will force the CDROM/DVD drive to use the S: driveletter
since that is the first that is NOT reserved.

You can assign letters below that to memory sticks, 
or have LVm pick a free letter when inserting one.

(Mine attach as C: since I do not have a C: disk partition)


Note:
If the memory sticks DO have LVM info, you can still specify to
assigne the first free letter by using '*' there instead of a letter.

Regards, JvW


-- 

Thanks for clarifying the issue. One more step?
I'm still looking for a way to use the drive letter C.

You seem to manage it without jeopatizing USB-recognition function...
How??

> You can never use driveletter B: for that, it is reserved for diskettes.

That's too bad. I guess reserving drive letters for Floppy Drive(s) is
somewhat a waste of resource these days....

> First usable driveletter is C:
> 
>> 2. Fixed drive letter assignment for my CD-RW (connected to
Primary-slave).
> 
> It does not really matter how it is connected, the driver will
> reserve a driveletter for it, so you make that do what you want.

OK. CD/DVD is automatically assigned to Drive C, ONLY WHEN I insert REM
in front of "usbmsd.add" and "usbcd.add". This condition is
not
desirable because of dropping USB-memorystick/USB-DVDRW capability.

Is there a way to assign the letter C, specific to a usb-memory stick or
a usb DVDrw?

Of course, it is ok to assign IDE-CDRW to drive C....


>> When I rem "usbmsd.add" in config.sys, all usb-reserved(?)
letters are 
>> gone 
> 
> Hmm, that is a bit strange, normally if you have no USB devices attached,
> no driveletters will be taken at that point, there is just a reserved
> physical disk number for each possible USB disk.

My mistake... Actually, "usbcdrom.add" is the one causing a ghost
drive
letter even when no usb-cdrom is connected.

> Well, there is a better way to make the CDROM/DVD stick to
> a specific letter, you can not influence it with LVM but you can
> specify the LAST driveletter that should be reserved for
> regular disks and USB stuff, using a setting in config.sys like:
> 
> 	RESERVEDRIVELETTR=R
> 
> This will force the CDROM/DVD drive to use the S: driveletter
> since that is the first that is NOT reserved.
> 
> You can assign letters below that to memory sticks, 
> or have LVm pick a free letter when inserting one.
> 
> (Mine attach as C: since I do not have a C: disk partition)
> 

I have tried several options for reservedriveletter=?, but none works to 
  assign the letter C to any of usbsticks.... (troubled...)

TIA,

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:25:34 UTC, yo <go4warp@netscape.net> wrote:

> Thanks for clarifying the issue. One more step?
> I'm still looking for a way to use the drive letter C.
> 
> You seem to manage it without jeopatizing USB-recognition function...
> How??
> 
> > You can never use driveletter B: for that, it is reserved for
diskettes.
> 
> That's too bad. I guess reserving drive letters for Floppy Drive(s) is
> somewhat a waste of resource these days....
> 
> > First usable driveletter is C:
> > 
> >> 2. Fixed drive letter assignment for my CD-RW (connected to
Primary-slave).
> > 
> > It does not really matter how it is connected, the driver will
> > reserve a driveletter for it, so you make that do what you want.
> 
> OK. CD/DVD is automatically assigned to Drive C, ONLY WHEN I insert REM
> in front of "usbmsd.add" and "usbcd.add". This
condition is not
> desirable because of dropping USB-memorystick/USB-DVDRW capability.
> 
> Is there a way to assign the letter C, specific to a usb-memory stick or
> a usb DVDrw?
> 
> Of course, it is ok to assign IDE-CDRW to drive C....
> 
> 
> >> When I rem "usbmsd.add" in config.sys, all
usb-reserved(?) letters are 
> >> gone 
> > 
> > Hmm, that is a bit strange, normally if you have no USB devices
attached,
> > no driveletters will be taken at that point, there is just a reserved
> > physical disk number for each possible USB disk.
> 
> My mistake... Actually, "usbcdrom.add" is the one causing a ghost
drive
> letter even when no usb-cdrom is connected.
> 
> > Well, there is a better way to make the CDROM/DVD stick to
> > a specific letter, you can not influence it with LVM but you can
> > specify the LAST driveletter that should be reserved for
> > regular disks and USB stuff, using a setting in config.sys like:
> > 
> > 	RESERVEDRIVELETTR=R
> > 
> > This will force the CDROM/DVD drive to use the S: driveletter
> > since that is the first that is NOT reserved.
> > 
> > You can assign letters below that to memory sticks, 
> > or have LVm pick a free letter when inserting one.
> > 
> > (Mine attach as C: since I do not have a C: disk partition)
> > 
> 
> I have tried several options for reservedriveletter=?, but none works to 
>   assign the letter C to any of usbsticks.... (troubled...)
> 
> TIA,
> yo

What are you trying to do? Why would you want the stick to have 
address C:?

RESERVEDRIVELETTER simply reserves all unused drive letters up to the 
one specified, which leaves the rest assignable to anything you add 
later, that doesn't have a specified drive letter. Of course, all non 
removable devices get their adresses first, which means that 
RESERVDRIVELETTER will have no effect, if the specified drive comes 
before the last assigned address. You should be able to use LVM to 
give your USB stick the address C:, as long as nothing else has the 
address C: assigned. Of course, the only way that will work with other
operating systems, is if you boot from the stick, since they don't 
understand the LVM settings, and, if you reformat the stick, using 
another OS, you will, probably, lose the LVM settings. Some 
experimenting may be required.

Hope this helps...
-- 
From the eComStation 1.2 of Doug Bissett
dougb007 at telus dot net
(Please make the obvious changes, to e-mail me)