External Drive Letter Change and Playlist issues

[Dmarti29]

Can anyone tell me how they deal with Windows changing drive letters of an external hard drive? I know the reasons it happens and I know the suggested solution is to always use the same usb port, but even using the same port, the drive letter can change. Such as when I plug in both my external hard drive and my external plextor cd drive. Even plugging in a flash drive can cause the drive letter to change for my hard drive.

When this happens, all my playlists will not play. They all reference, internally in the file, the drive letter when the list was created. Once the drive letter changes, the playlist is no longer valid.

Being somewhat comuter literate, I have created two playist, one for drive "g" and the other for drive "h", in my case. That way should the drive letter change I still have playlists that work, but its a real pain to maintain.

Same is true with playlists I have that contain mp3 audio music, that I use for DJ shows without karaoke. I have to go into windows edit in DOS, open the files (binary open) and replace the drive letters then save as the other dirve directory name.

Any suggestions?

[billyo]

Originally Posted by Dmarti29

Can anyone tell me how they deal with Windows changing drive letters of an external hard drive? I know the reasons it happens and I know the suggested solution is to always use the same usb port, but even using the same port, the drive letter can change. Such as when I plug in both my external hard drive and my external plextor cd drive. Even plugging in a flash drive can cause the drive letter to change for my hard drive.

When this happens, all my playlists will not play. They all reference, internally in the file, the drive letter when the list was created. Once the drive letter changes, the playlist is no longer valid.

Being somewhat comuter literate, I have created two playist, one for drive "g" and the other for drive "h", in my case. That way should the drive letter change I still have playlists that work, but its a real pain to maintain.

Same is true with playlists I have that contain mp3 audio music, that I use for DJ shows without karaoke. I have to go into windows edit in DOS, open the files (binary open) and replace the drive letters then save as the other dirve directory name.

Any suggestions?

i think thats what happens if you keep plugging and unplugging those ext. dr. you just have to in my opinion have to update your song database, everytime that happens, my suggestion is to have or look for a laptop case where you can have all your hardware plugged in, that way once youre done with your show all you have to do is unplugged the main power source from the wall socket...

[Dmarti29]

Thanks for the reply. Its really not possible to keep a usb drive plugged in all the time. I am running the show on a laptop. I have been careful not to plug in any other devices so that my drive letter remains the same, but my show last week, the drive letter changed all by itself.

Still looking for help..

[billyo]

Originally Posted by Dmarti29

Thanks for the reply. Its really not possible to keep a usb drive plugged in all the time. I am running the show on a laptop. I have been careful not to plug in any other devices so that my drive letter remains the same, but my show last week, the drive letter changed all by itself.

Still looking for help..

i am running a show using my laptop too, and i have 2 ext.hhd , a mouse and a ext.cd/dvd drives plugged in all the usb port, (all cables are routed on a certain way,)with one extra usb port remaining, and also my s-video cable is plugged in too, all of them are plugged in all the tme , and all the power cabels are plugged into a power conditioner, so it's not really impossible to have all the usb cables plugged in at all times..it takes me 15 minutes to set up..no plugging and unplugging except of course the power from the wall and all of them are in a case..

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by Dmarti29

Thanks for the reply. Its really not possible to keep a usb drive plugged in all the time. I am running the show on a laptop. I have been careful not to plug in any other devices so that my drive letter remains the same, but my show last week, the drive letter changed all by itself.

Still looking for help..

Read my post/answer to this in your other thread.

[swany]

Plug it into the same port, above all do that first.

Your pc auto names to the next drive letter each time.

If you plug in anything else it will name that as the next drive letter.

Sound too easy, yep!

[Mitd9922]

I plug and unplug at every show 4 times a week and the drive letter never changes. All music is available every time.

But now, I just upgraded to the newest version of Hoster and now my drive is not recognized. After doing a system restore back to version 3317 I still cannot access my drive. Any help?