A Few PC Hardware Questions - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

12/28/2003 01:10:26 PM · #1

First of all, does anyone have an external CD-RW/DVD-RW that they purchased as an external drive? If so, does it have a fan in the case? I had purchased an external enclosure and put my DVD-RW in it but want to know if I need the fan in the case? The case was also for hard drive and I know you would want to use the fan for that but what about DVD-RW. Just looking to get rid of the fan noise. If anyone could let me know if their external drive has a fan I would appreciate it.

Next, where in WindowsXP do you go to change your drive assignment? I.e., I want to change E:\ to F:\, F:\ to G:\, etc.? I have drives all over the place. :-|

soup

Canon EOS-30D

12/28/2003 01:34:15 PM · #2

why do you have drives all over?

windows usually assigns letters to them.
starting with the floppy A:
windows/hard drive C:
cdrom D:

if you partition the hard drive - you can assign consecutive letters to the partitions.

if you add a hard drive - windows pushes the drive letters up - leaving the cdrom as the last in the list....
at least if you have a master and slave hard drives

jdw91479

Olympus E-300 EVOLT

Olympus 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital ED

12/28/2003 01:37:17 PM · #3

Little confused here, so forgive me if my reply doesn't help.

I just got an external cd-rw for my laptop. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a fan in it. I didn't have to buy an extra case for it or anything though, its pretty self contained.

Not sure about all yours, but my external one connects by usb. I would assume if you unpluged them all, then plugged them back in in a certain order it would change the drive names.

Message edited by author 2003-12-28 13:39:11.

PDavis

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

12/28/2003 01:39:07 PM · #4

Ok, I don't know about the first part because I don't have an external DVD drive, but in my past experience with cd rom drives, they do have a fan.

Now to change the drive letters: You first need to go to Administrative tools.

Go to computer management.

Go down to disk management. All of your drives will be shown.

Go to the disk you want to change and right click. select change drive letter and path.

Good luck!

12/28/2003 04:09:43 PM · #5

Soup,

Thanks for the Info. I have drives all over the place because I have a Digital Medial USB Reader that assigns 3 extra drives to my PC.

I have a CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD-ROM, 3 HDDs

My current drive assignment is:
A:\ Floppy
C:\ HDD1
D:\ DVD-ROM
E:\ HDD2
F:\ Removal Disk (USB Card Reader)
G:\ Removal Disk (USB Card Reader)
H:\ DVD-RW
I:\ Removal Disk (USB Card Reader)
J:\ HDD3
K:\ CD-RW

I want to group all of my HDD Drives together, All of my CD/DVD Drives together, etc.

Originally posted by soup:

12/28/2003 04:13:19 PM · #6

Jdw91479,

I have an internal IDE DVD-ROM Drive and purchased a USB2 external enclosure for it which then turns the internal drive into an external drive. Same as what you have but just put together by me and not in a custom shaped case from that factory. Less expensive and easier to replace if DVD-RW drive goes bad. Just take out the old one and put in the new one.

Thanks for the information that your external doesn't have a fan. I don't believe that CD/DVD drives produce much heat which would mean they wouldn't need one.

Originally posted by jdw91479:

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

12/28/2003 04:15:29 PM · #7

AzCrazy,

Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for. Never tried this since using XP. Thanks a million!!!

Originally posted by AzCrazy:

Jason

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

12/28/2003 04:27:46 PM · #8

If you have any programs installed on one of the drives that you want to reassign... this may cause some problems and those programs may not work anymore.

12/28/2003 06:39:41 PM · #9

Jason,

All programs are on C:\ so that shouldn't be an issue. All other HDDs are for storage of files only. Thanks for the info.

Originally posted by Jason:

If you have any programs installed on one of the drives that you want to reassign... this may cause some problems and those programs may not work anymore.