Memory Stick Not Assigned a Drive Letter

This is a common issue with Windows XP Pro and mapped network drives. Occasionally corporations will use mapped network drives for easy access to various network shares. You may notice this error on networked computers that have more than average local drives. An example would be 2 hard drives (C: and D:) and two CD or DVD drives (E: and F:).

A mapped network drive apparently does not “lock” the use of the drive letter and Windows will allow other devices that are attached at a later time to assign themselves a drive letter that is already in use via a mapped drive. As stated above a system with 4 physcial drives would use 4 drive letters which would normally take A: through F: (A: and B: are automatically assigned to floppy drives regardless if you even have a floppy drive).

So if you map a network drive file://server/share to drive letter G:, and then plug in a memory stick, there is a good chance that Windows will assign drive letter G: to the memory stick. The mapped drive will continue to work, but you will not be able to access your memory stick.

Resolution:

1. Make sure the memory stick is plugged in.
2. Right click on My Computer and choose Manage.
3. Under Storage \ Disk Management you should see the memory stick, and which drive letter it assigned it.
4. Right click that Memory Stick entry and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
5. Choose an unused drive letter. It should stick with this newly set drive letter everytime for that memory stick.

Note: This guide is for informational purposes only. Use the information provided at your own risk. I am not responsible for your actions or the outcome of any method or instruction given or used in this article.