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| Thread ID: 65394 | 2006-01-16 20:31:00 | Changing drive labels | user (1404) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 421689 | 2006-01-16 20:31:00 | I installed a second hard drive and dvd drive on my XP home machine. When I shuffled the drive letters around (using disk drive manager) so that my hard drives were c and d, my dvd drives were e and f and my zip and memory card drives were g and h, the labels on the dvd drives retained their old names (zip drive and memory card drive - viewing them under Explorer). I cannot find any way to rename them (I could rename the zip and memory card drives but there is no option to rename a dvd drive). The icon for the zip drive is also showing on the dvd drive, although the correct icon is showing for the other dvd RW drive. It's rather confusing... I tried deleting a dvd drive from device manager and rebooting the computer but it retained the original zip drive label. Any thoughts? |
user (1404) | ||
| 421690 | 2006-01-16 20:42:00 | Try using diskpart in DOS to change the assigned drive letter (just type "Diskpart" in DOS and then "help" to list the commands) i found it very handy when managing partitions etc... |
DaveBritton (7395) | ||
| 421691 | 2006-01-16 20:50:00 | Follow the link here (www.mvps.org) Put a cd / dvd in the dvd first. |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 421692 | 2006-01-16 21:24:00 | Diskpart is usually used for unattended scripted installs of XP, but it does support commands also. www.microsoft.com as Speedy Gonzales post indicates, Disk Manager is usually how it's handled. |
kingdragonfly (309) | ||
| 421693 | 2006-01-16 21:24:00 | Okay there's and easy rule to remember. When you name a drive you are actually only naming the disk. This is important because when you come to drives with removable disks you will only get a drive letter until there is a disk inserted with a name attached to it. So when you have a zip drive it may be removable drive (U:) and then you insert a disk lebelled work and you'll see WORK (U:) And it's best practise to use higher letters for removable drives like USB, ZIP and optical drives. For your icon problem try downloading tweakUI (not the XP version) and and use rebuild icon cache. |
apparition (3207) | ||
| 421694 | 2006-01-16 22:32:00 | Thanks for the replies but I think some are not what I need. To clarify: I have assigned new drive letters already. I simply wish to alter the label describing the drive when I view it in Explorer. I realise that this changes when I insert a dvd with a label on it. But when I eject it, the label of the dvd drive reverts back to 'zip drive' which is rather confusing. I wish to label the empty dvd drives as 'dvd' and 'dvd rw'. How can I achieve this? |
user (1404) | ||
| 421695 | 2006-01-16 23:27:00 | I think this (msdn.microsoft.com) is what you're after. You have to go into the registry to do this. I've done the same thing on this PC. I've change the default hdd icons to colour icons, and the removable disks to memory card icons. And when I eject the Ipod and the USB key, it changes to ejected blah blah with the defaultlabel entry I created in the registry. |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 421696 | 2006-01-16 23:40:00 | This is an interesting one . The label of a disk, whether its a hard disk partition, a CD, a floppy, or a USB flash memory device, a Zip disk, etc, etc, or anything else with a file structure, is just an entry in the root level directory . It has one bit set to say it's a label . It belongs to the actual medium containing the data, not the drive . That's what appears in the Explorer page, or in a directory listing, if it exists . If it doesn't exist, it's not shown . The OS usually doesn't care, and will display some arbitrary drive letter it has assigned , "A:", "C:", etc, for CP/M, DOS and their descendants . If the OS does want to be fussy about having a particular disk it will more often work by the 64 bit unique number assigned to the disk when it was last formatted . (That's the hexadecimal number like "A56F-8B01" you see when your format a floppy . It's just a random number, and with 64 bits it's unlikely to be duplicated . ) (Some installations of software on floppies required the correct labels on the disks --- often with "illegal characters" in the labels -- an an attempt to foil peole with naughty copies ;)) . Where the drive names "user" wants to change are stored, I don't know . I'm pretty sure they aren't stored on the actual media . I suspect the registry might be a likely place to start looking . The Search tool in regedit will help . But only make changes if you're sure . |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 421697 | 2006-01-16 23:57:00 | I used PHM Plus to customize mine. | Rob99 (151) | ||
| 421698 | 2006-01-16 23:58:00 | If you want to create new icons / change the label for removable disks (like Ipods/USB keys, or maybe even for card readers) for whatever is in My computer, then you have to create the Driveicons, defaulticon, and defaultlabel entries in the registry under . HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer So, if you have, or want all 3, the entries in the registry would look like this: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons\G HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons\G\Defaulticon And HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons\G\Defaultlabel The G / letter must be there / created as well, so the registry / system knows what drive letter / removable disk you're talking about . And what to change the default icon to, once the defaulticon/defaultlabel entries have been entered into the registry . The above aren't in the registry by default (well in XP anyway) . Once the above entries have been entered, no need to reboot . Just refresh my computer, and the new icons appear . |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
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