Question: Question: When I add a ZIP/Jaz drive to my computer running Windows NT or Windows 2000, my drive letters move around. My ZIP/Jaz drive has taken over one of my hard drive's letters! How do I fix it??

If you are running NT 4.0, get Service Pack 4 or newer! It now has the ability to let you change the drive letter of your ZIP or Jaz drive (and probably most any removable media.) Use the Disk Administrator program mentioned below. You may need to disconnect your ZIP/Jaz drive initially (see below) to prevent your hard drives from being locked into the wrong letters. You can download Service Packs directly from Microsoft at http://support.microsoft.com/Support/NTServer/Content/ServicePacks/

It's strongly recommended to run Disk Administrator at least once BEFORE adding any additional drives of any type. To change the drive letter with SP4 or newer installed, you need to insert a disk in the ZIP/Jaz drive before running Disk Administrator.

If you do not have NT 4.0, or Service Pack 4 or newer is not available for your country's version of NT, then you will not be able to directly set the letter. You will only be able to lock your hard drives/CD-ROMs into place, and optionally create a 'hole' for the ZIP/Jaz drive to drop into.

With all power removed, TEMPORARILY disconnect your ZIP/Jaz drive (unplug from computer if external, remove data cable if internal) so that NT cannot see it. Boot up and run the Disk Administrator program (you must be logged on as Administrator, or someone with Administrator rights.) The program is in the Administrative folder on the Start menu. (For Windows 2000, it is in the Control Panel, inside Administrative Tools. Double-Click Computer Management, expand the Storage key if needed, then double-click on Disk Management. Whew, thats a long walk!!) When you run it, it will ask if you want to save some settings to your drives. Let it. That should hopefully 'lock in' the current drive letters. Shut down NT and power down.

Reconnect your ZIP/Jaz drive, power up, and see what happens. If it still moves the letters around, disconnect it again. Re-run Disk Administrator, and change all of the drive letters up to something unused. Reboot. Change them back to what you want. Reconnect your ZIP. It should now take up the first available letter AFTER your other drives.

Basically, in NT, you can set each fixed disk, or CD-ROM, to any letter you want. If you don't run Disk Administrator, letters are assigned as each device is detected. Removable devices will be assigned AFTER primary hard drive partitions, but BEFORE logical drives in extended partitions. When Disk Administrator has it's settings available, it will try to duplicate those settings first. Anything new will use the next available letters.

Until NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4, you could not directly set the drive letters of removable devices other than CD-ROMs.

FAQ by Andrew Rossmann, v2.20, March 12, 2000.