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For drawing maps I use a G.I.S. program, and in the setup of the program you have to specify drive letters and paths for the maps to store and the backup files to be placed.

The program has one advantage: it is not necessary to install the program, you can copy it from one computer to an other, or onto an USB drive and run it from there, on any computer.

That last is the problem, the drive letter assignment is stored in Windows, not on the USB device.

On my two computers at home it runs under X:, but as soon I place it in an other computer it gets the first free letter, and the program will not work because it can not find the X: drive.

I have tried USBDLM but I cannot get it to work, is there an other way to solve my problem?

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
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Rudy
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1 Answers1

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There is no perfect solution for what your looking to do, due to the nature of removable media.

However you might be able to fake persistence... using disk management. This method isn't fail safe, (If the computer you're plugging into has the X drive letter already assigned, you're going to run into problems) but might help where USBDLM has failed.

My best answer to the question:

"How to store a permanent drive letter on a USB device (so it gets that letter on all computers)?"

does require some set up to be done on all the computers that are used to run this task (but it only needs to be done once):

For Windows Vista/7/8, you can set up an .msc (or use Disk Management type disk management into the search box of the Start Menu > select Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions). Once you are in here, and your flash drive is plugged in, right click on the USB drive and select Change drive letter and paths. From the drop down menu, select the drive letter you want to assign to the drive.

Assigning the same drive letter across devices is the closest to persistence that I can think of.

A guide for using the Microsoft Management Console to set up an .msc can be found here.

Ben Plont
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