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Kev T Offline OP
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Thanks John. That's kinda what I was thinking....but.....
The original PG USB disc always had the drive letter F:....new 500GB one is called G:
I also assumed that if the PG drive was not connected Windows would issue F: as the first available label....but Windows skipped that and calls the new drive G:?
I could probably use Disc Manager in Windows (7 - 64bit) to force the G: disc to take the label F: but don't know whether that would be the right thing to do.


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hi
Maybe you have previouly reseved that drive letter in windows
Below is a copy of a post I made a while back may help

At the end of this post is a link to that thread

Hi
Yes indeed USB drive letters are allocated depending on the order they are inserted
So to say if your USB HD is drive j today when you install .
Then you take it out for some reason and insert another usb device say usb mem stick .if you now switch of and reboot the memory stick will be the first device seen and may get the letter you used for the USB HD, making it K this will break the links to where windows thinks BIAB is
Two ways round this don’t unplug your biab hard drive or reserve a drive letter for that drive, Z is a good one¬
Mike.
Here is alink on how to do this.
https://www.howtogeek.com/96298/assign-a-static-drive-letter-to-a-usb-drive-in-windows-7/


Edited by Mike Head (07/02/17 02:47 PM)

link to other thread
http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=420100#Post420100

best regards
Mike


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Kev T Offline OP
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Hi Mike,
Many thanks for your reply. I'll try allocating Z: to the 500GB drive (instead of G:)as per your suggestion. Should I do the same thing to the other PG drive independently and allocate Z: instead of F: ?

My object is to retain the PG drive as a clone backup and to keep each one updated. The two drives will not be plugged in at the same time so am I right in assuming that the same drive label of Z: can be reserved for both?

I have no BIAB links or shortcut from my C:drive I just run BIAB/RB direct from the USB drive.

As I'm using up 4 of my 6 USB ports for other items (printers, wireless keyboard, audio interface etc.) I prefer to unplug any USB drives and only plug them in when needed to one of the remaining 2 ports. That may be part of my problem? Maybe there has been an odd occasion when I switched off the computer before unplugging the BIAB drive.


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I would also suggest going in an reassigning it to whatever drive letter you want it to be. My experience is the next time you plug it in, Windows will remember and use that assignment (not always, and definitely not if another drive got plugged in and used that drive letter), but worth a try.


John

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My experience is the same as John's, including the "not always" part! I just leave my BIAB external drive plugged in all the time. Don't change USB ports, either.


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HI Kev

Should be ok to use it twice providing only one is plugged in, as John says.
Let us Know how you get on
Drive Z may not be the best choice always as some programs set up temp virtual drives and often use Z
Also such programs as virtual CD/DVD ISO image readers and such that can be used for mounting this type of file,

I personally favour something up around the M. N. P, area as this is likely to be well clear of usb mem sticks web cams etc depends a bit on how many you normally have in use.
I guess P for Pg music is a nice association
You can not use B for BIAB as it is still reserved for floppy along with A
Have fun
Mike


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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Kev T Offline OP
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Mike, Matt and John.

Many thanks for your valued input. Point taken about the Z: drive label. The automatic allocation by Windows seems a bit "pot luck" smile

I'll try "P" for PG Music as per Mike's suggestion as a label for both drives and see what happens

Hope you all have a great day.


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The reason they allow various drive letter assignments is so you can use them.
In my experience assigning each drive to a different drive letter and leaving them alone (still connected) is most reliable.
If you disconnect/re-connect drives the letter is prone to change .. but simply knowing that makes managing them much easier.
I'd rather they shutdown when not needed and keep the drive letter assignment .. but that's just my POV. So I leave them connected/reserved whenever I can.


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Kev T Offline OP
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Thanks Rharv. Yes ......you're right. I changed both drives to the label P: The first drive I changed came back as P: when plugged in again (Great!). Disconnected that one and re-plugged the original PG one and that reported as F: again even though I had also labelled that as P:! Looks like I'll just have to live with it. When updating I'll just have to make sure I direct the update to the right disc label smile

One thing I did note was that the PG disc was not as full as I originally thought. When looking at the partitions there was a fair amount of unallocated space left which I merged into the main PG disc partition using a partition management program. So I actually had more space than Windows was reporting.

Presently investigating USBDLM V5.2.8 - USB Drive Letter Manager for Windows to see if this will facilitate
renaming both drive labels more permanently.

Kind Regards
Kev T.


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HI KEV

You seem to be fairly well on top of this sort of thing using partition manager etc
So I am sure you will be fine..

However I am not certain exactly what you mean when you use the term Clone
If you mean a disc image as in Norton ghost or similar .
And you take an image of say a 300 G drive it will contain all the FAT etc so when you put it on a 500 g drive it will make that drive only 300 G as that was the extent of the format and fat of the original.

I suspect that is the way Pg get their stuff on hard drives as a ghost image so you finish up with a drive size to suit the original image size not the physical hard drive size,

So to this end these days I usually format the whole drive or maybe split into 2 partitions if it is very large
( this makes for quicker back ups and defrags if not so much surface area to cover)
Then I copy my whole directory structure files and folders including hidden
to the new drive or partition ,
This way the rest of the drive is available to me .
Which it would not have been if I used a ghost image.
Just my take on this.
Best regards
Mike


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Kev T Offline OP
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Hi Mike, I know enough to be somewhat dangerous I suspect!! smile

Cloning provides a mirror copy of the original disc creating an EXACT copy of its contents, including the master boot record (MBR), slack space, and any unused space.

I used a FREE program called: EaseUS Todo Backup Free 10.5 to clone the PG drive. Wouldn't say it was quick (about 3 hours for transfer of BIAB) as I took the option to copy sector by sector and just have USB2.0, but the results were excellent as far as I can see. As in above posts the only problem was with me trying to give both drives the same label letter. The actual cloning worked a treat!

I used another free program AOMEI Partition Assistant to merge the unallocated space on both drives.

Thanks again for your valuable input.

Kev



Last edited by Kev T; 08/05/17 07:21 AM.

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