Change external hard drive names

[mitchell65]

I'm not too sure if this is the right forum!
I have found out how to change the letters of external hard drives but as the three I have all have a good deal of files on them, does anyone know of a reasonably quick way to relink all the files to the new path.
The reason I want to change the names is that I sometimes connect the dives to my laptop. Then if it is my "F" drive that I connect to the laptop my other two drives letters change! I think if I designate X,Y and Z they will keep these letters where ever I connect the drives.

[Ron P.]

If your original clips are all located in the same folder, then it should not be hard to relink during a project. Most of the time when VS prompts to relink, once you point it to one of those files, the rest are automatically relinked. Mind you this is for clips in a timeline for a project, not for the libraries. For those you probably will need to individually relink. In such cases I just delete those files, and just re-import them, by multi-selecting in the browse window.

For external drives, this is not always the case. Most of the time Windows behaves and leaves the letter assignment alone. I have a an external drive that I have named N. Most of the time it has remained, however there has been a couple of occasions that Windows renamed it, so I had to manually rename it...

[sjj1805]

Have you installed Home Networking?
If so you can allocate the External drive a letter via the normal method
using Disk Manager, but you can allocate a second drive letter by "Sharing" the drive (or better still specific folders) and then connecting to a network drive - again selecting the drive letter you want.

[mitchell65]

Many thanks for both replies. As I have lots of folders on the two external hard drives that I swop about, I will use the re-linking option as and when I need it. I don't use networking so that option is not available to me. I think I am right in saying that if I rename the drives with letters at the end of the alphabet, they wont get automatically altered when I plug the drive into another PC or laptop? The reason I ask is that on my main PC all the drive letters up to "N" are in use. I have a card reader and when I plug my camera into the PC it uses Drive "N". The laptop only has two drives "C" and "D".

[skier-hughes]

yes that should be correct and is a method I use.

[mitchell65]

Thanks Graham!

[sjj1805]

........ I think I am right in saying that if I rename the drives with letters at the end of the alphabet, they wont get automatically altered when I plug the drive into another PC or laptop?.....

Just to clear up any possible ambiguities.
You have to set the drive letter on each and every computer (Or operating system on a multi boot set up).

Take for example 3 computers named "one" "two" "Three"

1. Plug in the external drive to "one" and assign the drive letter "M"
2. Plug that same external drive into "two" and assign the drive letter "X"
3. Plug that same external drive into "three" and assign the drive letter "Z"

Every time you plug that external drive into "one" it adopts the letter "M"
Every time you plug the external drive into "two" it adopts the drive letter "X"
Every time you plug the drive into "three" it adopts the drive letter "Z"

Obviously the thing to do is to assign the same letter when you initially plug it into those 3 computers (or operating systems) so that no matter which set up you plug into it will always adopt the same drive letter e.g. "M" (or your preferred drive letter).

[mitchell65]

Thank you Steve. I couldn't get my head round the fact that when I plugged the hard drive into my laptop it would automatically use the letter I designated on my main PC. I know understand fully. Just set it up once on the laptop and it will recognise the new letter automatically every time I plug the hard drive in.
Thanks again
John