All the following except using the new Hard Drive with a second PC or laptop apply to an extra internal hard drive as well as external one.
Many, many times in this Board it is recommended to have a separate external hard drive for all your video related files. As these hard drives get cheaper and cheaper this idea gets more and more attractive. So we have acquired an external hard drive. It is usually just a case of plugging it in, connecting via a USB cable and it shows up as a "Removable Drive" with a drive letter that is automatically nominated by Windows. When you store your files on this hard drive Video Studio links to them with a path to your new hard drive letter eg "E" something like this E:/Your folder/your file.avi.
This is fine until you put, say a multi card reader on your PC or plug in a memory stick. All are assumed by Windows to be "Removable Drives" and given a drive letter. According to how these drives are connected internally via the motherboard it is quite possible that they come before your Ext HD so the letter of your Ext HD might now be given the letter "H" or "L".
When you come back to VS and try to work on your project, you will have to re-link all the clips and images!
Then you remove the card reader and/or the memory stick and the Ext HD letter gets altered again, so re-linking is again necessary.
Clearly all this is a big time waster. The answer is to give your external hard drive a dedicated letter that is at the high end of the alphabet say "X". Then when you put the card reader back in the letters automatically given by Windows won't interfere with your Ext HD letter!
Dedicate a Drive Letter
To give your new hard drive a dedicated letter do the following:
Click Start then right click on My Computer and choose "Manage".
In the Window that opens under the "Storage" folder click "Disc management" as this screenshot
Screenshot1
You will then see your hard drives connected to your PC.
Find the new Ext HD and right click anywhere in the space to the right of the name and drive letter.
Screenshot2
In the window that opens click "Change drive letters and path,,,"
In the window that opens click "Change" at the bottom.
This opens another window where you will see the drive letter that Windows gave to your new drive. Click the arrow head next to that letter and you can select a letter of your choice. As mentioned before choose a letter at the top of the alphabet, say "X".
Should you wish to give the hard drive a name or change the name the manufacturer might have given it, right click anywhere in the space alongside the drive letter, click "Properties" choose the "General" tag and in the box that has the existing name of the drive or is blank (if there is no name) delete the existing name and type a new name. Click "Apply" click "OK" close down any open windows and job done.
Just one more point, if you intend using the new hard drive on a second PC or laptop, which is one of the many advantages of an Ext HD, you will need to carry out the procedure to dedicate a drive letter for this machine as the Windows setup on the second machine will automatically give the new Ext HD a letter according to its place in the drive set up. If you have given the drive a new name, however, this will not need re setting. You need do this on every PC or laptop that you want to use the new Ext HD on but you will only have to do this once.
John Mitchell
September 2009
