POINT OF INTERESTP: how to set a flash drive as drive a:\ or b:\

[Slythe]

I was just thinking the other day it'd be nice to not have my drives start from c:\ but rather from a:\
Some older apps i work with (why i don't know) require any a:\ drive to load bootable files etc and having a flash as a:\ (even for ReadyBoost) would be kinda usefull!

if anyone can suggest how i could do this (windows partition manager only allows you to start with c:\ even if you have the controller disabled...)

Thanks!

 

[Triple6]

You'll need to check the BIOS to see if it supports booting from a USB device.

Here's some help and references for you: http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm

 

[Slythe]

what i'm actually looking for is for windows explorer to recognise the drive as a:\. not necessarily for booting up coz i know how to do that.

 

[Triple6]

I was just thinking the other day it'd be nice to not have my drives start from c:\ but rather from a:\
Some older apps i work with (why i don't know) require any a:\ drive to load bootable files etc and having a flash as a:\ (even for ReadyBoost) would be kinda usefull!

if anyone can suggest how i could do this (windows partition manager only allows you to start with c:\ even if you have the controller disabled...)

Thanks!

OK, but you asked that you wanted to start from the A:\ ...so I guess I'm not understanding what you're asking...

If you want to start from the A:\ drive then thats booting from the A:\ drive.

If you want to just use a USB drive with the drive letter A:\ then you should be able to use Disk Management to re-assign the USB drive to A:\ as long as you don't have a floppy drive as A:\

 

[Slythe]

(windows partition manager only allows you to start with c:\ even if you have the controller disabled...)

Thanks!

i've tried that. i disabled the floppy disc controller in the bios and in windows but the drive assignments only start at c.

 

[Triple6]

In Disk Management it doesn't allow you change it to Drive A:? It doesn't automatically do it, you need to manually change it in Disk Management.

I have Vista, I quickly disabled the Floppy Drive Controller and it allowed me too to change it to A: or B: Maybe its different in XP, don't have an XP box in front of me.

Or another option is to use the SUBST command to redirect a driver letter to a folder on your hard drive, then you don't need to use the USB drive for the older program that require a Drive A:.

SUBST: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/subst.mspx?mfr=true

 

[Slythe]

hmm..... i had too much trouble with vista... *sigh*
but i'll try it now with the subst thing thanks