Is there a way to change the order hard drives show up in Windows Explorer?

[Hulk]

I have two hard drives, each partitioned into two logical partitions.

They show up:

Drive 1artition 1
Drive 2artition 2
Drive 1artition 1
Drive 2artition 2

I would like them to be:

Drive 1artition 1
Drive 1artition 2
Drive 2artition 1
Drive 2artition 2

This is not really a big deal but I bet if it can be done someone in this forum will know how.

One other question. Every now and then I get a file than cannot be deleted. Of course I checked all the simple thing. Not in use, tried to rename, unchecked various things in "properties." Anyone know why this happens and how to fix it?

 

[AC]

Shouldn't it be showing up like this, or was it not a typo?

Drive 1, Partition 1, Logical
Drive 2, Partition 1, Logical
Drive 1, Partition 2, Logical
Drive 2, Partition 2, Logical


Try changing the partition type.

Drive 1, Partition 1, Primary
Drive 1, Partition 2, Logical
Drive 2, Partition 1, Logical
Drive 2, Partition 2, Logical

You could also use a program called DriveMapper by PowerQuest, maker of Partition Magic (it also comes with partition magic) to change the drive letters, but the partitions will still be screwed up in DOS.


Some program is still accessing the files. A restart of Windows usually fixes that, unless the file is used by Windows or some other program loaded on startup. In that case you can try deleting it in safe-mode or in DOS.

 

[Hulk]

AC-

Thanks for the reply.
Yeah, those smiley's are typo's. Capitol P's turned into them.

How do I change the partition type and how does that change the order of drive listing in Explorer?

 

[AKA]

The order of partitions are set by dos rules. Primary partitions always are assigned before logical partitions. And the 2nd hardrive primary partition will be drive D: which is where your configuration gets messed up.

So to fix it would be not to setup a primary partition on the 2nd hardrive. Using fdisk create an extended partition and your logical drives.

To fix your problem, all you need to do is get rid of the primary partition on your 2nd hard drive. Convert it to a logical partition. Ive done this by making an image of a primary partition and restoring it as a logical partition. Dont recall exactly how I went about this, but it was with drive image.

 

[AC]

Programs such as Partition Magic 5.0 by PowerQuest is the simplest way. Basically, all you have to do is select the partition and have the program convert it to primary or logical. DriveMapper, which comes with the program, will let you force Windows to display the partitions in the order you choose. Pretty nifty program, but kinda expensive if you only use it once.

BTW, I was refering to the typo of the partition numbers.

 

[Hulk]

Whew!

As I suspected not an easy alteration.

I think I'll leave it alone.

Thanks.