Permanent Internal Drive Letters

[cemster]

Thank you all again for this brainstorming

What would happen if one or more of the 13 drives fails? 
I would lose a few hours and start to worry about a possible scenario of the backup failing as well... Also trying to figure out how to finance a new 6 or 8 TB drive... Because I had to buy every drive twice and I made my choices next to the best option...

I do own NAS drives, not all of them, but I thought when you mentioned NAS, you meant it like some sort of special configuration/system by itself, and if there was such a thing,      I presumed it would be expensive...

In terms of not swapping drives and using USB drives instead is not an option for me. The combining the drives idea is not a viable one is a fantasy at the moment. My drives are mostly 8 TB and a couple of 6 TBs... I am afraid I can not afford those new humongous drives just yet.

orbs, thank you for clearing the way, as it is I am helpless to know what is the correct course of action. I will try to decipher Nine's code and your comment about it.

And finally, ahha, yes we can. Except I have two constant drives that are both C: drive, taking turns of course...

[Earthshine]

this is network ready, a four bay Netgear NAS box, ready to use your 8TB drives! 4 of them. Until you can get the Seagate Ironwolf 14tb ones, lol

 

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-ReadyNAS-Diskless-Personal-Processor/dp/B015S0Y50C/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1548683237&sr=8-8&keywords=nas

 

Netgear has an 8 Bay too, to use up 8 of your 13 drives, but it's 650

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071489P8X/ref=psdc_13436301_t3_B015S0Y50C

 

Edited January 28, 2019 by Earthshine

[orbs]

18 hours ago, cemster said:

 I have two constant drives that are both C: drive, taking turns of course...

please explain. how can constant drives be taking turns? are they constantly connected, and you select which to boot from?

[Deye]

cemster,

Here is another "random way"  to access and consider, Absolutely Not fully tested.

1. This part is intended to run one time, @ generating "LetterConfig.txt" (info)
After "LetterConfig.txt" is present you Manually Edit the second col with the needed letter to correspond 

 example D:|O:|1327474259 where  D: will become O:

 

#include <File.au3>
$aDrives = DriveGetDrive("CDROM")
Local $aReg[UBound($aDrives)][3], $sFilePath = @ScriptDir & "\LetterConfig.txt"
For $i = 1 To $aDrives[0]
    $aReg[$i][0] = StringUpper($aDrives[$i])
    $aReg[$i][2] = DriveGetSerial($aDrives[$i])
Next
_FileWriteFromArray($sFilePath, $aReg, 1)

2. This Second part is for loading the  configuration file to an array and have the replacements made (separate script)

#include <File.au3>
Local $aReg1, $aReg0, $aOut[0][3], $aDrives = DriveGetDrive("All"), $Key = "HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices", $sFilePath = @ScriptDir & "\LetterConfig.txt"
If _FileReadToArray($sFilePath, $aReg1, 0, "|") Then
    $aReg0 = $aReg1
    _ArrayColDelete($aReg1, 0)
    For $i = 1 To 2
        For $j = 1 To $aDrives[0]
            $aDrives[$j] = StringUpper($aDrives[$j])
            $index = _ArraySearch($aReg1, DriveGetSerial($aDrives[$j]), Default, Default, Default, Default, 1)
            If Not @error Then
                If $aDrives[$j] <> $aReg1[$index][0] And StringRight($aReg1[$index][0], 1) = ":" Then
                    _ArraySearch($aReg1, $aDrives[$j])
                    If @error Then _ArrayAdd($aOut, $aDrives[$j] & "|Cannot be swapped|Mark To Delete")
                    _ArrayAdd($aOut, $aReg1[$index][0] & "|" & RegRead($Key, "\DosDevices\" & $aDrives[$j]) & "|swapped")
                EndIf
            EndIf
        Next
        If UBound($aOut) Then ExitLoop
        $aReg1 = $aReg0
        _ArraySwap($aReg1, 0, 1, 1) ;Edit col 0 (drive Letters) so it acts as a second preset, This will Auto toggle to col 0 (drive Letters) when col 1 (drive Letters) ared read as set Else Vice Versa.
        _ArrayColDelete($aReg1, 0)
    Next
    _ArrayDisplay($aOut)
EndIf

In Any Case  Export & Backup the mentioned key :Delete and Import the backed up key At any time before an upcoming reboot to avoid having the changes to become physical ..

Deye

Edited January 31, 2019 by Deye
a toggle functionality is Added : easily switch between two sets of drive letter readings

[ModemJunki]

Errr... as much as I like AutoIT, I think that the original problem is best solved by trying/buying a most excellent tool "USB Drive Letter Manager" by Uwe Sieber (https://www.uwe-sieber.de/english.html) .

USBDLM uses an INI file and works for more than just USB connected devices. You can assign drive letters by volume label, volume serial number, disk signature, the existence of a file, and others. It's really a very feature complete way to assign drive letters.

A free download is available to try, so give it a shot. Licensed for commercial use it's 15 US dollars or 11.90 Euro per user. I use it it home (free) and convinced my boss to buy me a license for work, since I am constantly swapping USB and eSATA drives.

I recommend USBDLM because I have a script for setting drive letters in a work-related toolset (where we cannot use USBDLM because we don't have a license to distribute it). It is some 500-600 lines of (messy) code not counting include functions and I don't recommend doing it this way for someone who describes themselves as "surviving" in the way @cemster has.

Master USBDLM for this need, @cemster, and happy I think you will be. :-)

I'll even try to help you configure it if you need, just post here in your thread.

[cemster]

6 hours ago, ModemJunki said:

I use it at home (free) and convinced my boss to buy me a license for work, since I am constantly swapping USB and eSATA drives.

1

Oh great then maybe you can help me to explain why would one need to be swapping damn drives all the time...

And thank you for such a promising alternative. Like I mentioned earlier, I really don't want to learn more new computer stuff...

Just because I need to use a PC, shouldn't leave me in a position so that I need to become a pseudo software engineer...

And thank you for your help offering.

On 1/28/2019 at 4:50 PM, orbs said:

please explain. how can constant drives be taking turns? are they constantly connected, and you select which to boot from?

Yes, I have two SS Drives hooked up all the time, sharing the letter C: with turns, selected with F8.

---------------

Thank you Deye for your code. I hope I don't have to use it...  

---------------

@ Earthshine, 

nice link that 4GB one I stumbled upon that one as well. Of course, that 80 TB won't be picked from a tree...

As far as 12 or 20 TB Seagate drives go, I think I have a better solution...

The new 100TB Nimbus Data ExaDrive DC100. It is an SSD... Pricey  (50 cents to 90 cents per gigabyte) but it is in 3,5" drive format. 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/100tb-ssd-nimbus-sata-flash,36687.html

 

Edited January 30, 2019 by cemster

[TheSaint]

This is what I use, and it mostly works well.

USBDLM - USB Drive Letter Manager for Windows

https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html

The only other choice really, is to go by drive label (if unique for each) or serial and a bunch of things already mentioned, and do it all with your own code.

So basically, you plug a drive in, then run a script to check all drives are assigned the letter they should be, and change if not.

[cemster]

2 hours ago, TheSaint said:

This is what I use, and it mostly works well.

USBDLM - USB Drive Letter Manager for Windows

https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html

The only other choice really, is to go by drive label (if unique for each) or serial and a bunch of things already mentioned, and do it all with your own code.

So basically, you plug a drive in, then run a script to check all drives are assigned the letter they should be, and change if not.

Yes, thank you. It is already suggested two posts ago by modem junky.

I've downloaded it. I will report the way it plays out, but I am very optimistic by having a strong second...

Edited January 30, 2019 by cemster

[Deye]

As yet TWIMC,

Check my edited example above, fixed any issues from the former one And Changed to just display an output for easier testing\validating ..

If tested on VM and swapping the C: drive proves to work out Then Of course it will be super easy to have 2 or more config files @ loading different presets (letters for drives).

Deye