Changed Drive Letters

Forum History Drobo
1

Hello, thanks for reading!

I have an original Drobo V1 filled with 4x 1.5TB drives (4.08TB usable space).

As a result of the 2TB limit per volume when connected via USB, I have 3 volumes, and hence 3 different drive letters.

In my case, I:, J:, K:

After a restart earlier today, the drobo volumes normally associated with I: and J: switched to P: and V: for some unknown reason. I had not added any new volumes which would have taken those drive letters, not that it should matter anyway. I: & J: drive letters are not used by Windows for any volumes now.

I tried to switch those volumes back to I: & J: via the Drobo Dashboard interface, but I: & J: are not listed as possible options.

This is extremely inconvenient as I have many programs tied to these drive letters and switching all of those programs will be very time consuming, if all of them are even possible at this stage.

Why has this happened, and what should I do?

Thanks!

2

Obviously windows does think that something is using those drive letters

unfortunately you dont say which version of windows you are using

under the newer versions of windows things like usb card readers - which can often take up several drive letters, are often hidden if they dont have media in them.

if you go to the windows drive manager (right click on my computer - then go to storage and disk management

you should be able to see what devices are assigned which drive letters

if thats not it let us know and i’ll have a think about what else it could be

3

Thanks so much for the help, I don’t know why I didn’t think to check disk management on my own! :frowning:

There were hidden drive letters, sure enough. Not sure why this happened last night after a couple years of owning the Drobo, but at least I know how to fix the situation now :slight_smile:

4

how did you fix it?[hr]
(i ask as im about to swap out a couple of 4x1tb drives into 1.5tb’s and might face the same issue once i end up with 3 volumes) :slight_smile:

5

Glad to help

paul: he just changed or reassigned the drive letters in drive management

6

I: had somehow been reassigned to ‘removeable storage’ which was hidden from ‘My Computer’ since it had no data on the drive.

I used Disk Management to change the drive letter to something else, and then used Drobo Dashboard to switch the volume back to I: as I wanted.

7

@Spencer: If you open Windows Explorer (Windows-E) then go to the Folder Options (Alt-T, Folder Options, go to View tab) there’s an option called “Hide empty drives in the Computer folder” that is checked by default. Try un-checking it.

Even though it’s enabled, the function doesn’t seem to work on any of my machines, but it might be working on yours. :slight_smile:

8

(thanksguys)