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Network
Drive Issues with Card readers |
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Do you have Networked Drives and
have problems finding your card reader?
Examples of Networked Drives:
Your card reader problem may be
easy to solve. |
Typically in a non network
enviornment you will see something similar to
the following in the "My Computer"
folder after installing a card reader
If you have Network Drives or "Shares"
attached to your computer (via the network)
you will see something like this:
If you cannot "find" your card reader
in the My Computer folder and you have Network
Drives attached to your system then it is possible
that the Network Drives are causing the problem.
If
the computer you are using is a "work"
computer and not your Home computer, you
should consult your Network Administrator
before continuing, disconnecting or changing network drive
settings can cause unknown disruption
to your work enviornment. |
To troubleshoot a possible network drive
issue, you need to have a basic understanding
of how drive letter assignment works in Windows.
How Drive Letters
and Assignments work in Windows
Windows uses the Alphabet to assign drive
"Letters" to every drive and accessable
"Device", using letters allows Windows
to know what device is what and gives Windows
the ability to communicate with the devices
and not mix them up.
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When Windows boots it starts
with the letter "A" and assigns it to the Floppy Drive ("B" is reserved for a second
Floppy) |
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Next, "C" is assigned
to the first "boot" hard
drive Windows finds.
If Windows finds another hard drive, it
will assign it "D", but in most
cases, there is only one hard drive. |
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From there, Windows then looks for CD or DVD drive and starts
assigning letters in order like "D" for the CDrom |
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Finally, Windows has discretion to assign
drive letters to networked drives, devices
or "removable drives" in sequence
of what letters it "thinks" is
available and
will be assigned letters after the last
CD or DVD like "E:", "F:", "G:" and so on....
(Removable drives are any storage devices
like your card reader, or a USB Memory Key
or Zip Drive) |
The problems happen when Windows already has
Network drives assigned by you, a seperate program
or your administrator and they conflict with
what Windows thinks is the next available drive
letter.
You would assume that Windows KNOWS what is assigned to the Network drives and will
select the next available drive letter for your
card reader..
That is a logical assumption, and yes, it should
work that way.. but it doesn't always work.
Although I do no have difinitive proof, my
belief is that since Windows isn't auto assigning
the Networked Drive letters, the letters are
not always taken out of consideration, and consequently
they are not set as "used" like A,
B, C and D are.
Because of a glitch (I am not 100% sure why)
, Windows still thinks "E:" is available
and therefore if you have already "mapped"
(techinical term for attaching) a Network Drive
to the system as "E:", the Card reader
will never be "found" as long as a
Network drive is using "E:".
What is the easy fix?
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Disconnect
the Network drives., and reassign them
to letters that do not conflict.
Keep in mind that some programs or shortcuts
may have ties to that drive letter and
may stop functioning.
If you want to disconnect the drives see
image to left:
Right click the networked drive in My
computer and choose "Disconnect"
Once disconnected you must then reboot.
Once the system is restarted and the card
reader is plugged in you should see the
card reader listed as "E:" in
the "My Computer Folder"
Note: You will then need to reconnect
the network drives in order to use them
again. |
If you have Networked Drives, your goal should
be the network drive letters being AFTER any
possible card reader drives like the following:
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