Opening File Explorer When Attaching External Drives

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hlewton
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Opening File Explorer When Attaching External Drives

Post by hlewton »

I have chosen to have any external drive I attach to my computer open in the File Explorer view. Most of the time this works but occasionally the File Explorer does not open when an external drive is attached. Let’s say that external drive is “H” and its name is My Passport. When it works correctly File Explorer shows This PC > My Passport (H:). When File Explorer doesn’t open showing that, My Passport (H:) Drive will still show and can be accessed if I open a new instant of File Explorer. Any ideas why it is not 100% doing the same thing every time an external drive is attached?

If what I have just described would always be the case, it would not be anything of concern BUT there is that one time in maybe 50 that I have to reattach (H:) Drive for it to register even if I open a separate instance of File Explorer. So that is really my concern. If there is something I could do to force any attached external drive to open File Explorer 100% of the time that should solve the problem, I think.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Regards,
hlewton

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Leif
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Re: Opening File Explorer When Attaching External Drives

Post by Leif »

Do you have other drives with preceding letters - e.g. D: E: F: & G:?

I use a number of Passport drives, each are Named "Passport 01", "Passport02", etc. and to each I have assigned the drive letter "F:"
Every time I connect one, it flawlessly appears in Explorer as drive F:....

Try forcing the drive letter through Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management to "H:" and see if that helps.
Leif

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hlewton
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Re: Opening File Explorer When Attaching External Drives

Post by hlewton »

Leif wrote:
06 Aug 2020, 14:11
Do you have other drives with preceding letters - e.g. D: E: F: & G:?

I use a number of Passport drives, each are Named "Passport 01", "Passport02", etc. and to each I have assigned the drive letter "F:"
Every time I connect one, it flawlessly appears in Explorer as drive F:....

Try forcing the drive letter through Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management to "H:" and see if that helps.
Yes I have F:, G:, H:, I:, and J:. I used Disk management to name them in that order. The drive I have the most problems with is a brand new 2 TB Elements drive. Not sure why. The other thing that is new in my system is a Powered USB Hub - ACASIS 16 Ports 90W USB 3.0 Data Hub - with Individual On/Off Switches and 12V/7.5A Power Adapter USB Hub 3.0 Splitter for Laptop, PC, Computer, Mobile HDD, Flash Drive and More. Maybe that is the culprit. I used to use just a 7 port powered hub. It did not have individual port switches and it very rarely had the same issue but it did occasionally happen. And BTW it happened on another computer, not just the one I am suing now.

The drives are:
F: Drive is an older IOMEGO_ HDD 250 GB USB 2.0 Drive
G: Drive is an Elements 2 TB – USB 3.0
H: Drive is a My Passport 2 TB – USB 3.0
I: Drive is an USB 3.0 Flash Drive 128 GB
J: Drive is an USB 3.0 Flash Drive 128 GB

So you see, there is a mixture of drives if that makes any difference.

I asked the question here because when I told Windows to open an external drive in File Explorer it asked me what I wanted to do when I plugged in the first drive. I was wondering if there were another way to tell Windows to open an external drive in File Explorer.

Also I should mention that I have been experimenting with different things and one thing is I make sure all the 5 external drives' ports are connected and turned on before booting up the computer. Not one File Explorer window opens on boot-up but I expected that. The strange thing is booting that way, there is never any problem seeing and accessing any of the external drives when I open File Explorer.
Regards,
hlewton