Disk Number Assignment ?

In Disk Management I see that disks are assigned numbers.

Is primary master always designated as "Disk 0"? Primary slave always
designated as "Disk 1"? Secondary Master always as "Disk 2"? That's the
way it is on my system, at least right now.

Could anything happen that would change this disk number assignment?

One might think that "Disk 3" would always designate a Secondary Slave disk.
But on my system, I don't have a secondary master drive installed, and so a
USB Compact Flash reader is designated as "Disk 3".

Spoon2001 wrote:
In Disk Management I see that disks are assigned numbers.

Is primary master always designated as "Disk 0"? Primary slave always
designated as "Disk 1"? Secondary Master always as "Disk 2"? That's the
way it is on my system, at least right now.

Could anything happen that would change this disk number assignment?

One might think that "Disk 3" would always designate a Secondary Slave disk.
But on my system, I don't have a secondary master drive installed, and so a
USB Compact Flash reader is designated as "Disk 3".

The disk numbers are assigned dynamically following the
'first availlable' rule. If you take out the primary slave
then next time a different drive becomes disk 1, the
secondary master if it exists.
The order is as you described for IDE drives. I don't know
how it works for other bus types.


Uwe