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What happens if you exceed drive letters (A thru Z)



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 20th 17, 11:40 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
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Posts: 177
Default What happens if you exceed drive letters (A thru Z)

I've never done it, and probably never will. But what happens if a
person exceeds the drive letters A thru Z?

For example, I have 7 hard drive partitions. Plus CD drive. Plus A + B
(for floppies). Thats 10 letters in use.

But some people have 2 CD drives (or DVD).

I know a network can add numerous drive letters from another computer.

So, if I added a network which also has 7 drive letters, and have two
CD/DVD drives, that could mean 18 letters are used up. (out of 26
total).

I know other devices can use drive letters too.

So, what happens if I had 8 drive letters left to use, and plugged in
two exterenal HDDs with 4 partitions on each. Then plugfged in a Flash
Drive. I have now exceeded the 26 letters. Whgat happens to the last
thing plugged in (in this case, it would be the flash drive)?

Just curious..... (I dont see this happening to me).

Ads
  #3  
Old December 21st 17, 12:38 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
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Posts: 2,679
Default What happens if you exceed drive letters (A thru Z)

In message , Nil
writes:
On 20 Dec 2017, wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

I've never done it, and probably never will. But what happens if a
person exceeds the drive letters A thru Z?

For example, I have 7 hard drive partitions. Plus CD drive. Plus A
+ B (for floppies). Thats 10 letters in use.

But some people have 2 CD drives (or DVD).

I know a network can add numerous drive letters from another
computer.


For one thing, you can avoid the issue for a while by using UNC network
names in the form \\servername\sharename to avoid wasting mapped
drive letters. Letters for network shares are almost never needed.


It's a good question, though - what _would_ happen if you'd used all the
letters and then plugged in another flash drive, or had used all but two
and plugged in a USB drive with four partitions?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

G B Shaw said: "Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have
made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week."
(quoted by "Dont Bother" [sic], 2015-8-24.)
  #6  
Old December 21st 17, 12:59 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 177
Default What happens if you exceed drive letters (A thru Z)

On Wed, 20 Dec 2017 23:38:19 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:


I know a network can add numerous drive letters from another
computer.


For one thing, you can avoid the issue for a while by using UNC network
names in the form \\servername\sharename to avoid wasting mapped
drive letters. Letters for network shares are almost never needed.


It's a good question, though - what _would_ happen if you'd used all the
letters and then plugged in another flash drive, or had used all but two
and plugged in a USB drive with four partitions?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf


Fear this thought.
You would hear a loud deafening explosion. See a giant ball of fire
shoot 100 ft in the air above the computer and find yourself laying
about 3 miles away from your computer. Thats when you (if your
survived), would hear sirens as your home or office burned to the
ground. Worse yet, if that computer was connected to the internet at the
time of the blast, every other computer connected to the internet, would
also explode and catch fire at that same moment.

Thats the bad news.
The good news is that Google, Facebook, Doubleclick.com and a bunch of
Spam sites would also be destroyed......

LOL



  #7  
Old December 21st 17, 01:18 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 177
Default What happens if you exceed drive letters (A thru Z)

On Thu, 21 Dec 2017 10:42:47 +1100, Peter Jason wrote:

I read somewhere that in this case you start to double up. eg Aa AB
AC etc



From the Dos command line, I have tried to go to AA:\ A1:\ C2:\ etc.
All I get is "Bad command or file name".

Or if I try to go to Z:\ (which I dont have), I get "invalid drive
specification".

Another thing I never undersstood, is why you cant name drive letters
with numbers or special characters, such as
1:\ 2:\ 3:\ or ?:\ #:\ @:\ or the most bizarre of all.... ::\

Then too, there could be
À:\ Õ:\ ½:\ or ¿:\

You can create a folder in Dos called something like this.

®¶¼ßÿ using the Alt + numbers to create bizarre characters.

Back in the Dos days, I would create weird folders like that on a
friends computer and challenge him to remove them. (Not easy to do if
you dont know the alt + whatever numbers are needed). And often Windows
cant remove them either.

  #9  
Old December 21st 17, 07:40 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
JJ[_11_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 744
Default What happens if you exceed drive letters (A thru Z)

On Wed, 20 Dec 2017 18:18:53 -0600, wrote:
On Thu, 21 Dec 2017 10:42:47 +1100, Peter Jason wrote:

I read somewhere that in this case you start to double up. eg Aa AB
AC etc


From the Dos command line, I have tried to go to AA:\ A1:\ C2:\ etc.
All I get is "Bad command or file name".

Or if I try to go to Z:\ (which I dont have), I get "invalid drive
specification".

Another thing I never undersstood, is why you cant name drive letters
with numbers or special characters, such as
1:\ 2:\ 3:\ or ?:\ #:\ @:\ or the most bizarre of all.... ::\

Then too, there could be
À:\ Õ:\ ½:\ or ¿:\

You can create a folder in Dos called something like this.

®¶¼ßÿ using the Alt + numbers to create bizarre characters.

Back in the Dos days, I would create weird folders like that on a
friends computer and challenge him to remove them. (Not easy to do if
you dont know the alt + whatever numbers are needed). And often Windows
cant remove them either.


We can actually SUBST a path to a non-letter character drive "letter". e.g.:

A number:

SUBST 1: C:\WINDOWS

Or a symbol:

SUBST [: C:\WINDOWS

Then use it e.g.:

DIR 1:

Or...

DIR [: /W

Problem is... Windows Explorer doesn't show the non-letter drive letter. And
Total Commander application (a third party file manager) in my system also
doesn't show it.

So, either both applications don't acknowledge non-letter drive letter as a
valid drive letter, or the system doesn't broadcast non-letter drive letter
to all applications (so that the'll update the drive list).

Windows Explorer also actively reject non-letter drive letter when I try to
manually type the path into its address bar.
 




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