The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi Folks,
I have two USB slots on my PC, one occupied by a four-way hub.
On the hub, two slots are permanently occupied each by 16GB USB keys.
One key is Dos2, the other dos3. If I add a third USB key, this arrangemnet of assignments gets jumbled.
So in my programs, Files atrributed to say dos2 may need to be modified to say dos4... a bit of a bind.
Is there any simple way of avoiding this problem ? Steve.

In the PC side - do the USB keys have drive letters assigned? It may be the Windows OS is storing a drive letter against the USB key, and hence causing the reordering.

In Windows, you can permanently assign drive letters with the Disk Manager (<ALT>+"X", "Disk Management", then right-click on the volume in question and "Change Drive Letter and Paths", then "Change" and select the drive letter). Then Target this drive letter in QPC.

tofro wrote: Sat Sep 06, 2025 10:21 am In Windows, you can permanently assign drive letters with the Disk Manager (<ALT>+"X", "Disk Management", then right-click on the volume in question and "Change Drive Letter and Paths", then "Change" and select the drive letter). Then Target this drive letter in QPC.

As usual, tofro beat me to it!

I use this technique with my laptop, which has the same problem, only a couple of USB ports, and every drive letter changes if I plug in something else, or I don't plug the little USB hub into the same port every time.

If you haven't used Disk Management before, it's a bit scary at first, especially when it comes up with "Create And Format Hard Disk Partitions"! But it's worth it to prevent Windoze changing the drive letters around (just as long as it's able to identify and keep track of the drives of course).

Once you've got the drive letters stable and fixed in Windoze, just set the DOS drive assignments in QPC2 (if you don't see the configuration menu when QPC2 starts, press and hold SHIFT when you start it to force the menu to appear).

Bear in mind that as with any other changes like this in Windoze it's likely to ask you to restart the PC after changing the drive letters, so make sure you save your work first.

Thanks Guys, for your rapid responses. Will adopt your advice next week, as soon as back from holidays... Steve.