How are drive letters assigned / how to remove memory card...

....without disconnecting the drive ?

Hello :-)
I've got XP Home SP2 OEM ed....all up to date...on drive C:\ .... I've got 2 hd's - master and slave on IDE1 - drive letters C:\ D:\ E:\ F:\ on hd0 and G:\ H:\ I:\ J:\ K:\ on hd1 :-)
DVD and CD rewriters, (master and slave) on IDE2 drives Y:\ and Z:\ (..changed'em to that ages ago).

Now, ages ago I fitted a 33in1 memory card reader into a 3 1/2" bay and connected it onto USB0 pin header on the motherboard ...or that could have been USB1, 'cause case front USB slots are connected to a pin header ....and I always have to remember not to plug anything into the motherboard USB port nearest LPT1 ,at case rear, 'cause it's shared with pin header USB0 ), and Windows Explorer Folders Pane would show "Removable Disk's mnop...q" ...I think. Now it only shows drives mopq

This, I suspect has something to do with a Word document that I keep on a USB pen drive, and a Quicklaunch icon to it which contains the drive:\pathname N:\passwrds.doc Now, when I plug in my USB pen-drive, drive N:\ appears in Windows Explorer, my Word document loads okay - so I suppose my question is, Is XP reserving drive N:\ for when the USB pen drive is plugged in ? I can't remember if drive Q:\ was there before I started keeping my Word doc. on pen-drive ...perhaps the card reader originally was drives M:\ N:\ O:\ P:\ ?

I think that, some time ago, my DVD and CD drives became L:\ and something else and I had to change them back to Y:\ and Z:\
....NEXT ! ....regarding camera memory cards, I seem to have discovered that one can to "eject" a drive, which seems to sort of disconnect it and clear the directory and file listing in Windows Explorer without losing the drive letter, which happens if one uses System Trays' "Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device." Is that okay ? Is it necessary ?

Any pointers galdly accepted :-)

regards, Richard


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