FreeCommander Forum

I would like to rename (or at least refer to) my external hard drives and my USB sticks to more meaningful names. When you have just one or two, there’s no big problem, but things are a bit piling up here – 6 external hard drives, some 10 USB sticks… FC uses the Windows drive letters – up to a certain extent. When I plug in a USB hub, to have more disks available at the same time, the drive letters appear to me not very predictable (probably because I just plug the drives in wherever a slot is available).

So, my question is:
- is there some way, either in FC (XE 2014 build 650) or in Windows (version 8 ) to have more “persistent” and “sensible” names, something live “Movies”, “Music”, “Work”, “Drive with temporary stuff”, etc.?
- Or if real names don’t work, maybe there’s a way to make the drive names “live” eternally, no matter what USB slot I happen to put the drive in, no matter what drive configuration FC encounters?

There's also a tiny "theoretical" question connected to this: who "owns" the drive name, either the system (i.e. Windows) or the drive itself?

Thanks!

It's not what I'm after, but maybe there is something in the "autorun.inf" file, which resides in the root of (most? all?) external drives and USB sticks. You could write a (plain text!!) file containing something like this:

[autorun]
open="" autoplay=true
label="This is a USB stick"

When you disconnect and then reconnect that stick, the "This is a USB stick" line shows up in the blue "welcoming box" which FC shows when you mount a new drive. It also shows in the right click "context menu", where you have a few options on what to do (import pictures and stuff like that). But my ultimate goal would be to have "This is a USB stick" show up somewhere in FC's row of drive letters, on top of the file pane, either permanently or at least in some "hovering help information". There, I only see the familiar drive letter, though, not the meaningful name.

Any solutions...?

- is there some way, either in FC (XE 2014 build 650) or in Windows (version 8 ) to have more “persistent” and “sensible” names, something live “Movies”, “Music”, “Work”, “Drive with temporary stuff”, etc.?

In Windows and FC XE you can set names you want for all disks you have.
- In FC XE - right click on any disk - Context menu... - Properties - and cursor would be in a box where you can set more “persistent” and “sensible” name
- In My computer - right click on any disk - Properties - and cursor would be in a box where you can set more “persistent” and “sensible” name

Of course, you still will see disk letters, but if you navigate mouse to such a disk, you can see tooltip with its “sensible” name.