are microsoft going to get rid of drive letters?


Recommended Posts

ok, i dont know if im the only one who does this, but i practically know almost all the file trees in my harddrive so when i navigate i just type it out in my address bar of the explorer, if microsoft gets rid of the drive letter, i think it's going to be a bit messy...

just so used to typing c:\windows\

or c:\program files\

any thoughts? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok, i dont know if im the only one who does this, but i practically know almost all the file trees in my harddrive so when i navigate i just type it out in my address bar of the explorer, if microsoft gets rid of the drive letter, i think it's going to be a bit messy...

just so used to typing c:\windows\

or c:\program files\

any thoughts? :)

586284491[/snapback]

That's the way it currently is in Linux (I can't comment on any other OS, however).

To be quite honest, I've grown to prefer a filesystem without driveletters... having a single-root file system is very efficient and affords some nifty possibilities. Personally I love mounting dedicated partitions for my /home and /boot directories. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally I love mounting dedicated partitions for my /home and /boot directories. :)

586284504[/snapback]

I agree.. having /home on its own partition makes reinstalling so much simpler

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I don't think windows will phase out drive letters any time soon, I would like it if it does. The concept of drive letters is not very logical, as while booting up, windows scans for as many partitions (which are using a supported filesystem) as it can find, and then assigns them sequential drive letters. But the partition layout would change as the user deletes/converts partitions, and this could result in a major mess up, as every drive letter could change all of a sudden. Instead, in the unix way, the OS would be accessing only as many partitions as you want it to, and these partitions can be mounted at whichever position you want. If, say, your main drive was getting filled up, and the majority of space was taken by the /program_files folder, you could simply make a new partition, move the content of /program_files to the new one, and mount it as /program_files.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

* thread moved *

EDIT: You can see what this unified filesystem will look like already on your PC if you install Microsoft's Services for Unix.

You have your 'drives' placed in a directory on the filesystem tree, in the case of SFU, the /dev/fs/ directory holds your drive letters.

Edited by markjensen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see how this could possibly work. How else can you tell what's on one drive and what's on another?

Where something is matters incredibaly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use a lot drive letters, I rather choose to type the address instead of take some more time to browse there with a mouse. I doubt they will exclude this. Lot's of people in the IT use this methood, eventually they also use it in Microsoft.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see how this could possibly work. How else can you tell what's on one drive and what's on another?

Where something is matters incredibaly.

586285641[/snapback]

Actually, no it doesnt. We have made it matter. But all that truely matters is you have access to your information at all times, from anywhere.

Currently the drive letters have an effect becuase applications and the registry have hard coded these values. But the end result should be that we no longer care at all where our data is, so long as we can get to it from anywhere (Home, Office or Mobile)

Im giving a talk this weekend at a conference on the differences between Data Centric vs Application Centric computing. The issue of drive letters, or lack of them, is part of the problem that we have created for ourselfs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like drive letters, I like to know where my files actualy are on my HDD mainly for backup purposes. I never keep my music, games, important files etc. on the C drive because I know I can easily format and reinstall windows if I need to.

Its very rare, (but you don't forget it) but I've experienced a windows crash where it takes the whole partition with it, and find it much easier keeping my files seperate from the os.

But I suppose if this home folder is where you keep all these kind of files, and it is on a different partition, I'm happy to give that a go.

:cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am very interested in this mounting folders as partions, is there any guides that anyone coupd point me to. Is this doable on Windows XP Pro and does it happen only at Fresh Install or can it work as is?

Any assistance would be greatly Appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I personally like the ability in longhorn to type "Desktop\folder\file.exe" and have it actually work (cant do that in XP) so I think Ill get used to it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am very interested in this mounting folders as partions, is there any guides that anyone coupd point me to. Is this doable on Windows XP Pro and does it happen only at Fresh Install or can it work as is?

586285812[/snapback]

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>help subst
Associates a path with a drive letter.

SUBST [drive1: [drive2:]path]
SUBST drive1: /D

 ?drive1: ? ? ? ?Specifies a virtual drive to which you want to assign a path.
 ?[drive2:]path ?Specifies a physical drive and path you want to assign to
 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? a virtual drive.
 ?/D ? ? ? ? ? ? Deletes a substituted (virtual) drive.

Type SUBST with no parameters to display a list of current virtual drives.

UNC paths cannot be mounted with subst and it's a "rather old tool", but it should work in 2k/XP anyhoo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is an 85% change that Microsoft will get rid of drive letters? why? the main plan for Windows Vista is to completely change Windows. They are sick of the old Windows design and if they dont change things, they may loose customers. They want to make Windows more easier to use, but more advanced for all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

xp can mount drives into folders anyway!

control panel > admin tools > computer management > disk managent

right click on a partition and "change drive letter or paths"

then press add

then you get an option to mount the parition in an empty ntfs folder

and voilla sorted!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is an 85% change that Microsoft will get rid of drive letters? why? the main plan for Windows Vista is to completely change Windows. They are sick of the old Windows design and if they dont change things, they may loose customers. They want to make Windows more easier to use, but more advanced for all.

586285854[/snapback]

OK I'm all for changing things to improve it, but to change things just for the sake of changing isn't the right attitude!

So by NOT changing they might loose customers? how about people that like the way it works and may be put off by the changes?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is an 85% change that Microsoft will get rid of drive letters? why? the main plan for Windows Vista is to completely change Windows. They are sick of the old Windows design and if they dont change things, they may loose customers. They want to make Windows more easier to use, but more advanced for all.

586285854[/snapback]

Note ladies and gentleman. This is what talking out of your ass looks like.

Firstly, there is the completely made up statistic. Then there's the concept that MS want to change everything about Windows, which obviously they don't. They want to make improvements for sure, but the last major overhaul of Windows was the development of the NT core. Since then a lot of nice features have been added, but the core is still mostly the same.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK I'm all for changing things to improve it, but to change things just for the sake of changing isn't the right attitude!

So by NOT changing they might loose customers? how about people that like the way it works and may be put off by the changes?

586285870[/snapback]

It's not a bad change. Drive letters are an old (very old!) carryover that Microsoft has had to deal with from DOS. They have started the migration in XP already, and you use it and like it.

Look under "My Computer" and you see your drives. Or are they folders? Does it matter? No.

Heck, even the Windows concept of "drives" is wrong. They are partitions on the same drive. No more than a "folder" on that physical unit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like drive letters, I like to know where my files actualy are on my HDD mainly for backup purposes. I never keep my music, games, important files etc. on the C drive because I know I can easily format and reinstall windows if I need to.

Its very rare, (but you don't forget it) but I've experienced a windows crash where it takes the whole partition with it, and find it much easier keeping my files seperate from the os.

But I suppose if this home folder is where you keep all these kind of files, and it is on a different partition, I'm happy to give that a go.

:cool:

586285791[/snapback]

Again, I think people like yourself are so atune to how things currently work that you are, possibly, missing the bigger picture. Yes I too currently have my OS and Apps (only!) on my C drive. But imagine a point in time when your OS monitors and backs up your data without your intervention. This would be so that you do not have to worry where your data is. (re: Home, Office, Mobile)

The drie letters are an old fashion issue to determine what physical and network spaces are holding yoru data. The issue SHOULD be our OS/Applications should have access to our data via a communication protocol that would allow our data to be accessable from anywhere.

I don't belief that MS is planning to get rid of drive letters at any point in the near future.

My point. Think bigger.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i have to agree that drive letters are sometimes painful, especially with the confusion between partitions, when i installed two os on both the harddrives, while booting to each one of them, the main drive will be always recognized as C:\, and it was pretty painful to try to manage things.

im crossing my finger right now, hope vista does better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.