DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Not quite. With the PC shut down, I plugged a USB card reader into a port and turned on the PC. Subsequently, I found that my photo drive, which had been the G: drive, was now, as I recall, the H: drive. I leave the card reader plugged into the machine all the time now. Also, if I shut down the PC and remove the card at the end of the day, next day the PC will say it can't find one drive (which held the SD card). Yeah, I know, non-standard, but sometimes I get busy or tired. This was maybe 8 years ago. I haven't "lost" a real drive yet, and have never lost photos on a card, either.

Mr Bill 2011 Loc: southern Indiana

give the drive a real name and write the name and drive capacity on the outside of the case with a cheap paint pen from someplace like Hobby Lobby. Paint pen works great even on a thumb drive or an SD card.

11bravo

I use Disk Management to assign a drive letter closer to the end of the alphabet, and assign a volume name (via Properties) that is useful, desired mount point and contents, e.g.

P Photos

Thus, easy to see where the drive should be mounted in Windows Explorer:

P Photos (P)

where the 1st letter is my desired mount point (as in the drive's volume name) and the letter in parentheses is the Windows mount point.

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/tpr?p=13471624&t=753702

rck281 Loc: Overland Park, KS

The OP is missing in action.

11bravo

I use a paid program, WinCatalog 2021 (current version),
www.wincatalog.com

to keep track of what's on all my drives, especially the external ones as, even when dismounted, I can see and search contents. Yes, it's folders and file names, so good naming helps. I've used it for 5 years now, and upgrade to every major new version (not expensive to begin with, and upgrade discounts) if for no other reason to support the author. Well supported and he responds to all questions quickly. Even has fields for noting where the physical drive is (helps when you have a number of them).

For simple data drives, I have the drive letter where mounted and the manufacturer's serial number in the volume name. Use a P-touch labeler to put the serial number and drive letter on the front of the drive. Easy to pull a dismounted drive from a 5 bay storage bin when needed.

Mi630

Sorry about my silence. I had some medical issues to take care of. (Nothing too serious).
I thank everyone who replied. Most of the answers are beyond my computer knowledge. I took my computer in to the people who built it. They found a lot of problems. Something blocked the computer from automatically updating so I hadn’t gotten updates since around 2019. They had to uninstall and reinstall the operating system or something like that.
Got the computer back and so far seems good.
Oh, by the way, the J drive had come unplugged. Yes, I am an idiot. That fixed that but taking it in found other problems so all works out for the best.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

You did exactly what you should have done! I trust you followed along with the tech, so now you know everything involved. Happy computing from now on!

Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City

MDI Mainer

Best of health and happy you got the issues solved.