I recently ran into an issue with the HP 3005PR port replicator at a client’s office. The port replicator comes with a partition that has it’s install software on it, (which is nice, but I could just download the latest drivers from HP’s site). This partition sometimes takes over the F: drive or any drive that the usual network shares use and therefore the computer can’t access whichever drive letter the network share usually is. We’ve tried disabling the drive, but sometimes it comes back after switch usb port etc. The problem is that the storage management snap-in in Windows doesn’t allow you to change the drive assignment for this port replicator. A colleague of mine thought of a smart solution. You can use Diskpart to resolve the resolution.
Here are the instructions to change the drive letter Issue:
- Run CMD.exe as an administrator.
- Type “Diskpart” and press enter.
- Type “List volume”.
- Locate the HP DOCK volume and note the drive letter assigned, this is the drive letter you want to get back (usually 3, or 4 could be different for you)
- Type “Select volume X” (X being the actual volume number you found)
- Type “Remove letter=X” (X being the actual drive letter you want to get back)
- Type “Assign letter=X” (X being the drive letter you want to give the port replicator that will not interfere with your network shares).
That’s all Folks!