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[Geek King]

I just got this e-mail from a coworker. Names changed for the hell of it, but the remainder is as I recieved it.

Geek King
I need to have the drive redesignated as drive “g”. Many items are asaved as P/D Drive G. they are multi use items that we all update and If I update a list and save it it will be on Drive “O”. So while I am gone the next two days could you change it back to “G”

Thanks.
Cow-irker

For those wondering, his issue is that, due to needing to assign a USB device to a lower drive letter* (G: ), I reassigned his network drive, which is shared with the rest of his group, to another letter (O: ). The drive is not called by a program. Nothing has changed, except he has to choose O: instead of G: when saving to it.

The sad thing is I run into this all too often, with conversations like:

Me: Hello, IT desk, this is Geek King.
CW: Hey, I need access to the G: drive so I can get the monthly reports.
Me: Ok, which drive do you need access to.
CW: The G: drive!
Me: Okay, but which one? Legal? Finance? Maintenance?
CW: <speaking off-phone> Hey! What drive do I need access to?
CW Office mate: <off-phone> The G: drive!
Me:

*Windows has an issue with some USB devices where it requires that they be assigned drive letters within a certain range in the alphabet. If those letters are already taken, the drive doesn't show up automatically under My Computer. There are other ways to fix it, but moving drive letters around is the easiest/fastest as long as you don't have direct function calls to that drive letter.

[IT Grunt]

The sad thing is I run into this all too often, with conversations like:

Me: Hello, IT desk, this is Geek King.
CW: Hey, I need access to the G: drive so I can get the monthly reports.
Me: Ok, which drive do you need access to.
CW: The G: drive!
Me: Okay, but which one? Legal? Finance? Maintenance?
CW: <speaking off-phone> Hey! What drive do I need access to?
CW Office mate: <off-phone> The G: drive!
Me:

Aieeeee! I feel your pain on that one. We have several 'standard' shares that are assigned the same drive letter on everyone's machine. However, many people have shares that are unique, yet they still insist on saying 'H' drive or 'T' drive. Yes... and that points where? "Uh.. I don't know. Don't you?"

[clowninasack]

I always assign network mapped drives from 'Z' down through the alphabet. Keeps everyone out of trouble if something needs a 'lower' drive letter.

[SteeleDragon78]

i would almost swear you are working for my old company, but we closed the doors there a couple of years ago, must be some former (l)users got new jobs

[wagegoth]

i would almost swear you are working for my old company, but we closed the doors there a couple of years ago, must be some former (l)users got new jobs

They're everywhere. They reproduce faster than bacteria.


My younger son is nine and just finished third grade. For open house, his teacher had each child make a PowerPoint slide saying what they had learned that year. My son created a five-page presentation with images, multiple fonts and colors, headings and transitions. His teacher set it up on a separate computer and left it running in a loop.

How many people at my firm do you think could do that?

[technical.angel]

So, it's offical. It's the same EVERYWHERE!!!!

Thankfully, in my three years at the uni, I've become the master of all things IT, so I have acquired the necessary level of telepathy to decipher what everyone means by certain drive letters. Heck, I even CREATED the most common one.

Oh, I need everyone's prayers and well wishes. The server that housed faculty and staff home drives offically died this afternoon. The network admin thinks he might be able to jury rig it to stay up long enough to do one more backup, but it's going to be tough. Plus, if the dept head can't beg, plead and cry, the soonest we could get the replacement server in isn't until 12:01am July 1st.

[Geek King]

Oh, I need everyone's prayers and well wishes. The server that housed faculty and staff home drives offically died this afternoon. The network admin thinks he might be able to jury rig it to stay up long enough to do one more backup, but it's going to be tough. Plus, if the dept head can't beg, plead and cry, the soonest we could get the replacement server in isn't until 12:01am July 1st.

See, the beautiful thing here is that the department head doesn't have to beg very hard here. Ask once, then if denied, give the soon to be complaining staff and faculty the name and contact number of the person who denied the request. You'll have the begging and complaining done for you.

[technical.angel]

Yeah, but we already played that card, and I don't think we can play it again. But, man, the spam filter is GREAT!

[technical.angel]

:: hides ::

Now our SQL server is down too.

[vman]

:: hides ::

Now our SQL server is down too.

you're well and truly screwed.

About the users and drive letters. Yeah, they're just expecting to see "G" there. Which is a wtf. On the other hand, there are certain programs, that (stupidly) have hardcoded paths, that *could* potentially get messed up. It's likely though, that you're not using those.

[JLRodgers]

The one company I worked at that had shared drives had a few other things: the shared drives were always to the same maching (so finance might have an I, but not any others; production might have a P, but not any others, all would have a M -- you get the idea). But at the same time the "everyone has this one" was actually a folder on the server, where the files they had access to were based on their login permissions. So if a finance person went to the "everyone" share, they wouldn't see the same things as another department. But there were some files that everyone actually could see.

It was a lot simplier. If someone asked about a shared drive -- we knew where they worked and what it was for.

[SteeleDragon78]

:: hides ::

Now our SQL server is down too.

here is my umbrella, some fabreeze and goggles. any idea whats hosing up servers there?? cause 2 in one week sounds a little bit like a sysadmin needing hands slapped

[technical.angel]

Well, the home drive server was ancient. Not as ancient as our student voicemail server, but close. We're actually surprised it lasted this long.

The SQL server crashing was an error on the part of our previous DBA. Some important services was set with his login credentials. Everything was fine until the network guys removed his account..........................

At least it was a fairly easy fix once they figured out what was going on.

[Geek King]

It was a lot simplier. If someone asked about a shared drive -- we knew where they worked and what it was for.

That's fine, but we have space issues that require seperate drives due to the amount of stuff we need to have available. Take a 104-page Form and fill it out a couple hundered times for different renters. The space adds up quick. Ain't government work fun?

Of couse, then there's the money issues. We have a drive array that has 9GB drives in it. I can't wait to see how we'll replace one when one goes bad.

[JLRodgers]

That's fine, but we have space issues that require seperate drives due to the amount of stuff we need to have available. Take a 104-page Form and fill it out a couple hundered times for different renters. The space adds up quick. Ain't government work fun?

Of couse, then there's the money issues. We have a drive array that has 9GB drives in it. I can't wait to see how we'll replace one when one goes bad.

That's annoying.... um.... I take it 9GB isn't a mistype? I have a 3.2GB hard drive -- from Windows 95 first release days! I hope they just replace that thing with a new one -- and copy the files over.