USB Phantom drive and drive letter keeps changing

Hi all,

I'm dealing with two weird usb issues I haven't seen before.

1. A phantom drive "F:" keeps mounting and unmounting. This was the drive letter the old external hard disk used.

2. The new external hard drive keeps changing drive letters on its own. This is a problem because some programs have links to pointing to the drive letter which the external hard drive is utilizing. When it changes drive letter, the links break. It is plugged in all the time and keeps changing drive letters even if the vm isn't shut down and the hard disk remains plugged in.

Any ideas how to resolve this?

Thanks,