Is there a way to fix this?

[357mag]

I've got four drives in my system. Two internal which are C: and F: and two external which are G: and H: And I do have two optical which are D: and E: so it looks like this:

C: Windows
D: Optical
E: Optical
F: Second internal drive
G: First external drive
H: Second external drive

Recently I wiped the second external drive but before I did so I unplugged the first external drive to prevent accidental erasure. Then I plugged the G: drive back in and went into disk management to create a new partition and format the H: drive. Okay so far.

From time to time I restore my computer from a back-up image using Acronis. Now what happens is when I restore my machine the G: drive becomes the H: drive and the H: drive becomes the G: drive. So G: and H: are swapped.

I know how to go into disk management and change drive letters. That's easy enough. The problem is every time I restore my computer from a back-up image this drive letter mix-up occurs. I don't want to have to be changing drive letters each time.

I was wondering if there is a way to fix it permanently so when I restore my machine using Acronis everything will be correct. G: will be G: and H: will be H:

[Statica]

How were the drive assignments on the image file?

[EzyStvy]

Make a new backup image comes to mind

[357mag]

The drive assignments were the same. I only made an image of the C: drive but it's apparent that if you unplug a drive and wipe another drive and doodle around like that Windows screws things up.

[Statica]

It's not Windows screwing up at all. Windows assigns drives based on their hardware locations with different priorities depending on various connections on board and externally. It isn't just Windows, but every OS that does it. Now if you wipe out the OS, and essentially do a re-install - then the OS should do what you asked it to do... that is wipe out all personalization and go with the basic information .. read the hardware on-board and assign drive letters... how is Windows supposed to remember that you have another drive that is no longer plugged in.
The issue or non-issue is that the Acronis image does not back this up or the information is overwritten by Windows still searching for PnP devices.

[357mag]

Kind of confusing to try to understand. Let's say I have an external G: drive which is on my speakers and I have an external H: drive which is on a chair. Let's say I unplug the G: drive to prevent accidental erasure. Now I wipe the H: drive. After wiping the H: drive I plug the G: drive back in. Then I create a partition and format the H: drive.

But when I use Acronis to restore my computer from an image, my G: drive is now the H: drive and my H: drive is now the G: drive. So what's happening here? Because I unplugged my G: drive and after I format the H: drive Windows wants to think that the H: drive which is the drive that I erased and kept plugged in is the G: drive?

Am I kinda close here?