External HD letter keeps changing.

I'm using an external hard drive with a laptop PC running Lightroom 3. Every now and again I unplug from my ext HD to leave home with my laptop. When I return and plug the ext HD back into the USB slot I realize that the computer has allocated the ext HD a different drive letter than it had the last time it was plugged in. This confuses Lightroom and puts question marks all over the folders on the file drive letter that it had the ext HD stored under previously.
Is there anything I can do to make the computer name the ext HD the same letter every time? Or is there another solution?
Please help. Many thanks.

>Is there anything I can do to make the computer name the ext HD the same letter every time?
You haven't mentioned the version of Winodws you're using, which is usually helpful. Fortunately the steps are similar in all versions of Windows
Open an Exploer window
Right click My Computer
Choose "Mange" from the context menu
On the left-hand side, you'll find "Storage" and under that will be, among other things, "Disk Management" ... select that. You should see the various drive partitions in the right panel of the dialog.
Right-click the USB drive you have installed, then select "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." from the context menu
If you get a warning message it will because you might be changing the drive letter of the disk that you have software installed to. Likely this won't be the case, so press "Yes" on the dialog. This should take you back to the Disk Management dialog, and your newly selected drive letter is showing for your USB drive. Close this dialog. Windows should rememebr the thsi drive letter every time the disk or USB stick is connected.

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