Dragging Over Disconnected Drives

[rjbinney]

I have a few drives mapped in Windows Explorer that I am only sporadically connected to. (i.e., My A: drive at home, my B: drive at work).

When I am dragging files from the Right side of Explorer to a folder on the Left tree, sometimes I accidentally wipe over one of the unconnected drives. Note, I'm not trying to drop into those drives, it's just that the icon I am dragging passes over the icon of the drive.

This freezes everything - even if I keep moving. It's just the simple motion of being "over" a drive that isn't there that scares Windows. Sometimes if I wait the "(Not Responding)" goes away, but more often than not, I have to restart Windows Explorer.

Other than, you know, NOT doing this, is there a "fix" for this?

[DaveLembke]

Are they dragged via Touch Pad or Holding Mouse Click? I have seen issues where touch pad used to drag a file drags intermittently as in its not continually held and so windows assumes its been dropped even when you dont want it to be. Might be as easy as using a mouse instead if not already using mouse.

Other thought is to organize your drive layout in a way that makes lesser frequent connected drives not in the direct path of a drag and drop motion.

Lastly if supported to simply right-click to COPY & PASTE and then paste to selected location ( or ) right-click and select CUT and PASTE to a location might work out better to avoid Windows assuming that you want to pass the file to a disconnected mapped location.

[rjbinney]

Yeah, frequently it's also coz I'm dragging a file to the taskbar to upload it to a web portal.

It IS a touchpad, I think I'm pretty steady but who the heck knows. Haven't used a mouse in probably 17 years.

Don't know how to better organize the tree so A and B drives don't show - open to suggestions.

Thanks

[BC_Programmer]

When you drag over a drive, windows accesses the drive to evaluate it as a drop target. Since it is accessing the drive, Windows attempt to reconnect the drive in order to do so.

You'll see similar behaviour if you hover over a USB drive that has gone to sleep. Windows Explorer will hang until the drive spins up and Windows is able to access the drive.

[rjbinney]

Yeah it's just in a position where my "natural" way of dragging catches it. Trying to retrain myself, but was hoping there was a Big Tech solution.