Method and computer system for integrating a compression system with an operating system

A method in a computer system for resolving conflicts between drive letters reserved for a compression system and drive letters expected by non-standard device drivers, the computer system having an operating system for directing the initializing of the computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

• reserving a range of a plurality of drive letters for the compression system, the range of drive letters extending from a first drive letter through a reserved number of drive letters;
• assigning a drive letter to a non-standard device driver;
• adjusting the reserved range of drive letters to extend from the drive letter after the first drive letter;
• and
• reassigning the first drive letter to the non-standard device driver.

A method in a computer system for installing a device driver, the method including the steps of:

• installing a standard device driver into the computer system;
• after installing the standard device driver, loading the device driver into memory of the computer system, the device driver being loaded from a file with a predefined name and having an initialization function and a swapping function;
• invoking the initialization function wherein the initialization function assigns a drive letter for the device driver;
• installing a non-standard device driver into the computer system, the non-standard device driver being assigned a device letter;
• and
• invoking a swapping function wherein the swapping function swaps the drive letters assigned to the device driver and the non-standard device driver.

A method in a computer system for installing a compression system, the computer system having a standard and a non-standard device driver, the non-standard device driver being configured to expect a predefined drive letter assignment, the method including the steps of:

• loading a compression system device driver;
• assigning the predefined drive letter to the compression system device driver;
• installing the non-standard device driver and assigning a drive letter other than the predefined drive letter to the non-standard device driver;
• and
• swapping the drive letters assigned to the non-standard device driver and the compression system device driver so that the non-standard device driver is assigned the predefined drive letter.