External Hard Drive

I have question concerning my hard drive (Maxtor 120G 8M 7200/133) which I
now have in a External Hard Drive Enclosure.
The question/issue is quite detailed so please read carefully and I hope
you can be patient with me.
Using XP Home Edition.
My default drives are A: Floppy C: Main Hard Drive E: Zip
Drive
Although I have (2) empty 1.1 USB ports I use ONLY ONE for several
devices and plug in and unplug them as I use them (because I have a USB
cable that sticks out in fromt of my desk).

When I plug in my Iomega 40GB Portable Hard Drive...this shows up as a
drive under My Computer....Iomega_HHD (F:)
When I plug in my Lexar Jump Drive the drive is Public (F:) shows up
When I plug in my Kodak Card Reader the drive is Removable Disk (F:)
When I plug in my digital cd card disk into the kodak card
reader the drives...are Removable Disk (H:); Removable Disk (I:); Removable
Disk (J:)
When I plug in my digital sd card disk into the kodak card
reader the drives...are Removable Disk (H:); Kodak (I:); Removable Disk
Removable Disk (J:)

My question is that if I give my external hard drive the default letter
(F:) [or maybe I could make it (D:)? I don't know] than when I
unplug the external drive and plug another device into that port will the
(F:) still show up as useable Removable Disk (F:) or will (F:) be hidden?
Will the other devices function under (F:)?
The reason I want to use only this one single port for ALL these variou
devices is because I simply don't want to leave them pluged in all the time.
I store the devices in other places to have them out of the way and for
security.
Or do you simply recommend I use one of my 2 empty USB 1.1 ports
dedicated solely to my external hard drive?

Thanks for your consideration and assistance,

P.S. As you can see I have not as of yet given this drive a designated
drive letter

Unless you leave it plugged in all the time, the drive letter may change
(depending on what other storage devices you may have plugged in) every
time. The drive letter really doesn't matter. You may want to give the drive
a name such as "Backup" or something like that, but it wouldn't matter if
you gave it a letter designation. I leave mine plugged in and just turn off
the power switch until I want to use it. Whatever toots your whistle........

Ed