how to change drive letter assignment in windows xp

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How to change local disk letter on Win. XP?

I just fixed a friend pc and because an error, its system hosting drive have stayed "E". is a way to change system drive letter?

• 1 Just for noting, the problem was caused when i formatted win. xp using a pen drive, system disk done E: I just made a search through the web and found something: petri.co.il/change_system_drive_letter_in_windows_xp.htm for those how had the same problem! thanks guys. –  Vektor Somnium Commented Aug 24, 2010 at 11:03

2 Answers 2

Yes, it is possible in "Disk Management" MMC tool. Just open Control Panel > Administration > Disk Management or do Win+R diskmgmt.msc Enter . Then right-click on target drive and select "Change drive letter".

This answer explains the same for Windows 7, and while menus are called different, screenshots look identical.

Sounds like you possibly installed a 2nd drive to do an attempt at a repair.

You can change it. Since you said its a system drive, meaning it has the OS on it.

Turn the computer off, disconnect the power, remove any/all of the drives(including CD/DVDs) except the one that you want to be recognized as drive "C".

Turn the power on and it will boot up and recognize it as drive "C".

After a reboot and confirmation that the drive is in fact "C", shut down the system completely(unplug it so no residual electric is still on the motherboard).

To finish connect the next drive (hard drive/CD/DVD etc.) one at a time and repeat process.

This will work as I have done it successfully a couple of times with clients.

PS: If it is a hard drive with a couple of partitions make sure that the 2nd partition is labelled as any letter after the last drive that was available before. For example the last DVD drive was drive(G) then label the 2nd partition (H)

PSS: If the OS was installed directly on drive(E) then this will not work.

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6 Ways to Change the Drive Letter in Windows

If your PC suddenly stops showing one of your internal drives in the file explorer or not list your external drive, it could be due to the OS getting confused with the drive letters. Simply changing your assigned drive letters can help you bypass this conflict. Here are six ways to change the drive letter.

1. Change the Drive Letter Using Settings

2. using command prompt, 3. disk management, 4. registry editor, 5. windows powershell, 6. drive letter changer software, frequently asked questions.

Also read: How to Clean Up and Make Space on Your Windows “C” Drive

Is It Safe to Change a Drive Letter in Windows?

Changing the drive letter is not entirely harmless and can cause significant problems based on the contents of your drive. If you have applications and software installed on your drive, those applications may cease to work.

For example, if you change the name of your D: drive to an F: drive, then the software installed in the D drive will still search for code in the D: file. While you can still access the data inside, there may be errors that will cause a nuisance in your day-to-day usage.

However, you may safely change the letter of some drives. If a partition simply includes data files that you rarely use, changing the drive letter may cause minor inconvenience, but nothing serious. The letters of external drives can almost always be changed without any problems.

• Press Win + I to open the Settings app, then select the “System” tab. Scroll down and click on “Storage.”

• Scroll down on the right side and click on “Advanced storage settings.”

• Under Advanced storage settings, click on “Disks & Volumes.”

• Select the drive whose letter you want to change, then click on the “Properties” button for that drive.

• In the Drive Properties, you will find the option to change the drive letter of the selected drive.

• Once you click on the option to change the drive letter, you will find a drop-down menu that will allow you to change the drive letter.

• Click on the letter you want to assign.

• Once you have selected your preferred letter, click on “OK” to confirm your choice.

Also read: How to Format a Drive in FAT32 in Windows

• Search for the command prompt on the start menu by typing cmd , right-click on it, and select “Run as administrator”.

• On the command prompt home screen, type:

• Press Enter , then type:

• Press Enter. You’ll see a list of your system’s drives. Make a note of the volume number of the drive. In the example pictured, it’s “Volume 3”.

• Type the following code:
• Type the following code to assign the new letter:

Instead of “new drive letter,” type the letter you want. For example: assign letter=S

The drive letter will be changed to your preferred letter.

Also read: 8 Ways to Customize Windows Terminal

• Right-click on the Windows button and open “Disk Management.”

• Under the “Volume” column, you will find the various partitions of your storage. You need to find the drive whose letter you’ll change and right-click on it.

• In the dialog box that appears, click on “Change.”

• Click the drop-down menu next to “Assign the following drive letter,” then select your letter and press “OK.”

• A warning message will pop up. Click “Yes” if you are sure about your decision to change the drive letter.

Also read: Which Allocation Unit Size Is Best for Your Drive?

• To change the drive letter through registry editor, first press Win + R to open the Run dialog and type regedit .

• Type in the following address at the top of the application:

and press Enter .

• Navigate to the list of binary keys. Select the key that corresponds to the drive letter that you want to change. For example, if we want to change the letter of the D: drive, we would look for “\DosDevices\D:”
• Right-click on the selected registry and rename the drive letter to what you want, just as you would rename any other file.You will have to restart your computer for the effects to take place.

Also read: 16 Useful Windows Registry Hacks to Optimize Your Experience

• Using the search button on the taskbar, search for “Powershell” and run it as administrator.

• Type the following command:

• A screen will show you your disk partitions. Make a note of what drive letter you want to change.

• To change the drive letter, type the following command:

Make sure to substitute “current drive letter’ and “new drive letter” with the actual drive letters, then press Enter .

Also read: How to Map a WebDAV Drive in Windows

If you are looking for a tool that can help you manage your partition and drives, these software will help you change your drive letter.

• MiniTool Partition Wizard
• AOMEI Partition Assistant
• EaseUS Partition Master

These tools are easy to use and have GUI interfaces that make them simple to use and also a one-stop destination for you to manage your storage devices. For the purposes of the demonstration, we are using MiniTool Partition Wizard to change the drive letter.

• Download MiniTool Partition Wizard. (It is a direct download link.)

• Run the installer and launch the app. You will get a listing of all your drive partitions mentioned below.

• Right-click on the target drive partition and select “Change Letter.”

• Open the drop-down list and select a new drive letter for your target drive.

• Click on “Apply” to save the changes.

• You will receive a warning pop-up asking you to close all background applications. Click “Yes.”

• You will now receive a confirmation message telling you that the new changes have been applied.Click “OK.”

Also read: How to Format Your USB Drives in Windows

1. How are drive letters assigned in Windows?

Drive letters are assigned to every new drive in alphabetical order. Traditionally, the A: and B: drives were used for floppy disks, and the system drive on which Windows is installed is named C: by default.

2. Can I change the drive letter for the System Drive?

No, changing the drive letter on the system drive is not possible, as Windows is installed on the system drive. If that was changed, the system drive would not be found and the computer would cease working.

3. Can I switch drive letters among two drives?

No, there is no functionality in Windows to switch drive letters directly between two drives. If you want to switch the drive letters between the D: drive and the E: drive, you will have first change the D: drive to another letter (so as to free up the D:), change the E: to D:, then change the first one to E:.

Image credit: Plastic magnetic letters by 123RF

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How can I change a drive letter in Windows XP?

Published: Jan 06, 2009

• Backup & Storage

When you add drives to your computer, such as an extra hard drive, a CD drive, or a storage device that corresponds to a drive, Windows automatically assigns letters to the drives. However, this assignment might not suit your system; for example, you might have mapped a network drive to the same letter that Windows assigns to a new drive. When you want to change drive letters, follow these steps:

• Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
• Under Computer Management, click Disk Management. In the right pane, you’ll see your drives listed. CD-ROM drives are listed at the bottom of the pane.

You will not be able to change the boot or system drive letter in this manner. Many MS-DOS-based and Windows-based programs make references to a specific drive letter (for example, environment variables). If you modify the drive letter, these programs may not function correctly.

Change the System/Boot Drive Letter in Windows – 223188 Change Drive Letter Assignments in Windows XP – 307844 Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed – 249321

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How to Change a Drive Letter

Don't like the letters assigned to your drives in Windows? Change them!

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What to Know

• Open Disk Management. Locate the drive you want to change. Right-click and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths > Change .
• Select the drive letter you want to assign from Assign the following drive letter . Then select OK and choose Yes .

The letters assigned to your hard drives, optical drives, and USB drives in Windows are not fixed. Use the Disk Management tool in Windows to change drive letters. These steps apply to Windows XP and newer versions of Windows .

How to Change Drive Letters in Windows

Follow these steps to change the driver letters in any version of Windows.

You can't change the drive letter of the partition that Windows is installed onto. On most computers, this is usually the C drive.

Open Disk Management , the tool in Windows that lets you manage drive letters, among [many] other things.

In Windows 11/10/8, Disk Management is also available from the Power User Menu ( WIN + X  keyboard shortcut) and is probably the quickest way to open it. You can also start Disk Management from the Command Prompt in any version of Windows, but starting it via Computer Management is probably best for most of you.

Locate from the list at the top, or from the map at the bottom, the drive you want to change the drive letter of.

If you're not sure that the drive you're looking at is really the one you want to change the drive letter for, you can right-click or tap-and-hold the drive and then choose Explore . If you need to, look through the folders to see if that's the right drive.

Right-click or tap-and-hold the drive and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths .

Select Change .

If you've selected the primary drive by accident, some versions of Windows will display a message that reads Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume.

Choose the drive letter you want Windows to assign to this storage device by selecting it from the Assign the following drive letter drop-down box.

You don't need to worry if the drive letter is already being used by another drive because Windows hides any letters you can't use.

Select OK .

Choose Yes to the Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Do you want to continue? question.

If you have software installed to this drive, it might stop working properly after changing the drive letter. See details on this in the section below.

Once the drive letter change is complete, which usually only takes a second or two, you're welcome to close any open Disk Management or other windows.

The drive letter is different from the volume label. You can change the volume label using similar steps .

If You Have Programs Not on the Main Drive

Changing drive letter assignments for drives that have software installed to them may cause the software to stop working. This isn't quite as common with newer programs and apps but if you have an old program, especially if you're still using Windows XP or Windows Vista, this is likely to be a problem.

Fortunately, most of us don't have software installed to drives other than the primary drive (typically the C drive), but if you do, consider this your warning that you might need to reinstall the software after changing the drive letter.

No Changes for the Operating System Drive

You cannot change the drive letter of the drive that the Windows operating system is installed on. If you'd like Windows to exist on a drive other than C , or whatever it happens to be now, you can make that happen but you'll have to complete a clean install of Windows to do it. Unless you have a pressing need to have Windows exist on a different drive letter, we don't recommend going through all that trouble.

Change, Don't Switch

There's no built-in way to switch drive letters between two drives in Windows. Instead, use a drive letter that you don't plan on using as a temporary "holding" letter during the drive letter change process.

For example, let's say you'd like to swap Drive A for Drive B . Start by changing Drive A's letter to one that you don't plan on using (like X ), then Drive B's letter to Drive A's original one, and finally Drive A's letter to Drive B's original one.

Using the Command Prompt

You can also change the drive letter from Command Prompt . It's not as easy as using Disk Management and you can't see right away which letters are available to choose, but it is completely doable with the diskpart command.

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How to Reassign Drive Letters in Windows

They aren’t cast in stone., reassign drive letters, disk manager.

This will bring up the Disk Management tool.

Having that second drive assigned “L:” seems somewhat odd, 1 so let’s change it.

Changing an assigned drive letter

The resulting dialog will display all the drive letters currently assigned; in my case, L:.

You can exit the Disk Management tool. Reboot if you were warned earlier about the drive being in use.

Multiple letters and paths

You might infer from the interface that you can assign multiple drive letters to the same drive. You cannot. If you try to Add without Removing first, the ability to assign a drive letter will be grayed out.

An important word about C:

Do not change the drive letter of your system drive. In most cases, that is C:.

When Windows was installed, it was installed onto the drive C:, and doing so will have created many, many references to C: that simply changing the drive letter will not update. It’s possible your machine will not even boot if you change the drive letter of C:.

About A: and B:

Use them if you like. Other than feeling a little odd to have disks “before” the C: drive, there’s no longer any reason not to use them.

Footnotes & References

Podcast audio, related video, 83 comments on “how to reassign drive letters in windows”.

I partition my 300gb drive and have got to n:/ so far. To avoid problems if I increase/reduce partitions I reserve x,y and z for cd and dvd. Sometimes if you change these and try to run a programme installed when the drive letter was F:/ there can be a problem.

How easy was that! – Well done it worked and I have no further problems – Thanks Leo

How brilliant are you! How brilliant is knowledge! I have just spent 4 1/2 hours on the net and speaking to computer buffs searching for the answer to change drive letters (too complicated to explain why). CANNOT BE DONE – CHANGE THE BIOS – ALTER JUMPERS etc. etc. You managed it in under 2 minutes!!! (After I found you)You are wasted and should be as accesable as a screwdriver. You are now No1 Bookmark Thankyou Kindest regards

Regards, PJ Baron

Oh my i’m so glad that i found you. I have spent 4 days tring to find out why my computer seen my flash drive but didnt show up when i went to my computer. well to keep it short my dvd drive and my flash drive had the same letter so i plugged in my flash drive and did just what you told me and now it works fine thank you ever so much…

That was great help……….

Thanks you soooo much. I have been strugeling to find a easy to understand explination for 5 days now, your pictures and explinations are awesome. Thanks very much

I have the same problem as the question on your website — My drive letters are inverted C and D, so my computer looks through my D drive which it thinks is C to get to C which is marked as D, how can I fix this? (Posted by Sheila, 9-25-06) Were you able to answer this?

Dude. Thanks for the drive switcheroo help. I never knew this stuff and I really appreciate your help, and all the hard work that you put into this site. But, it shouldn’t be called “Ask Leo.” You could name it something comical like “Ask Beardo.” That would be more memorable and funnier. Beards are awesome to the max.

HI This info was helpful but I’m still having a problem with reassigning the drive letter. For some reason when I installed XP it named my boot drive F: and my second drive C:. Before the change in operatiing systems they were boot: C:, and the second was D:Storage. It let me change my storage drive letter, but won’t let me change my boot drive from F to C. Any suggestions? Thanks

iD8DBQFF7OeRCMEe9B/8oqERAqFLAKCMVvnwnKE/sgEMJmQKQr0w/rF1MQCeMd5f CE6OVOs/3gjO7ouPdDFJBRs= =482d —–END PGP SIGNATURE—–

I appreciate it Leo. You’ve made something that most people make out to be a four hour expedition through cmd a 20 second switch. You are now bookmarked bro.

But my system always forgets the new drive letter assignments on my CDROM & CDRW drives. Everytime I boot up, the drive letters have changed back to the first available letters above my HDDs’ partitions. To match my older computer’s CDROM & CDRW drives’ letters V: and T:, I have done the disk management drive letter change routine over and over, but each time I reboot these two drive come back as M: & N:. Additionally, Roxio’s (EMC8) drag-to-disk will not let you change the non-existent M: to T: so that I can use it to eject, format, etc. It holds on to the erroneous M: even though no M: exists resulting in a rediculous message such as “Drive is Busy” when I try to use it to eject a CDRW. EMC8 “Home” properly shows the CDRW drive as T: but apparently Drag To Disk checks only during it’s startup process and retains what it found at startup — the erroneous M:. Help!

I reassign drive letters to the way i need them. then everytime i reboot they change back??? why??? I just installed new raid sata hard drive. My raptor which has 200 gigs of info and audio/video session files on it needs to be set at drive D!! for some reason the dvd drive wants that letter evrytime i reboot??? help please!!???

Sincerly Kenny P.S I read the letters above but I don’t understand it too well.

What about the A: (floppy) drive. I have a computer that is only for use with a particular program. In the program it asked to “backup” and dose so on a floppy. It takes forever. If I could assign the USP card as the a: it would make things so much easier.

thanks Leo and all those great people posting helpful information on the internet! Always amazed how easy it is to find info … thanks to those that devote time to helping others!

Is there any way I can swap my C: and D: or C: and E: as I really want to remove my old drive before it fails???

I agree with Mike French. The site should be called “Ask Beardo” because it makes so much more sense and would be funnier than just boring “Ask Leo”. Thanks for the info!

Many Thanks Colin Hudson

I tried reassignment but only got letters to change that are after the two that are missing.I have HP M370n Media Center.My Dvd writer Cd writer combo wont recognize cds /Mp3s that I recorded on it and shows up at 0 bytes like nothing is on it but there is.Also both my combo player/record and my other HP CD writer that I installed myself after the factory CD rom player quit has reassigned what was formerly E: 300n and F:HP 8000n to G:compactflashI/II – Cd Drive and H: smart media nad has the icons of both by them yet my smart media and compact flash is still L: and M: I cant figure out how to switch them back with icons and make them E and F again.I tried your method but it wont let me change to E or F as those letters seem to be missing.Any clues?Also I cant find updated drivers for 300n.

I bought a new Toshiba notebook, in order to run some of the old software.. I had to partition the HDD with a D: drive.. so, as required.. I had changed the CD ROM drive to E: drive.. after few days of struggle, everything is working.. all in a sudden.. I lost my E: drive?? now I have removed D: drive.. I mean removed the whole partition.. but I still can’t see my CD ROM drive.. it is really frustrating.. anyone had this experience.. any solution? thanks for all your help. Gs

My problems that I posted on March 21, 2007 seem to have finally resolved themselves. My personally assigned drive letter T: for the CDRW & V: for the read only CD player seem to be staying that way between boots now. Must have been corrected in a Microsoft update or something.

Many thank, you have been a great help. Pesky computers!!!

Thankyou very much, that’s exactly what i needed to do.

ok i got a dell 1100 inspiron won’t read dvd/cd rom i tryed updating driver, roll back,and last but not least changing the drive letter. i was thinking unstilling the software and redownloading from dell s website u got any other methods i could try???

hi i have an ifriends computer and i just installed a super multi dvd rewriter but now its sayin cd drive file system unknown and i have zero bytes on my drive d im not to good with computers so im kind of stuck is there something i have dones wrong please help if u can thanks!!

What a brill web site. After days of worrying your answers solved my problem in minutes.

Thanks! This help tool came in VERY handy!

This is just what I needed to know. Thank you.

Originally I’d been trying to access some files on my USB memory stick and it wouldn’t show up in “my computer” so I searched for why this would happen and because I already had a mapped network drive with the same letter I now know that it will only recognise one drive with that letter at a time… the page in question (no idea what page it was specifically) said change the drive letter assigned to it but didn’t tell me how. This page did :o)

Hi.. I want to install Windows XP on my 80GB external HardDisk..Pls suggest me proper steps for same..also I came to know that even if I do it, the OS when booted frm HDD will be very slow..as it will use processor from PC!! Is it the case ??

hi leo, i have recently been attacted by a worm called ‘silly dc’it changes the drive paths of the c and d drives i think i have cleaned it all up, but i am still getting a reference to ‘ resycled\boot’ as the path for the c and d drive how do i change that??? thanks in advance Alex ps im using xp pro with service pack 1

Your directions to change drive letters is very easy to carry out. I have a problem because my D: drive is shown as (Z)(D) I would like to get rid of the (Z). I am not sure wether to follow what you say or wether I would have problems I have sbsribed to your site and am waiting for the email Thanks for a very good site…Brian

Does not work in my case. I have G: drive and want to change it to D:, it does change my letter but after the boot the paths are the same linked to G so all my programs installed on G: are unaccesible.

i ve a mini laptop wit 2gb HDD.I CANT RUN ALL OTHERAPPLICATIONS COS THE HDD SPACE IS SMALL.I TRIED AN OS ON AN ETERNAL HARDRIVE.AFTER FORMATING AND COPYING OF FILES N BOOTING TO INSTALL THE WINDOWS ITS SHOWING ME A BLUE SCREEN .CAN GO FUTHER THAN DAT.WHAT MUST I DO

Very easy to do. Who knew.

I installed a new c drive but it came up as H How can i get it to C ? I unhooked My card reader and my burner rebooted still comes up as H.What can I do ?

Thanks man! My CD drive came up as Z! Without any drives between it! Strange… But fixed now!

P.S. It really works on Windows 7!

Great article, you helped fix a minor emergency. Thanks very much.

After selecting a new drive letter for my external hard drive (I want P instead), I get an error message that says “The parameter is incorrect.” Any ideas why?

To clarify, I’m on a brand spankin’ new Asus laptop with Windows 7, and just about the only thing I’ve done is plug in my external hard drive and load Picasa. (I need the drive to stay the same letter for Picasa.) The laptop says the drive is D: for that external hard drive, and I’m I’m used to D being an important internal hard drive but I’m not sure how this laptop’s set up. Could that be why selecting P doesn’t work? (And I tried Z and it doesn’t work either.)

It turns out that I can use M, just not P or Z or Q. Strange. But M works, so I’m going with it! Thanks for this helpful article.

my h drive has been relabelled j but when i go to the drop down box in disk management it opffers me a,b then from j onwards… why has it skipped H ? i need to relabel it H..help im [ID deleted] on twitter thanks

Thank you Leo. You have saved me so much fruitless messing around on my machine to keep my portable hard drive with F assigned. Thank you, your advice was absolutely spot on.

My computer detects the dvd and the cd as different units, and they are the same. One as F and the other as Z but i need to use z as a network connection. The problem is that i can only see the dvd drive in disk management so i can only change the F. How can i change the letter of the Z cd drive?

i had windows vista in my laptop.i put out the internal hard disc and i made to it a format with a docking stasion.the problem now is that i cant give the letter c again in this disc because its allready on the lap top that the docking stasion was on.now i am tyrying to run windows with thios hdd and they stop and message telling me that is not any hdd in the lap top

Hey, I already passed the point where I can stop. Your warning re C:\ drive should be stated early in the document!

Thanks Leo you just saved me a lot of hours M

Brilliant straight forward answer. Saved hours of frustration trying to reset drive letters. Thanks Leo.

Thanks so much, Leo. I have 3 EHDs and my categories in ACDSee are assigned to one of these so when the letters changed, I lost my ability to go to those searched files. Great tutorial! You’re wonderful! PS: I always read through my recipes before starting to make sure I have everything I need. Sorry Cyberpilot. I hope nothing drastic happened.

my c drive is 1.95gb and my d drive is 35.3 thats how much they can hold not how much free storage there is and my pc is crapping out! please help, {email address removed}

@Ben You should be able to combine the 2 partitions into one with a partitioning utility

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-express/

It is wonderful and I changed my CD/DVD drives to G: and H: long time ago but Windows-10, creates an artificial drive it calls {system reserved” and as I changed one of my drives holding major data to the same letter it had for System Reserved, I had difficulties getting Image Backups and then Restore from these Backups, as they insisted on using the same letter I had before for the then System Reserved. Now, in my Image Backups, avoiding this confusion, I back up C: Only and forget about E: which is actually replaced by J: and E: is a healthy relatively large HDD of 2 TB. My Backup/Restore uses Acronis 2018. which in its memory always included my old E: as the System Restore for C: and not the current J: Interestingly, and this is something your readers should remember, The “System Restore” is not essential to Restoring from a Backup, although a strange unmentioned notice anywhere, the many icons on the Desktop, do not come completely or perfectly using the C: only for both Backup and Restore. So, I kep separately the Desktop data separately on aa a small USB memory that I update regularly. There is also a free software called “System Restore” and I keep its data which is few bytes on same USB memory stick. It allows the icons to be located on “”Geographically” same location, I has them, not just bundled to the left of the screen (Desktop)!

If the software does not care about what physical drive it uses then it should not have to specify it either. And most software does not care. The drive letter system is clunky and should be abstracted away IMO.

It’s a legacy thing, but I tend to agree. You can, if you like, use the mounting approach in Windows, it’s just not quite as transparent.

Is there a reason for that?. Just trying to understand!.

Mostly just for educational purposes, letting people know that there are two steps.

Thanks a lot, Leo!. You know, nowadays, I am very curious about everything that has to do with procedures and new knowledge in computing. I am trying to absorb as much as I can, for I know one day it would be worth the effort. That was the only reason for my question.

Is there any way, having once assigned a persistent letter to a drive, to unassign it and get Windows to go back to assigning a temporary (available) letter instead? How do I do this? Do I have to reformat the drive?

I’ve not found a definitive answer, but two theories: format the drive on a different machine, or use a 3rd party utility per this post: https://www.techspot.com/community/topics/usb-drive-or-flash-problems-how-to-cleanup-and-remove-old-usb-storage-drivers.145884/

I bought a new Asus Laptop with Windows 10 installed. Switched it on and before it had completed updating windows 10 I got a message to say that it could not finish the updates as there was not sufficient Disk space on the internal 30Gb HDD! I purchased a 2.5″ 250Gb Crucial HDD. which fitted into the spare drive bay. formatted it and using easus, Copied the C drive to D. I am now stuck as it will not let me swap the “c” and d”” drive letters. I suppose that could reformat the c drive, but this also contains two other partitions, EFI System Partition and Recovery partition. What do you suggest?

I have an old computer with one hard drive named C. I just purchased a new computer with a 256 GB SSD, which is designated as C and a 1TB hard drive designated as D. If I use the migration tool that came with the new computer it will transfer all the data to drive C, the 256 GB drive and also the boot drive. I want to transfer the data to the D drive, but my old computer has only one drive called C, so I am assuming that it is also my boot drive. If that be the case how could I transfer the data to my new machine? I originally thought I could change the drive and paths to D on the old computer and then migrate it to the D drive on the new computer. However, if this is s also my boot drive, your article says this is a no-no. Help!

{link removed}

I’m not sure if this will work, but Easeus Partition Master is a more powerful tool than Disk Management and might be able to do what you ask. It has a free trial version which is great for a one-off job.

Hello Leo and everyone here, my hard drive recently got corrupt and I was asked to format it, so I didn’t format it, I just did a command prompt and I got the drive repaired. But now it moved my drive letter name from E to F and it’s asking me to format the E drive. Can I format it? And if I format it will it affect the F drive? Please help. I don’t know if I should format it or I should change the drive letter back to E and see if it will work

My problem. Small, solid-state C: drive, 200 GB. Large spinning D: drive, 1 Terabyte. Wish I knew how to safely move bulky programs (like Mathematica) from my C: to my D: drive.

The best way is to find out if the program’s setup program has the option to set up to a custom location. IF it does, then uninstall it, and then reinstall it to the new drive/location.

I had a similar issue. I found a program called FolderMove 3.0 Free. It will allow you to do exactly what you asked. It is available from http://www.FolderMove.com – Before I used it for the first time, I made sure I had done a complete backup of my system.

I have a Windows 10 computer with 1 terabyte drive space. Windows has apparently partitioned my drives into a C drive with 119 GB and a D drive with 931 GB. My C drive is totally out of space. I’ve moved all of my picture and music to my D drive. I don’t even know why I need a D drive if I could increase the size of my C drive. I see that I can shrink my D drive using Disk Management, but it won’t allow me to increase the C drive. Is there a way to increase C? Thanks.

There’s an article for that: Can I Make My C: Partition Bigger by Taking Space from D:?

My Disk 0 is marked as the D drive. Disk 1 is the C drive. The Delete Volume is grayed out for the D drive. Do I have to delete all of the data before I can delete the volume? I tried to shrink the D drive, but after doing so, the C drive still shows the extend volume as grayed out. Any thoughts? Thanks.

If I understand you, C: and D: are on 2 different physical drives. You can’t shrink the D: drive to extend the C: drive because a volume can’t span 2 drives. The drive number such as disk 0 and disk 1 indicate physical drives. The letters represent the logical partitions on the drives. On an unpartitioned drive, the logical drive spans the entire physical drive.

In that article Leo linked to, he recommends EaseUS Partition Master for more complicated situations. I find Partition Master much easier for most partition management tasks, easier than Windows Disk Management. It combines all the steps into one set of clicks.

EaseUS Partition Master says their software won’t work since C and D are on different disks. Here’s a screenshot of my drives. I’m at a loss of what to do. D is on Disk 0 while C is on Disk 1 Disk 2 is my external backup drive. Is there no way to increase the size of my C drive, which is totally out of space?

If they are on 2 different physical disks, they can’t be combined into one. The best you can do is move as many files from C: to D: to make more room on C:.

I had some confusion with getting the drive letter assigned to external drives to stick. I have a set of external drives that I use for off-site backups, using one each month, then at the end of the month I rotate that month’s drive off site and bringing the next drive into use. I set up my backup software, Macrium Reflect, to back up to the G: drive, so I wanted each of these drives to use the letter G: There would never be more than one of these drives connected at the same time so I thought, erroneously, that I could use Disk Management to assign each to G: and that the assignment would stick. However, I learned that, this will not work and I need to assign the drive letter when each drive comes into rotation – or, at least, this is one way to accomplish what I want. This is because Windows remembers that the drive letter is in use and will not automatically use it again although it will let you manually assign it. For example, let’s say, I assign G: to drive #1, rotate it offsite, and then assign G: to drive #2. So far, so good. But when I quit using drive #2 and begin to use drive #1 again, Windows will not automatically use G: for drive #1 because it remembers that letter G is in use. So it will assign it the next available letter, in my case D:. This is simply solved by manually assigning letter G: to drive #1 again.

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How to Change a Drive Letter in Windows

Sometimes when you plug in a USB device, it doesn't show up

A task you will most likely have to perform a few times in Windows is changing the drive letter for an external hard drive, mapped network drive, or DVD drive. Sometimes when you plug in a USB flash drive, it doesn’t automatically get a drive letter assigned to it and it may not show up on your computer.

In those types of cases, you have to change the drive letter for the device and it will normally pop right up. In this article, I’ll show you how to change the drive letter for these devices using the GUI and also via the command prompt.

Change Drive Letter via Disk Management

You can open disk management on a Windows PC by either right-clicking on the Computer or This PC icon on the desktop and choosing Manage or by clicking on Start and typing in diskmgmt.msc .

You’ll see a list of volumes at the top and the disks and partitions at the bottom. Any partition that has a drive letter will be shown in the white area. If you connected a USB drive and you see it listed, but it doesn’t have a drive letter, you can now assign one.

To assign or change the drive letter for a disk or partition, simply right-click on it and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths .

A window will pop up with the current drive letter, if there is one, and a couple of options. Here you want to click on Change .

Next, you will choose the new drive letter from the dropdown list. You can pick from the letters A to Z.

That’s about it. Click OK to close out all the dialogs and the drive should now show up in Windows with the new drive letter. If you’re having issues using the GUI interface or you simply feel more comfortable using the command prompt, read the instructions below on how to use diskpart.

Use DiskPart to Assign Drive Letter

If you need to change or assign a drive letter via the command prompt, you have to use the diskpart command. I’ve written a bit on how to use diskpart , which is really useful for many disk management tasks.

To get started, open an administrator command prompt in Windows by clicking on Start, typing in CMD and then right-clicking and choosing Run as Administrator .

Now type in the following commands, each followed by the Enter key.

Above, you’ll replace x with the volume number in the list that corresponds to the drive you want to change and with the letter you want to assign to the drive. Here are the commands I ran for an external USB drive:

You’ll also notice that under the Type column, external drives will show up as Removable . That’s a good way to check before you select a volume. You can also figure out which drive is correct by looking at the size and also looking at the Info column. Volume 0 in my case is the system partition, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that by accident.

Overall, it’s a fairly simple process and hopefully you won’t run into any problems. There are times, however, when things don’t work properly. Below are some possible reasons.

Troubleshoot Can’t Change Drive Letter in Windows

One problem that I have seen is that the Change Drive Letter option is simply greyed out. This can occur for a few reasons. One of the main reasons is the volume is not formatted in FAT or NTFS format. For example, if you are attaching a disk from a Mac computer, you will not be able to change the drive letter unless you format the drive into a compatible format.

Another reason is if the drive is set to read-only. If so, you’ll have to Google the steps to change the drive to allow read/write access.

Also, if you don’t need any of the data on the volume in question, a simple solution is to delete the volume, which is normally never greyed out. Once you delete the volume, you can right-click again and create a new simple volume. Now you will be able to change the drive letter.

Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications. Read Aseem's Full Bio

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How to change a drive letter

In Microsoft Windows, different storage media , devices, and partitions on your computer are identified using drive letters . By default, these letters are assigned automatically. However, if you desire to change a default drive letter, may do so by following the steps below.

If you're trying to switch between drives, see: How to change drives in MS-DOS and Windows command line.

Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, and 11

• CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and other devices.
• Open the Disk Management utility .
• Right-click the volume whose drive letter you want to change and select the Change Drive Letter and Paths option.

• In the window, click the Change button.

• In the next window, select the letter you desire from the drop-down menu on the right, then click OK .

CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and other devices

In the newer versions of Windows, devices that are not considered to be volumes (i.e., CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory) and DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disc Read-Only Memory) drives) aren't listed on the same page as hard drives , SSDs , and partitions . However, you can adjust which section you are viewing, allowing you to assign a different drive letter to these devices.

The letter you assign to these devices must come after that of the hard drive. For example, because your hard drive is C:, you may only use D: through Z:. If you have multiple hard drives or partitions and your last drive letter is F:, you can only change your device's drive letter to G: through Z:.

• Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, and 11.
• Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me.
• MS-DOS and Windows 3.X.
• At the top of Disk Management window, click the View menu.
• In the drop-down menu , select Top , then select Disk List .

• Right-click the disk drive whose drive letter you want to change and select the Change Drive Letter and Paths option.

Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me

• Open the Device Manager .
• Click the plus sign (+) next to CD-ROM or DVD/CD-ROM drives .
• Double-click the disk drive whose drive letter you want to change.
• Click the Settings tab.
• Where the computer lists the Start and end drive letter , make your selection and click OK .
• Restart the computer.
• How to restart Microsoft Windows.

MS-DOS and Windows 3.X

• If you are in Windows, Exit to an MS-DOS prompt .
• Type cd\ and press Enter .
• Once at DOS type edit c:\autoexec.bat
• In the autoexec.bat window, locate the MSCDEX line .
• On the MSCDEX line, if it's missing /L:x (where x is the drive letter), add /L:D (assigning the CD-ROM to D: and can be anything up to Z:).
• Once changes are made, click File (if you do not have a mouse, press Alt + F ), then choose Exit and say Yes to save the changes .
• Once back at DOS, type edit c:\config.sys
• In the config.sys window, look for anything that says "LASTDRIVE=x" (were x is the last drive letter). If the line is missing, add LASTDRIVE=K (or the letter you want as the ending letter) at the top of the config.sys file.

The LASTDRIVE must be a letter between C and Z.

• Once changes are made, click File (if you do not have a mouse , press Alt + F ), then choose Exit and say Yes to save the changes .

Related information

• How to rename or label a disk drive.
• How to set up a hard drive and partition in Windows.
• How to merge partitions in Windows.
• How to delete a partition in Windows.
• See the hard drive and Windows definitions for related information and links.

How to Remap the Startup Drive in Windows XP to a New Letter

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How to uninstall the canon printer drivers, how to remove the finder toolbar.

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Remapping the drive letter for the startup drive on one of your business' computers is necessary if a recent change has inadvertently altered the letter from the value it received during the Windows installation. Situations where this may happen include drive configuration changes or when a mirror volume breaks. You shouldn't change the letter for the startup drive if it hasn't changed from its installation value, as this may cause your operating system to not boot.

Log in to Windows XP as an Administrator.

Click the Windows "Start" button.

Click the "Run..." icon.

Type "regedit.exe" in the text field.

Click the "OK" button. This opens the Windows Registry Editor.

Click "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" and then click "SYSTEM."

Right-click "MountedDevices" and select "Permissions..." to open the Permissions for MountedDevices window.

Select the "Administrators" group.

Verify that the "Allow" check box for Full Control is checked. If Full Control isn't enabled, click the "Advanced" button, select the "Administrators" group, click the "Edit..." button, click the check box for "Allow" in the "Full Control" row and click the "OK" button twice to close the windows.

Click the "OK" button to close the "Permissions for MountedDevices" window.

Right-click the "\DosDevices\" entry for your startup drive and select "Rename." Change the drive letter to an unused one. For example, change "\DosDevices\G:" to "\DosDevices\C:."

Return the MountedDevices permissions for the Administrators group to its original setting if you changed it in the previous steps.

Restart your computer to enable the new drive letter for your startup drive.

• Microsoft: How to Restore the System/boot Drive Letter in Windows
• Microsoft: How to Back up and Restore the Registry in Windows XP
• Microsoft: How to Change Drive Letter Assignments in Windows XP
• If you need to swap two drive letters, first rename one of the drives to an unused letter. For example, to swap "C:\" and "D:\": rename "\DosDevices\C:" to "\DosDevices\U:", rename "\DosDevices\D:" to "\DosDevices\C:" and finally rename "\DosDevices\U:" to "\DosDevices\D:".
• Always back up your registry before making any changes to it.
• Making incorrect changes to your registry can cause your computer to stop working properly.

Sean Mann has been a freelance writer since 2010. With thorough knowledge and experience in technological fields such as computer software, hardware, the internet and programming, he creates online content for various websites. Mann has a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Ohio State University.

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How-To Geek

How to change a drive letter on windows 10 or windows 11.

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5 Things That Would Make Windows Good Again

My windows computer just doesn't feel like mine anymore, my setup for a better file browsing experience on windows, quick links, what changing a drive letter does, how to change a drive letter, how to fix programs broken by changing a drive letter.

Changing the letter of a drive is easy on Windows 10 and Windows 11, but you should do it as soon as you add the drive to prevent future hassles. Find out how to change a drive letter here.

Windows assigns drive letters alphabetically --- starting with C --- when they're initialized. If you want to change a drive letter, you should do it before you install anything on the drive. Changing a drive letter after programs are installed could break them since there will be references to an installation location that is no longer there.

Windows has gotten pretty smart about updating shortcuts so that programs work after changing a drive letter. Most of your applications' shortcuts will probably be automatically corrected. Unfortunately, Windows isn't as good about updating file associations. You'll have to manually set the default apps associated with files to fix file associations if they were broken by changing the drive letter.

It is possible to change the boot drive letter to something else, but we don't recommend it. Changing C:\ to another letter is likely to result in severe issues, like a PC that cannot boot into Windows at all. Even if it were able to boot, there would be a huge number of programs that would not be able to run.

Technically speaking, while they are commonly called drive letters, each letter actually refers to a partition on a disk. If you have multiple partitions on a single disk, you will need to assign a letter to each partition to make them all accessible. If a disk has just a single partition, it will just have a single letter pointing to that partition. (However, you do not have to assign a letter to each partition. Partitions without drive letters will not appear in File Explorer and elsewhere.)

Changing a drive letter is pretty simple. Click the Start button, type "Disk Management" in the search bar, and then hit Enter.

The program name displayed in the search will not be Disk Management. It will be "Create and format hard disk partitions."

You could also hit Windows+X or right-click the Start button, and then click "Disk Management."

Identify the drive you'd like to change in the Disk Management Window. In this example, we'll change the letter of the D:\ drive to J:\. You can right-click the drive on the text list, or on the menu below. Either works.

Select "Change Drive Letter and Paths" in the right-click menu that appears.

In the window that pops up, click "Change."

Select whatever letter you want from the drop-down menu. Then click "Ok."

Two popups will warn you about changing your drive letter. Click "Yes" on both of them, and then restart your computer.

Once Windows has restarted, the drive letter should be changed.

There are a few ways you can fix a program broken by changing the drive letter.

Fix The Shortcut

If you're lucky, the only thing that is broken is the shortcut. Fix a shortcut by right-clicking the shortcut on your desktop, and then click Properties.

You need to change the target of the shortcut to the new drive letter.

For example, if GIMP was previously installed at " D :\GIMP 2\bin\gimp-2.10.exe," and you changed the D drive to J, change the target of the shortcut to " J :\GIMP 2\bin\gimp-2.10.exe."

Finalize the change by clicking "Apply" and then "Ok."

Reinstall the Program

Reinstalling the program will generate new entries in the registry, so everything on the computer will know where to look for the program. Some installers won't like reinstalling directly over existing files, so you may need to rename or delete the old installation first.

Change the Drive Letter Back

If you changed the drive letter of a drive with a lot of programs installed, it might be easier to change the drive letter back. Changing the drive letter back should automatically fix any programs and file associations that were broken.

Edit the Registry

You can break programs, or even Windows itself, by editing the registry. Be careful, and learn about how to edit the registry before you try it. Make sure you backup the Windows registry first. You should not attempt this method unless you have no other options.

Windows, and a lot of programs, track where programs are installed via the Windows registry. It is possible to manually adjust the registry to fix broken programs. Keep in mind that there could be dozens of registry entries you need to edit. A program like GIMP can have registry entries for the context menu, for the "Open With" menu, for any file associations, and for the location of its executables. Other programs may only have a few entries related to where it is installed.

If you're not deterred, here's how you do it.

First, you need to know where the program was previously installed. In this case, the program was installed to the "D:\GIMP 2" folder, and the executables were found the "D:\GIMP 2\bin" sub-folder. It is now located at "J:\GIMP 2" instead.

We need to update the registry to reflect the change in location. Click the Start button, type "regedit" into the search bar, right-click Regedit, and click "Run as administrator."

In Regedit, hit Ctrl+F to bring up a search window. Type in the old location for the program you're trying to fix --- "D:\GIMP 2" for our example --- then click "Find Next."

Once Regedit has found something with "D:\GIMP 2" as part of a path, it'll show it to you. Here is an example from the GIMP search.

To actually change them, double click the name of the registry entry you want to modify. Then change the drive letter to J, or whatever you chose. If you didn't otherwise move the folder, leave the rest of the path alone. Then click "Ok."

You'll need to repeat this multiple times. To find the next result using your search term, you can hit the F3 key. There will be a popup once you've found all of the entries.

Changing drive letters can be a simple way to customize your PC. Do it before you install anything on the drive, however. You'll prevent any problems before they occur, and probably save yourself quite a bit of troubleshooting.

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Change a drive letter

• 4 contributors

Applies To: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2016

If you want to change a drive letter assigned to a drive, or you have a drive that doesn't yet have a drive letter, use Disk Management to change it. You can also mount the drive in an empty folder so that it appears as a folder. For more information, see Mount a drive in a folder .

If you change the drive letter of a drive that already contains Windows or apps, apps might have trouble running or finding the drive. We suggest not changing the drive letter of a drive that already contains Windows or apps.

The following steps show how to change the drive letter.

Open Disk Management with administrator permissions.

In Disk Management, select and hold (or right-click) the volume on which you want to change or add a drive letter and select Change Drive Letter and Paths .

If you don't see the Change Drive Letter and Paths option or it's grayed out, the volume either isn't ready to receive a drive letter or it's unallocated and needs to be initialized . It might also be that the drive isn't accessible, which is the case with EFI system partitions and recovery partitions. If you've confirmed that your volume is formatted with a drive letter that you can access but you're still unable to change it, that's beyond the scope of this article. We suggest contacting Microsoft Support or the manufacturer of your PC for more help.

To change the drive letter, select Change . To add a drive letter if the drive doesn't already have one, select Add .

Select the new drive letter and choose OK . Then select Yes when prompted about how programs that rely on the drive letter might not run correctly.

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Additional resources

How to Change Drive Letter Windows 10: A Step-by-Step Guide

Changing the drive letter in Windows 10 is actually a simple process that doesn’t require any deep technical knowledge. By following a few straightforward steps, you can easily assign a new letter to any drive on your computer. This guide will walk you through the entire process in an easy-to-understand manner.

How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

Changing the drive letter in Windows 10 allows you to reassign a letter to a specific drive, which can help in organizing your computer or resolving software conflicts. Below are the steps to change the drive letter.

Step 1: Open Disk Management

• Right-click "This PC" and select "Manage."

This will open the Computer Management window. It’s a centralized place where you can manage various aspects of your computer, including Disk Management.

Step 2: Access Disk Management

Click on "Disk Management" under the "Storage" section.

Once you click on it, a new window will populate showing all the connected drives and their current letters.

Step 3: Choose the Drive

Right-click the drive you want to change and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths."

A small menu will appear. This option allows you to modify the drive letter, add paths, or remove them.

Step 4: Click "Change"

In the pop-up window, click "Change."

This window will let you either change or remove the drive letter. For now, we are focusing on changing it.

Step 5: Assign a New Letter

Select the new drive letter from the dropdown menu and click "OK."

Ensure you pick a letter that’s not already in use by another drive. Windows will warn you if the letter is already taken.

Step 6: Confirm the Change

Click "Yes" to confirm the change.

A confirmation dialog will appear to finalize the action. Clicking "Yes" will apply the changes immediately.

After completing these steps, your drive will now have a new letter assigned to it. You can verify this by reopening "This PC" and checking the drives.

Tips for Changing Drive Letter in Windows 10

• Backup Your Data: Before making any changes, always backup your important data.
• Avoid System Drives: Don’t change the drive letter of the system drive (usually C:), as it may cause issues.
• Use Unused Letters: Always make sure the new letter isn’t already assigned to another drive.
• Restart if Necessary: Some changes might require a system restart to take effect.
• Be Cautious: Changing drive letters can affect shortcuts and software paths.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i change the letter of my main system drive.

Generally, it’s not advisable to change the letter of your main system drive (C:) because it can cause system issues and software malfunctions.

Will changing the drive letter affect my files?

No, changing the drive letter won’t affect the files on the drive, but it can affect software paths and shortcuts that refer to the old drive letter.

What happens if the new drive letter is already in use?

Windows will alert you if the new drive letter is already in use. You’ll need to choose a different letter.

Can I revert the change?

Yes, you can easily revert the change by repeating the steps and assigning the old drive letter back to the drive.

Do I need to restart my computer?

Most of the time, a restart isn’t necessary, but some applications might require it to recognize the new drive letter.

• Click on "Disk Management."
• Right-click the drive and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths."
• Click "Change."
• Select the new drive letter and click "OK."
• Confirm the change by clicking "Yes."

Changing the drive letter in Windows 10 is a simple yet powerful way to manage your computer’s drives more effectively. Whether you’re organizing your drives or resolving conflicts, following these steps will help you get the job done quickly and efficiently. Remember to always be cautious and backup your data before making any changes. If you find this guide helpful, feel free to share it with others who might be facing similar issues. For further reading, you might want to explore more advanced disk management options in Windows 10. Happy computing!

Kermit Matthews is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with more than a decade of experience writing technology guides. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science and has spent much of his professional career in IT management.

He specializes in writing content about iPhones, Android devices, Microsoft Office, and many other popular applications and devices.

Read his full bio here .

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