How to assign permanent letters to drives on Windows 10

You can assign drive letters manually, and in this guide, we show you how on Windows 10.

how do you assign drive letters

On Windows 10, when connecting a removable storage device or an internal hard drive, the system detects and assigns a drive letter automatically to make it usable. However, when reconnecting an external drive (such as a USB flash drive or SD or microSD cards), the system can end up assigning a different letter, which can be annoying.

If you want to see the same drive letter on a particular device, you can manually assign a permanent letter to any drive connected to your computer, and on Windows 10 , you can do this in at least three different ways, using Disk Management, Command Prompt, or PowerShell.

Using this approach will prevent Windows 10 from assigning a new letter or trying to set a letter already in use, which can cause conflicts. Also, it helps to select a drive letter that makes more sense to you.

In this Windows 10 guide, we walk you through several methods to manually assign a permanent letter to a drive, as long as you're connecting the drive to the same device and the letter isn't already in use.

How to assign a drive letter using Disk Management

How to assign a drive letter using command prompt, how to assign a drive letter using powershell.

To manage drive letters with the Disk Management tool, use these steps:

  • Open Start .
  • Search for Create and format hard disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management experience.
  • Right-click the drive and select the Change Drive Letter and Paths option.
  • Click the Change button.
  • Select the Assign the following drive letter option.
  • Use the drop-down menu to assign a new drive letter. Quick tip: To avoid the system trying to assign the same letter to another drive, it's a good idea to start adding letters in backward order. For instance, instead of using D, E or F, it better to start with Z, Y or X when assigning a new letter.
  • Click the OK button.
  • Click the OK button again.

Once you complete these steps, the drive will permanently retain the assigned letter, even after reconnecting it. However, if you connect the drive to another device, it may receive a different letter.

While the easiest way to assign a new drive letter is to use Disk Management, you can also use DiskPart in Command Prompt to perform the same task.

To assign a drive letter using Command Prompt, use these steps:

  • Search for Command Prompt , right-click the result, and then select the Run as administrator option.
  • Type the following command to start DiskPart and press Enter : diskpart
  • Type the following command to list all the available volumes and press Enter : list volume
  • Type the following command to select the volume (drive) to assign a new letter and press Enter: select volume 3 In the command, make sure to change "3" to the number that represents the drive on your device.
  • Type the following command to assign a new drive letter, and press Enter : assign letter=Z The command assigns the letter "Z" to the drive assuming it's available. However, you need to make sure to change the letter for the one that you want to use.

After completing these steps, similar to Disk Management, every time you reconnect the storage to the same device, Windows 10 should assign the same letter automatically.

Alternatively, you can also use PowerShell to change a drive letter on Windows 10 using these steps:

  • Search for PowerShell , right-click the result, and then select the Run as administrator option.
  • Type the following command to list the available drives and press Enter : Get-Disk
  • Type the following command to assign a permanent letter to the drive and press Enter : Get-Partition -DiskNumber 1 | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter Z In the command, make sure to change "1" to the number that represents the drive that you want to modify, and change "Z" for the new letter that you want to use.

Once you complete the steps, the drive will be accessible through File Explorer using the letter that you assigned, and Windows 10 won't try to change it.

Updated March 7, 2019: We revised this guide to make sure it's current with the latest version of Windows 10.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

  • Windows 10 on Windows Central – All you need to know
  • Windows 10 help, tips, and tricks
  • Windows 10 forums on Windows Central

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Mauro Huculak

Mauro Huculak is technical writer for WindowsCentral.com. His primary focus is to write comprehensive how-tos to help users get the most out of Windows 10 and its many related technologies. He has an IT background with professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA, and he's a recognized member of the Microsoft MVP community.

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Change a drive letter

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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 .

Screenshot showing the Disk Management window with the Change Drive Letter and Paths feature selected.

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 .

Screenshot of the Change Drive Letter and Paths dialog.

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.

Screenshot of the Change Drive Letter or Path dialog that shows how to assign a new drive letter.

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How to assign a drive letter in Windows 10

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When you connect a new drive to your PC, Windows automatically assigns the next available letter after C, which is normally used for your system drive. So an external hard drive or USB thumb drive could end up as D, E, F, or whatever, depending on how many drive letters are already being used.

This is all well and good, but what if you want to assign the drive a letter? Maybe you want to use M for your music files or X for your top-secret X-Files. Here’s how in Windows 10.

  • Ensure that the drive you’re relettering isn’t in use and that no files from that drive are open.
  • Right-click on the Start button.
  • Click Disk Management to open the Disk Management console.
  • Right-click the volume that has the drive letter you want to change.
  • Click Change Drive Letter And Paths.
  • Click the Change button.
  • Choose from a list of available drive letters. (Don’t use A or B, which have historically been reserved for floppy drives and can sometime confuse older software.)
  • Click Yes if a popup windows appears asking if you really want to do this.
  • Close the Disk Management console.

You may need to restart your machine for the change to take effect, but once you do the drive will use the new letter.

More Windows tips…

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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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Assign Drive Letters to Folders in Windows

We'll show you 3 different methods to try

Author avatar

If there are folders that you access frequently, this post shows you how to quickly access these folders in Windows Explorer without having to enter the full path to the folder. We will discuss three ways to map folders to drive letters.

Method 1: Use the subst DOS Command

First, we will use an old DOS command, called subst , that allows you to assign a drive letter to any folder in Windows.

For this example, we will assign a drive letter for the following folder: C:\Users\Lori Kaufman\Documents\My Work .

Open the Start menu and enter “ cmd.exe ” (without the quotes) in the Search programs and files box. Click cmd.exe in the results to open the command prompt window.

Opening the command prompt window

In the command prompt window, type the following command to associate drive “ Y: ” with the folder.

NOTE: If there are spaces in the path name, be sure to put quotes around the full path.

Entering the subst command

Now, when we open Windows Explorer, we see a new drive labeled Y: that will directly open the My Work folder.

Drive Y: added

Use this same process to assign different drive letters to all your frequently used directories. However, the subst command cannot be used with mapped network folders.

Method 2: Use the psubst Utility

A disadvantage of using the subst command is that these virtual drives are temporary and will be removed as soon as you shutdown or restart the computer or log off. However, you can solve this by using the free psubst utility, which operates like the subst command but it creates permanent virtual drives that are persistent even after rebooting your computer.

Download the psubst utility from

https://github.com/ildar-shaimordanov/psubst

Now go ahead and read my post on how to use psubst to map a folder to a drive letter .

Method 3: Use a Graphical Tool

If you would rather use a graphical tool to map drive letters to folders, there is a free utility called, Visual Subst , that’s like a graphical version of the psubst utility.

Download Visual Subst from

http://www.ntwind.com/software/utilities/visual-subst.html

To install Visual Subst , double-click on the .exe file you downloaded.

Visual Subst executable file

On the Installation Options screen, select the check boxes for the Program Shortcuts you want to install and click Next .

Installation Options

When the setup is completed, click Close .  Double-click the shortcut to start the program. You can also start it from the Start menu.

Installation Completed

The main Visual Subst window displays. Select a desired drive letter from the drop-down list.

Selecting a drive letter

To select a folder to map to the selected drive letter, click the Browse button to the right of the edit box.

Clicking the Browse button

On the Browse For Folder dialog box, navigate to the folder you want to map, select it, and click OK .

Selecting a folder on the Browse For Folder dialog box

To map the selected folder to the selected drive letter, click the green plus button on the button bar to the left of the drive letter drop-down list.

Adding the selected=

The virtual drive is added to the list. Add more virtual drives by selecting a drive letter and a corresponding folder and adding it to the list as described above.

Virtual drive W: added in Visual Subst

If you want the virtual drives you defined available automatically when you start Windows, select the Apply virtual drives on Windows startup check box so there is a check mark in the box.

Applying virtual dries on Windows startup

To save the settings for Visual Subst , click the floppy disk button on the button bar. A file with the .ini extension is saved in the same directory where Visual Subst was installed.

Saving settings in Visual Subst

The mapped folders display as Hard Disk Drives in Windows Explorer.

Drive W: added in Explorer

If you want to remove the mapping for a folder, open Visual Subst again and select the virtual drive from the list. Click the red X button on the button bar.

Deleting a virtual drive in Visual Subst

Mapping folders to drive letters can save you a lot of time and Visual Subst makes adding virtual drives easy. Visual Subst works in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and later versions of Windows including Windows 7, 8 and 10. Enjoy!

' src=

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3 Simple Ways to Assign a Drive Letter in Windows 10/8/7

How to assign a drive letter in Windows 10/8/7? This post covers three ways to assign a drive letter by using Disk Management, a partition manager, and Diskpart in CMD.

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What Is a Drive Letter

A drive letter is an alphabetic character identifying a physical computer disk or drive partition. Windows will assign an accessible drive letter by default, to any storage device. It starts from A to Z, going through all the alphabet. Windows will assign an accessible drive letter by default, to any storage device.

The system reserves the drive letters A: and B: for the floppy drive and portable media, such as tape drives. Even if your computer doesn't have these drivers installed. But you can still assign such letters manually if you wish. On computers with hard drives, the default drive letter is always C:. The CD-ROM or other disc drive is the last drive letter (e.g., D:). It's because C: is the first drive letter available on a hard disk. The drive letter C: can only be assigned to the drive on which Windows or MS-DOS is installed.

Windows will always be the drive letter C:,  even if you have several operating systems running. Most modern desktops and laptops now have hard drives and disc drives, like DVD drives, but not floppy disks. Even in this case, the C: drive is assigned to the hard drive, and the D: drive is assigned to the DVD drive.

Windows assigns the last drive letter to flash drives, smartphones, and other drives. For example, if the last drive letter was F:, and you plug a new drive, it is allocated as a G: drive until you unplug it. If you install more drives or create new partitions, they are allocated to drive letters other than C:, like D:, E:, F:, G:, and so on. Instead of the drive letter given by Windows, you may alter it to any other accessible drive letter.

How Assigned Drive Letters Work

You can alter the drive letter assigned by Windows. In the case you alter a drive's drive letter, the registry saves it per drive and volume ID. This does not permanently assign a drive letter to the device. The drive letter on your PC may change if you unplug the device or if you alter it.

If you use many USB drives, you may have observed that the drive letter changes each time you attach one. When non-assigned drives are attached, the letters D and onwards are assigned in turn. If the assigned drive is not attached, Windows will assign its drive letter to another drive. If you connect the drive with the given drive letter later, it will be assigned the next available letter.

Windows gives you several options for changing the drive letter of your computer. With this guide, you'll learn how to assign drive letters using three different tools. We will use Disk Management, EaseUS Partition Master, and Windows Command Prompt.

Extended Reading: Drive Letter Not Available

Assign a Drive Letter on Windows 10 with Disk Management

The Disk Management utility that comes with Windows lets you manage your disks. Change drive letters , create new partitions, delete existing partitions, and more.

Follow the steps below to change the drive letter.

Step 1. You will need to open Disk Management with administrator privileges. Right-click on the Start button, then choose Disk Management.

open disk management

Step 2. In the Disk Management window, right-click the volume you want to change or add a drive letter. Then click "Change Drive Letter and Paths".

choose change drive letter

Step 3. Pick "Change" to alter the drive letter. Or pick "Add" to add a drive letter for drives without one.

assign drive letter

Step 4. Choose a new drive letter, click "OK". The Disk Management will warn you that some programs might not run properly. Just close the window by clicking "Yes" to confirm.

disk management assign letter

Assign and Change Drive Letter with EaseUS Partition Manager

Your team is working on a project and you need to copy some files to a USB drive. But you have no idea what is the drive letter of the USB of your team. Most people have dealt with this issue before. As an easy solution, you can assign a drive letter to each driver using EaseUS Partition Master .

Users can manage disks with EaseUS Partition Manager without needing to go through a lengthy process. This program also provides advanced features such as  resize/move partition to solve low disk space issues, merge partitions, clone disk , create/delete/format partition, wipe data, disk/partition conversion, etc.

Now, free download this easy partition tool to assign drive letters with simple clicks.

Step 1.  Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the target partition, and choose "Change Drive Letter".

Step 2.  In the new window, click the down arrow and choose a drive letter for the partition from the drop-down menu, then click "OK".

Step 3.  Click the "Execute 1 Task(s)" button in the top-left corner, check the changes, and click "Apply" to change the drive letter of the selected partition.

Assign a Drive Letter Windows 10 Using Command Prompt

Windows Command Prompt can be used to assign drive letters to any directory on a computer. It especially benefits users with many storage devices connected to their computers. Below, we will show step-by-step how to change a drive letter with the command prompt.

Step 1. Access the elevated command prompt. Press Windows + S to run the search box. Type cmd . When the command prompt appears, right-click and select "Run as administrator".

open cmd

Step 2. Type diskpart at the command prompt. Press Enter.

command prompt type diskpart

Step 3. Type list volume , then press Enter.

command prompt  type list volume

Step 4. Pay attention to the volume number of the drive you want to change the letter. Type select volume . Substitute volume number by the number of the volume inside the <>.

select volume

Step 5. Type assign letter . Substitute the new drive letter with the new letter for the drive inside the <>. Done. After finishing, you can close the command prompt.

assign letter

You can assign different letters for your drivers in various ways. For example, with Windows Disk Management, and from the command prompt. But EaseUS partition manager gives you total control over your hard drive.

EaseUS Partition Master will assign a drive letter to any drive or partition and much more. Besides changing drive letters, you can also delete, split and wipe partitions. All without having to restart your PC several times or risk losing data. These features allow avoiding complicated procedures when working with multiple partitions.

How Can We Help You

how do you assign drive letters

Updated by Tracy King 

Tracy became a member of the EaseUS content team in 2013. Being a technical writer for over 10 years, she is enthusiastic about sharing tips to assist readers in resolving complex issues in disk management, file transfer, PC & Mac performance optimization, etc., like an expert.

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how do you assign drive letters

Written by Cedric 

Cedric Grantham is a senior editor and data recovery specialist of EaseUS. He mainly writes articles and how-to tips about data recovery on PC and Mac. He has handled 10,000+ data recovery cases and is good at data recovery of NTFS, FAT (FAT32 and ExFAT) file systems, and RAID structure reorganization.

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I love that the changes you make with EaseUS Partition Master Free aren't immediately applied to the disks. It makes it way easier to play out what will happen after you've made all the changes. I also think the overall look and feel of EaseUS Partition Master Free makes whatever you're doing with your computer's partitions easy.

Partition Master Free can Resize, Move, Merge, Migrate, and Copy disks or partitions; convert to local, change label, defragment, check and explore partition; and much more. A premium upgrade adds free tech support and the ability to resize dynamic volumes.

It won't hot image your drives or align them, but since it's coupled with a partition manager, it allows you do perform many tasks at once, instead of just cloning drives. You can move partitions around, resize them, defragment, and more, along with the other tools you'd expect from a cloning tool.

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How to Assign / Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

We show you how to change the drive letter in CMD, DIsk Management, PowerShell, and Registry editor in Windows 10.

https://winbuzzer.com/2020/08/07/bitlocker-for-windows-10-how-to-use-encryption-for-system-disk-partitions-or-any-other-drive-xcxwbt/

  • 1 How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 via Disk Management
  • 2 How to Change Drive Letter in CMD using a DISKPART Disk Management Command
  • 3 How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 with a PowerShell Disk Management Command
  • 4 How to Change / Assign a Drive Letter via the Registry Editor

Windows 10 helpfully assigns drive letters to disks as they're added, but they aren't always the most logical choices. While we all know that C: is the system drive, it doesn't make quite as much sense to have D: as your games drive or E: as your media drive. Luckily it's quite easy to change a drive letter in Windows 10, and we're going to walk you through the process today.

How does Windows 10 drive letter assignment work?

For the most part, Windows 10 automatically assigns letters to drives as they're connected, in alphabetical order. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule that may leave some users confused.

As mentioned earlier, C: is always reserved for the system drive, but A: and B: are reserved too, for rarely used floppy drives. Because of Windows automatic assignment, you may have also noticed that Windows changes the drive letter of your USB stick if you've connected another before it.

If you want letters that are easier to identify in bios or don't want your USB letters jumping around, it's quite easy to permanently change a drive letter in Windows 10 to something of your choosing. We're going to cover a few different ways today, including how to change the drive letter in CMD.

How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 via Disk Management

The most user-friendly way to assign drive letters in Windows is through the Disk Management interface, which is relatively easy to use.

Start - Disk Management

How to Change Drive Letter in CMD using a DISKPART Disk Management Command

Though it's not quite as user-friendly, it can be much faster to change a drive letter with Command Prompt.

Windows 10 - Open Elevated Command Prompt

How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 with a PowerShell Disk Management Command

Those more familiar with PowerShell can use this method instead to achieve the same result.

Windows 10 - Open PowerShell as Admin

How to Change / Assign a Drive Letter via the Registry Editor

Alternatively, if none of the above methods worked or you're just feeling brave, you can modify the drive letter via the registry. Just be sure to read our safe registry editing guide first.

Windows 10 - Open Registry Editor

If you enjoyed this guide, you may want to consider enabling or disabling disk caching or turning on BitLocker for your newly customized drives.

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How to change drive letter on Windows 11

Here are four ways to assign a different letter to a drive on Windows 11.

Avatar for Mauro Huculak

On Windows 11 , a “drive letter” is automatically assigned to each internal storage, USB drive, DVD drive, and map network drive to identify the volume and make it available on File Explorer or other applications. However, you can change the drive letter to anything you want without deleting the data on the storage. For instance, if you want a drive to use a specific letter related to the content, or the system tries to assign a letter already in use, preventing the storage from appearing on File Explorer and apps.

Whatever the reason, on Windows 11, you can assign a different drive letter in at least four ways using the Settings app, Disk Management, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.

A drive letter (or device letter) can be any character from the English alphabet. However, you cannot use the “C:” because it’s reserved for the main storage that contains the installation. Also, “A:” and “B:” are reserved letters that used to be assigned automatically to floppy drives.

This guide will teach you how to assign a new drive letter on Windows 11.

Change drive letter on Windows 11

  • Change drive letter from Disk Management on Windows 11

Change drive letter from Command Prompt on Windows 11

Change drive letter from powershell on windows 11.

To change the drive letter on Windows 11, use these steps:

Open Settings on Windows 11.

Click on System .

Click the Storage tab.

Under the “Storage management” section, click the “Advanced storage settings” option.

Click on Disks & volumes .

Open Disks & volumes

Select the drive with the volume with the letter to change.

Select the volume and click the Properties button.

Open driver properties

Click the “Change drive letter” button.

Change drive letter

Select the new drive letter for the device connected to Windows 11.

Assign drive letter on Windows 11

Click the OK button.

Once you complete the steps, the system will change the drive’s letter on Windows 11.

Change drive letter from Disk Management

To change the drive letter with Disk Management, use these steps:

Open Start .

Search for Create and format disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management tool.

Right-click the volume and select the “Change Drive Letter and Paths” option.

Change drive letter and paths

Click the Change button.

Disk Management change drive letter

Select the “Assign the following drive letter” option.

Choose a different letter for the drive.

Disk Management assign new drive letter

Click the OK button again.

After completing the steps, the drive will appear in File Explorer with the new letter.

To add a new drive letter with Command Prompt, use these steps:

Search for Command Prompt , right-click the result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to launch diskpart and press Enter :

Type the following command to list the volumes and press Enter :

Type the following command to select the volume (drive) to change the letter and press Enter :

In the command, change “2” for the number corresponding to the storage you want to change the letter.

Type the following command to change the drive letter on Windows 11 and press Enter :

In the command, change “H” for the letter you want to use with the drive.

DiskPart change drive letter

Once you complete the steps, the diskpart tool will assign the new letter to the storage.

To change a Windows 11 drive letter with PowerShell, use these steps:

Search for PowerShell , right-click the result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to identify the hard drive to change the letter and press Enter :

Type the following command to assign or change the drive letter to internal or external and press Enter :

In the above command, change “0” with the disk number of the drive you want to format and “F:” with the letter you wish to assign to the storage.

PowerShell change drive letter

After completing the steps, the drive will have a new letter assignment. If the drive was previously missing, it will appear in File Explorer.

Avatar for Mauro Huculak

Mauro Huculak is a Windows expert and the Editor-in-Chief who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He is also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 12 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows, software, and related technologies, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter) , YouTube , LinkedIn and About.me .

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How to assign permanent drive letters to removable USB hard drives

I have scripts that expect specific drive letters for hard drives. Windows sometimes assigns the different drive letters (e.g. I expected my Maxtor drive to be E:, but it's now F:, therefore my scripts will fail), depending on the order of how the drives are plugged into my laptop.

In Windows 7, how do I assign a permanent drive letter to a drive?

  • usb-flash-drive
  • drive-letter

Peter Mortensen's user avatar

  • Good question!! –  Lawrence Dol Feb 12, 2010 at 21:35

3 Answers 3

You can do this in Computer Management without external tools. The interface is slightly different in Windows 7 but the location is the same.

Start -> Type compmgmt.msc and press Enter -> Storage -> Disk Management

Press Win + x and then press k to choose Disk Management.

alt text

  • 6 only works for drives that are fully compliant with the USB standard. many drives don't have a serial number and then the windows drive letter management fails when you reconnect the drive. –  Molly7244 Feb 12, 2010 at 21:19

The USB Drive Letter Manager for Windows is your friend.

USBDLM is a Windows service that gives control over Window's drive letter assignment for USB drives. Running as service makes it independent of the logged on user's privileges, so there is no need to give the users the privilege to change drive letters. It automatically solves conflicts between USB drives and network or subst drives of the currently logged on user. Furthermore you can define new default letters for USB drives and much more.

Some key features:

  • Check if the letter is used by a network share of the currently logged-on user and assign the next letter that is really available.
  • Reserve letters, so they are not used for local drives.
  • Assign a letter from a list of new default letters, also dependent on many different criteria as the active user, drive type, connection (USB, FireWire), USB port, volume label, size and others.
  • Assign letters for a specific USB drive by putting an INI file on the drive.
  • Remove the drive letters of card readers until a card is inserted.
  • Show a balloon tip with the assigned drive letter(s).
  • Define autorun events depending on many different criteria.

Drive letters get "forgotten" when you assign a new drive to that letter. If you want multiple drives (for example, backup drives) to have the same remembered letter it is a pain, but there is a non-randomware way.

I felt the need to post this after scouring the Internet trying to find a solution for multiple drives that I wanted to rotate out, all retaining the same drive letter for my scripting joy. Sometimes whateverware (USBDLM) just isn't a good enough solution for your domain controllers, sensitive kiosks, etc., so we will do this the hard way.

If you don't have a lot of data or are starting from scratch, the easiest way is to disk to disk clone the device with the assigned letter to other devices using Clonezilla . But if you already have data on drives and can't backup/restore that data, or don't want to, or just like the hard way it appears to be associated with the volume GUID so you'll need to find a way to modify that on your existing volumes so that they all match and then do some testing. I did it the Clonezilla way. I haven't tried but imagine a partition clone would also work.

What I can verify for you is that it does not come from the disk id, so modifying this via diskpart is not helpful, and that you can get volume GUIDs using PowerShell:

Hopefully somebody smarter than me can figure out how to change or specify volume GUID and test it out or at least determine if this is indeed where the reg value comes from so we can dynamically do this without cloning entire drives.

How it works:

When you assign a drive letter to a drive, Windows stores this in the registry under the key hklm\system\mounteddevices. You can observe that when you assign a new drive the X letter (for example) the data portion for the reg_binary (\dosdevices\x: in this case) is overwritten with the new drive and you can't have multiple entries with different values, so the next time you plug in that old drive it won't be X any more.

If you look at the reg_binary value itself it starts with dmio id followed by a GUID - which actually stems from the disk unique id. I don't actually understand the relation/translation into the binary reg vlaue except to say that it comes from the disk's unique id. I only say this to illustrate that we don't need to worry about volume GUIDs here, because the lettering all stems from the drives unique id. This may not be the case on MBR/Basic disks I'm only working with GPT dynamic disks here (and you probably are too).

Further reading/stuff I found:

Partitions and volumes https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/e7b2ddd6-f245-49ed-8fec-3b6e08e75369/how-do-i-find-the-partition-guid?forum=winservergen

Volumes GUIDs and other things in mounteddevices https://morgansimonsen.com/2009/01/26/displaying-the-volume-guid-of-a-volume-2/

David's user avatar

  • Trying to convey that if you clonezilla a disk you can use multiple pieces of hardware and all will retain the same drive letter - just don't plug them in at the same time. -oh and that there's a better way if you can manually edit the partition guid (I believe that's the basis) but I didn't get that far as my problem was solved –  David Oct 15, 2017 at 10:58

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how do you assign drive letters

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Home » Tech Tips » Windows » How to Assign or Change Drive Letter in Windows 11?

How to Assign or Change Drive Letter in Windows 11?

Windows by default uses C drive (C:) for hosting system and application files. You can choose different drives like D: instead of C: while installing Windows on your computer. Similarly, it is also possible to manually change the installed app’s location , though generally users install apps on C: drive. Did you anytime think of changing the existing drive letters in your system? Here is how you can do that in Windows 11 PC.

Default Drive Name Assignments in Windows 11

Let us say, you have two partitions C: and D: volumes on your hard disk. Here is how the default drive letter assignment in Windows work:

  • A: – floppy disk drive for IBM computers (obsolete)
  • B: – floppy drive for MS-DOS and Windows computers (obsolete)
  • C: – Windows and app installation files
  • D: – storage space partition
  • E: – the letter after your storage partition for CD drive (if CD/DVD drive is available)
  • F: onwards – removable storage disks like USB and external hard disks

When you have more partitions on the hard drive, system will use the next drive letters like E: or F: when you insert an external drive. For example, when you have C: and D: drives on your hard disk and insert an USB drive , it will take the letter E: or later.

Changing Drive Letters in Windows 11

It is not necessary to live with the assigned drive letters forever on your system. You can either reduce / increase the drive’s space and assign new letters or simply change an existing drive’s letter. For example, you have 400GB D: drive which you can simply change to F: drive. Alternatively, you can divide it into 200GB + 200GB drives and name them as G: and H: drives.

Windows 11 makes it easy to change the drive letters from the Settings app without using registry or changing system files. However, you can also do the same from Computer Management as with the case in Windows 10 .

1. Change Drive Letter from Windows 11 Settings

If you want to change the assigned drive letters for any partition on your hard disk except C drive then this is the option you should proceed with.

  • Press “Win + I” keys or use Windows Search to find Windows Settings app.
  • Once you are in the Settings app, go to “System” tab and then click on “Storage” option.

Go to System Storage Settings

  • Go down to the bottom of the “Storage” settings section and click on “Advanced storage settings” available under “Storage management” section.

Advanced Storage Settings

  • This will expand the section and click on “Disks & volumes” option.

Go to Disks and Volumes

  • The “Disks and volumes” section will show all your existing drives and click on the one you want to change the letter name. it will show two buttons – “Explore” and “Properties” and click on the “Properties” button.

Open Disk Volume Properties

  • On the next screen, you can see the buttons for “Change label” and “Change drive letter”.

Select Change Drive Letter

  • Click “Change drive letter” button and select your favorite letter from the dropdown to assign.

Change Label for C Drive

The dropdown will show all letters except C: and the current volume. In the above example, we want to change the D: drive and the system shows A to Z letters except C and D. Since D is the current volume, it is not shown in the list. But C is not shown because it is a system volume partition and you cannot change the drive letter for C. You will not see “Change drive letter” button when selecting properties of C drive. However, you can assign A and B for drive letters which were once reserved only for floppy disks. Since floppy disk is obsolete Windows allows you to assign those reserved drive letters A and B also.

2. Change Drive Letter from Disk Management in Windows 11

Though changing drive letter is easy with Windows Settings, it does not allow changing C drive letter. You can use Disk Management app for changing any drive letter with additional features.

  • Press “Win + R” keys to Run prompt .
  • Type compmgmt.msc and press “OK” button.

Open Disk Management App in Windows

  • This will open Computer Management app and select “Disk Management” from the sidebar available under “Storage” section.
  • You will see all the drives available on your computer and select C or D or any drive that you want to assign a new letter.
  • Go to “Action > All Tasks > Change Drive Letter and Paths…” menu.

Change Drive Letter in Disk Management

  • On the pop-up that appears, click on “Change…” button.

Select Change Button

  • Click on the dropdown against “Assign the following drive letter:” option.
  • Select your favorite letter and click “OK” button.

Assign New Drive Letter

Here you will see all the drive letters except D which is already assigned to another partition volume on the hard disk. Though it is possible to change drive letter for C, we do not recommend as it can affect the installed programs on your computer. Most programs by default install under “Program Files” section in C drive. Changing the drive letter may affect the installed programs and they may stop working. In such a case, you need to uninstall and reinstall the program on the new drive again. This will be a big task if multiple programs stopped working. Therefore, choose the system drive when you clean install Windows first time and stick with that. If you are using preinstalled Windows on C drive, then continue to use that without changing. You can change all other drives using Disk Management or Windows Settings app.

If you want to create parition, select the volume and right click on it. From the menu, select “Shrink Volume” option and select the reduced size for your volume. The remaining size will become unallocated for which you can assign a new label and letter as explained above. Learn more about how to create disk paritions in Windows computer .

Assigning Drive Letter to Removable Disks

As mentioned, Windows will assign the available drive letter for removable disks after the current partition volumes. The problem is when you have multiple removable disks, the assigned letters will change every time which may confuse you. The good part is that you can assign a drive letter as explained above for your removable USB or external hard disk. Windows will remember the assigned letter and use the same whenever you insert the external drive. However, make sure to use the letters clearly away from the current and CD/DVD drives. For example, you can use X or Y or even A or B which are generally not assigned.

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Assign or Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 & 11 File Explorer

  • January 15, 2024

Drive letters are one of the two ways to identify a drive on your Windows computer. The other is the Drive name. Since Windows lets users easily rename drives, it isn’t the most reliable way to identify drives. Therefore, drive letters are very important. You can still change the drive letter in the Windows 10 file explorer, however. Windows also lets you assign a new drive letter to a drive that doesn’t have one. Also, you can hide a drive on Windows 10 entirely from prying eyes.

Let’s imagine a scenario where the drive name was the only way to identify a drive. Now imagine you install a program in the programs folder, located in a drive named ProgramDrive. On Windows, you can simply right-click and select rename to change the name of a drive. This means many users might often do it or sometimes even accidentally. But when you change the name of the drive to NewProgramDrive, the programs installed in the programs folder may stop working. Because the default install path they’ve set up is now not there. You can follow another guide I wrote some time ago to install programs on external storage on Windows 10.

This is what makes drive letters so important on Windows. Instead of identifying a drive by its name, Windows does this via drive letters. The names are just for the convenience of the user. But the same logic also applies to drive letters. Windows does let you change the drive letter or assign a new one. However, if you change the drive letter for a drive where Windows or another program is installed, it may cause problems.

We recommend that you shouldn’t change the drive letter of such a drive.

Steps to Assign or Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 Explorer

This can be done from the Disk Management console. There are several ways to launch it. On Windows 10, the easiest way to do that is to right-click on the Start menu and select Disk Management .

windows 10 disk management

  • You can see all your drives listed in the top half of the Disk Management window. It also shows the disks in a more graphical representation at the bottom half of the window.

change drive letter in windows

  • From the context menu, select the Change Drive Letter and Paths… option.
  • If the Drive does not already have a letter assigned, click on the Add button.

change drive letter pop up

  • Click OK and then click Yes on the warning dialog that appears.

The drive letter will be changed once you do that. However, Windows will still keep using the previous drive letter to keep programs running. If you install any new programs in that drive, they will also be installed using the old drive letter. This is fixed once you restart Windows. And yes, if you notice that your Windows PC takes a long time to boot up, you can follow these tips to make Windows 10 boot faster .

Read Next: How to Enable and Use Windows Sandbox

Vivek Tiwari

Vivek Tiwari

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2 thoughts on “assign or change drive letter in windows 10 & 11 file explorer”.

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But what can one do when ALL options in Disk Management context menu except Help are greyed out?

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This method is doing it in Explorer… it’s just the standard Disk Management method.

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How-To Geek

How to assign a persistent drive letter to a usb drive in windows.

If you use multiple USB drives, you've probably noticed that the drive letter can be different each time you plug one in.

If you use multiple USB drives, you've probably noticed that the drive letter can be different each time you plug one in. If you'd like to assign a static letter to a drive that's the same every time you plug it in, read on.

Windows assigns drive letters to whatever type of drive is available---floppies, internal hard disks, optical drives, SD cards, and external USB drives. This can be annoying---especially if you use backup tools  or portable apps that prefer to have the same drive letter every time.

Related: What Is a "Portable" App, and Why Does It Matter?

To work with drive letters, you'll use the Disk Management tool built into Windows. In Windows 7, 8, or 10, click Start, type "create and format," and then click "Create and format hard disk partitions." Don't worry. You're not going to be formatting or creating anything. That's just the Start menu entry for the Disk Management tool. This procedure works the same in pretty much any version of Windows (though in Windows XP and Vista, you'd need to launch Disk Management through the Administrative Tools item in the Control Panel).

sud_1

Windows will scan and then display all the drives connected to your PC in the Disk Management window. Right-click the USB drive to which you want to assign a persistent drive letter and then click "Change Drive Letter and Paths."

sud_2

The "Change Drive Letter and Paths" window the selected drive's current drive letter. To change the drive letter, click "Change."

sud_3

In the "Change Drive Letter or Path" window that opens, make sure the "Assign the following drive letter" option is selected and then use the drop-down menu to select a new drive letter. When you're done, click "OK."

NOTE: We suggest picking a drive letter between M and Z, because earlier drive letters may still get assigned to drives that don't always show up in File Explorer---like optical and removable card drives. M through Z are almost never used on most Windows systems.

sud_4

Windows will display a warning letting you know that some apps might rely on drive letters to run properly. For the most part, you won't have to worry about this. But if you do have any apps in which you've specified another drive letter for this drive, you may need to change them. Click "Yes" to continue.

sud_5

Back in the main Disk Management window, you should see the new drive letter assigned to the drive. You can now close the Disk Management window.

sud_6

From now on, when you disconnect and reconnect the drive, that new drive letter should persist. You can also now use fixed paths for that drive in apps---such as back up apps---that may require them.

How Do I Assign A Drive Letter To An External Hard Drive

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Introduction

Welcome to the world of external hard drives! These handy devices provide an easy and convenient way to store and backup your data. However, when you connect an external hard drive to your computer, you might find that it doesn’t automatically get assigned a drive letter. In this article, we will explore the process of assigning a drive letter to an external hard drive, whether you are using a Windows or Mac operating system.

Before we dive into the details, let’s first understand what a drive letter is and why it’s important. In simple terms, a drive letter is a single alphabetic character that is assigned to a specific storage device, such as a hard drive or a USB flash drive. It allows the operating system to identify and access the storage device easily. Without a drive letter, the external hard drive remains inaccessible, making it impossible to view or manage the files stored on it.

Assigning a drive letter to an external hard drive is crucial for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it provides a way to access and manage the files stored on the drive. Once a drive letter is assigned, you can open the drive through the operating system’s file explorer and perform various tasks like copying, deleting, or transferring files. Secondly, assigning a drive letter ensures that the external hard drive is recognized consistently every time you connect it to your computer. This is especially important if you have multiple storage devices connected, as it allows you to easily differentiate between them.

Now that we understand the importance of assigning a drive letter, let’s move on to the next step: checking the available drive letters on your system. Every computer has a set of available drive letters, ranging from A to Z, excluding letters that are already assigned to other drives. The process of assigning a drive letter involves choosing an available letter and associating it with the external hard drive. In the following sections, we will explore how to assign a drive letter on both Windows and Mac operating systems.

What is a drive letter?

A drive letter is a single alphabetic character that is assigned to a specific storage device, such as a hard drive or a USB flash drive. It acts as an identifier that allows the operating system to locate and access the storage device. Drive letters are commonly used in Windows and Mac operating systems to represent different storage devices connected to the computer.

In Windows, each storage device, whether it’s an internal hard drive, external hard drive, or USB drive, is assigned a unique drive letter. The drive letters range from A to Z, excluding letters that are already assigned to other drives or network resources. For example, the primary hard drive is typically assigned the letter C, while subsequent drives receive the letters D, E, and so on. When a new external hard drive is connected, it is automatically assigned the next available drive letter.

Similarly, in Mac operating systems, storage devices are represented by mount points in the file system. While Macs do not use traditional drive letters like Windows, they follow a similar concept. Each device is given a mount point, which appears as an icon on the desktop or in the Finder sidebar. When an external hard drive is connected, it is mounted to a specific directory, such as /Volumes/drive_name. This allows the user to access and manage the files stored on the device.

The assignment of drive letters or mount points serves two primary purposes. First, it provides a way for users to easily identify and access their storage devices. By assigning a unique letter or mount point to each device, users can quickly locate and manage the files stored on the specific drive. Second, drive letters and mount points enable applications and the operating system to reference and interact with the storage device. Whether it’s saving a file, accessing a program, or performing any system operations, the drive letter or mount point helps the operating system and applications accurately locate the desired storage device.

Overall, drive letters or mount points play a crucial role in organizing and managing storage devices in both Windows and Mac operating systems. They simplify the process of accessing and manipulating files on external hard drives and other storage devices, ensuring a seamless user experience.

Why assign a drive letter to an external hard drive?

Assigning a drive letter to an external hard drive is essential for several reasons. Let’s explore why this step is necessary when working with external storage devices.

First and foremost, assigning a drive letter provides a straightforward way to access and manage the files stored on the external hard drive. Once a drive letter is assigned, you can open the drive through the operating system’s file explorer or Finder and perform various tasks like copying, deleting, or transferring files. Without a drive letter, the external hard drive remains inaccessible, making it impossible to view or manage the files.

Furthermore, assigning a drive letter ensures consistency and convenience when using the external hard drive. Each time you connect the device to your computer, it will be recognized and associated with the assigned drive letter. This is especially important if you have multiple external hard drives or other storage devices connected. With a designated drive letter, you can easily differentiate between the various drives and access the specific files stored on each device without confusion or hassle.

Assigning a drive letter also facilitates the organization of your computer’s file system. By assigning a specific letter to an external hard drive, you can create structured folders and subfolders within the drive to keep your files organized. This makes it easier to locate and retrieve files when needed, enhancing productivity and efficiency.

In addition, assigning a drive letter allows for seamless integration with third-party applications and software. Many programs rely on the use of drive letters to locate specific files or folders on external devices. By assigning a drive letter to your external hard drive, you ensure that these applications can easily access the necessary files, preventing any compatibility issues.

Another advantage of assigning a drive letter is the ability to create shortcuts and bookmarks for quick access. With a specific drive letter assigned, you can create desktop shortcuts or bookmark the drive for easy access in the future. This eliminates the need to search for the external hard drive manually, saving you time and effort.

Overall, assigning a drive letter to an external hard drive is crucial for accessing, managing, and organizing your data effectively. It simplifies the process of working with external storage devices, ensuring consistent recognition and convenient access to your files.

Checking available drive letters

Before assigning a drive letter to an external hard drive, it’s important to check the available drive letters on your system. By doing so, you can choose an unused letter and assign it to the external hard drive. Here’s how you can check the available drive letters on both Windows and Mac operating systems:

In Windows, you can easily check the available drive letters using the Disk Management tool. To access Disk Management, right-click the “Start” button and select “Disk Management” from the context menu.

Once in Disk Management, you will see a list of all the drives connected to your computer. The drive letters will be displayed next to each drive. Take note of the drive letters that are already assigned to other drives and identify any available letters. The available letters will not be associated with any drives or partitions.

In Mac operating systems, checking the available drive letters is slightly different as Macs do not use traditional drive letters like Windows. Instead, each storage device is represented by mount points in the file system. However, you can still check the available mount points using the Disk Utility application.

To access Disk Utility, go to the “Applications” folder, then open the “Utilities” folder, and launch “Disk Utility.” In Disk Utility, you will see a list of all the storage devices connected to your Mac. Each device will have a mount point listed next to it. Take note of any available mount points that are not currently assigned to any drives.

By checking the available drive letters or mount points, you can ensure that you choose an unused letter or point for assigning to your external hard drive. This helps prevent conflicts with existing drives and ensures a smooth and seamless integration of the external hard drive into your system.

Assigning a drive letter using Disk Management (Windows)

If you’re using a Windows operating system, you can assign a drive letter to an external hard drive using the Disk Management tool. Disk Management allows you to manage and configure drives and partitions on your computer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to assign a drive letter using Disk Management:

  • Connect your external hard drive to your computer using the appropriate cable. Ensure that the drive is properly powered on.
  • Right-click the “Start” button and select “Disk Management” from the context menu. This will open the Disk Management window.
  • In the lower section of the Disk Management window, you will see a list of all the drives connected to your computer. Locate your external hard drive in the list. Identify the drive by its capacity and make sure it is labeled as “Offline” or “Not Initialized.”
  • Right-click on the drive and select “Initialize Disk.” Choose the appropriate disk initialization method (MBR or GPT) and click “OK” to proceed.
  • Once the disk is initialized, right-click on the unallocated space of the drive and select “New Simple Volume.” This will open the New Simple Volume Wizard.
  • Follow the instructions in the wizard to set the desired volume size, assign a drive letter, and specify the file system (usually NTFS). You can also choose to format the drive at this stage.
  • After completing the wizard, Disk Management will assign the selected drive letter to your external hard drive. You can now access the drive through the file explorer or any other programs.

Remember to choose an available drive letter that is not already assigned to another drive or network resource. This ensures smooth and conflict-free integration of the external hard drive into your system.

Assigning a drive letter using Disk Management in Windows is a straightforward process that allows you to access and manage your external hard drive easily. With the assigned drive letter, you can conveniently perform tasks like copying, deleting, or transferring files, enhancing your productivity and data management efficiency.

Assigning a drive letter using Disk Utility (Mac)

If you are using a Mac operating system, you can assign a drive letter, or more accurately, a mount point, to an external hard drive using the Disk Utility application. Disk Utility is a built-in utility that allows you to manage and configure disks and volumes on your Mac. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to assign a mount point to an external hard drive using Disk Utility:

  • Connect your external hard drive to your Mac using the appropriate cable. Ensure that the drive is properly powered on.
  • Navigate to the “Applications” folder and open the “Utilities” folder. Launch the “Disk Utility” application.
  • In the left sidebar of the Disk Utility window, you will see a list of all the disks and volumes connected to your Mac. Locate your external hard drive in the list. Identify the drive by its name and capacity.
  • Select the external hard drive by clicking on it.
  • In the toolbar at the top of the Disk Utility window, click on the “Mount” button. This will mount the drive and assign a mount point to it in the file system.
  • The external hard drive will now appear on your desktop and in the Finder sidebar with the assigned mount point. You can access and manage the drive just like any other storage device on your Mac.

Assigning a mount point to your external hard drive using Disk Utility allows for seamless integration and easy access to the drive’s files and folders. The assigned mount point serves as an identifier for the drive within your Mac’s file system, making it recognizable and accessible through various applications and functions.

Remember that on Mac, the assigned mount point will not appear as a drive letter but will be represented as an icon on the desktop or in the Finder sidebar. By assigning a mount point, you ensure that the external hard drive is consistently recognized and easily accessible whenever you connect it to your Mac.

Assigning a mount point using Disk Utility is a simple and effective way to manage your external hard drive on a Mac. It allows for convenient file organization, data management, and seamless integration with various applications and software.

Troubleshooting common issues with assigning drive letters

While assigning a drive letter to an external hard drive is usually a straightforward process, you may encounter some common issues along the way. Here are a few troubleshooting tips for resolving common issues when assigning drive letters:

1. Drive letter already in use: If you receive an error message stating that the drive letter you want to assign is already in use, you will need to choose a different letter. Select an available drive letter that is not currently assigned to any drives or network resources.

2. Drive not appearing in Disk Management or Disk Utility: If your external hard drive is not showing up in Disk Management (Windows) or Disk Utility (Mac), there may be a connection or power issue. Make sure the drive is properly connected to your computer and powered on. Try using a different USB or Thunderbolt cable or connecting the drive to a different USB or Thunderbolt port.

3. Drive appearing as “Not Initialized” or “Unallocated”: If your external hard drive is showing up as “Not Initialized” or “Unallocated” in Disk Management (Windows) or Disk Utility (Mac), you will need to initialize or format the drive. Follow the prompts in the respective disk management tool to initialize the drive and assign a drive letter or mount point.

4. Drive not recognized on multiple computers: If your external hard drive is not recognized on multiple computers, it may indicate a hardware issue with the drive itself. Try connecting the drive to a different computer or using a different cable to rule out any connectivity issues. If the drive still doesn’t work, it may require professional help or data recovery services.

5. Drive letter or mount point not persisting: In some cases, the assigned drive letter or mount point may not persist after reconnecting the external hard drive. This could be due to conflicts with other devices or settings on your computer. To resolve this, you can try reassigning the drive letter or mount point, or consider changing the drive letter or mount point to a different one that is less likely to conflict.

If you encounter any of these issues or other unexpected behaviors when assigning drive letters to an external hard drive, it’s worth checking for software updates, ensuring proper connections, and seeking assistance from technical support if needed. Troubleshooting steps may vary depending on the specific operating system and hardware configuration.

By troubleshooting and resolving these common issues, you can ensure a smooth and successful process of assigning drive letters to your external hard drive, allowing for seamless access and management of your data.

Assigning a drive letter to an external hard drive is a crucial step in ensuring easy access and management of your files. Whether you are using Windows or Mac, the process allows you to define a unique identifier for the external hard drive, making it recognizable to the operating system and applications.

By assigning a drive letter or mount point to your external hard drive, you can effortlessly access and manage your files, create structured folders, and integrate the drive seamlessly into your computer’s file system. This simplifies tasks such as copying, deleting, and transferring files, enhancing your productivity and data management efficiency.

Throughout this article, we explored the importance of drive letters, checked available drive letters, and learned how to assign drive letters using Disk Management on Windows and Disk Utility on Mac. Additionally, we discussed common issues that may arise during the drive letter assignment process and provided troubleshooting tips to help resolve them.

Remember that assigning a drive letter or mount point is a necessary step to ensure consistent recognition and easy access to your external hard drive. It’s important to choose an available letter or mount point, avoiding conflicts with existing drives or network resources.

Whether you are using your external hard drive for backups, storing multimedia files, or transferring data between devices, assigning a drive letter or mount point is a fundamental step in making the process seamless and efficient.

Now that you have a clear understanding of how to assign a drive letter to an external hard drive, you can confidently manage your storage devices and enjoy quick and easy access to your important files.

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how do you assign drive letters

Top Contributors in Windows 10: Ramesh Srinivasan  -  neilpzz  -  Horace Wiggins  -  franco d'esaro  -  _AW_   ✅

February 14, 2024

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Ramesh Srinivasan  -  neilpzz  -  Horace Wiggins  -  franco d'esaro  -  _AW_   ✅

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In Windows 10 how do I revert drive letter allocation for a specific USB drive so that it receives the next available letter?

When I plugged in a specific USB memory stick to a particular PC (Windows 10) it was being allocated a specific drive letter "O" which I probably assigned manually sometime in the past. I've now decided I don't want this drive to be given this letter any more. So I thought this would be easy - just remove the drive letter via Disk Management and "Change Drive Letter and Paths" and Windows will then revert to the standard behavior of allocating the next available letter. Unfortunately this doesn't happen! Windows now refuses to allocate a drive letter automatically meaning that the drive cannot be accessed through File Explorer although it does appear in Disk Management (but without a drive letter). If this same drive is connected to another PC the random drive letter allocation works as expected.

I can fix this by re-allocating a fixed drive letter again to the drive via Disk Management. But does anybody know how to tell Windows to resume back to the normal drive allocation behavior short of trying to invoke a system restore or reinstalling Windows? Shaun.

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  • Microsoft Agent |

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I'm Hahn and I'm here to help you with your concern.

I’m sorry to hear that you are having trouble with your USB drive letter. You can try the following steps to remove a fixed drive letter and let Windows assign it automatically:

If "Change Drive Letter and Paths in the context menu" does not work, you may need to use command prompt or PowerShell commands to remove the drive letter.

To use command prompt or PowerShell commands to remove a drive letter, you need to open an elevated command prompt or PowerShell window. Then you can use one of the following methods:

Using Diskpart:

Type diskpart and press Enter.

Then type list volume and press Enter.

Make note of the volume number for the drive letter you want to remove.

Then type select volume <volume number> and press Enter.

Finally, type remove letter=<drive letter> and press Enter.

Using PowerShell:

Type Get-Volume -DriveLetter <drive letter> | Get-Partition | Remove-PartitionAccessPath -AccessPath "<drive letter>:\" and press Enter.

Please be careful when using these commands as they can affect your system if used incorrectly. You may want to back up your data before proceeding.

I hope this helps. If there is anything not clear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Your Sincerely

Hahn - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

4 people found this reply helpful

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Thanks for your feedback.

Hello Hahn,

Thank you for your suggestion about using DISKPART instead of

" Change Drive Letter and Paths " via " Disk Management ".

I followed your notes and then unplugged the drive, re-plugged it and

restarted Windows and still the drive does not appear within File Explorer. I then re-assigned a drive letter “S:” to it and tried the PowerShell route: Remove-PartitionAccessPath -disknumber 1 -partitionnumber 1 -accesspath S:

The drive vanished from File Explorer as I would expect. On disconnecting and re-connecting it, Windows will still not assign a letter to it.

So unfortunately I'm experiencing the exact same behavior as I originally described. Once the drive letter

has been “Removed” (in whatever way), Windows thereafter steadfastly refuses to assign a drive letter automatically. If I connect the same drive to another PC, a drive letter

is allocated as normal.

Therefore there seems to be a low level association between the particular USB drive and

the PC on which the drive letter was removed which Windows remembers and then decides

to never again assign a letter automatically to that specific drive. I haven’t tried reformatting the drive but even if that fixes the problem it would seem a drastic

way to get around it.

1 person found this reply helpful

Ramesh Srinivasan

  • Volunteer Moderator

Unplug the USB disk (physically).

Open a Command Prompt (admin) window.

mountvol /R

Plug the USB stick now.

Let's know if that works.

5 people found this reply helpful

I did as you suggested:

then connected the drive.

Initially the drive wasn't being detected (except in Device Manager under USB Controllers and "USB Mass Storage Device") so I re-started Windows. It still wasn't being detected (not even in Disk Management) until I unplugged it and re-connected a couple of time when a File Explorer window suddenly popped up showing the drive's contents and the next available drive letter E: assigned nicely. So mountvol /r seems to be the solution for which I thank you. Even then, Windows does seem

to take some prodding before it will eventually mount the device and assign a drive letter.

But I can live with that as it's rare that I would want to remove a drive letter anyway. I'll do a little more testing tomorrow and post again with the results. Regards,

Let's know how it goes.

I'll see if I can test Mountvol /R with a USB mass-storage device instead of a USB flash drive.

I'm glad that the mountvol /r command worked for you in resolving the issue of the drive not being automatically assigned a drive letter by Windows. It's possible that the previous drive letter assignment had caused some kind of conflict with the current system configuration, leading to the issue you experienced.

As you mentioned, Windows can sometimes take a little time to detect and assign a drive letter to a newly connected device. This can be due to various reasons such as driver installation, disk initialization, or other background processes that may be running on the system. In general, it's always a good idea to wait for a few seconds after connecting a new device to allow Windows to detect and configure it properly.

If you encounter any further issues or have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Thank you for your valuable input. I tried a fresh test this morning with a different USB memory stick (FAT32 although I don't imagine the file system is relevant), removing the drive letter (which I see now is in effect removing the mount point), disconnecting the drive, running mountvol /r and then after waiting for a minute or so, reconnecting it. But today it was not auto-mounted even after a Windows restart. Yesterday, it did auto-mount but not until several disconnections and re-connections.

It seems to be temperamental. Assigning a drive letter (or using "mountvol E: \\?\Volume{9ae43941-c41e-11ed-87b6-b8ac6fd8cf14}\" assuming the device ID is known) does work immediately but then we're back to where we were with a fixed drive letter which is what I was originally trying to undo. But as I've been writing I've just tried the whole thing again after mounting it to a specific drive letter, removing it, running mountvol /r, waiting a few seconds, re-connecting and now it works almost immediately with File Explorer popping up nicely.

I can't see a pattern here but at least I now know what to try in the future.

It's good to hear that you were able to get it to work eventually. It does sound like the behavior of the USB device is a bit temperamental, and it's difficult to identify a pattern in the way it behaves. It could be due to a number of factors such as hardware issues, driver issues, or even the operating system's handling of the device.

In any case, it's good to know that assigning a drive letter works for you if you need to access the device quickly. You may want to consider keeping a backup of your important files on another device or cloud storage to avoid any data loss in case the USB device fails completely.

I agree with everything you say and am well aware there are many factors at play. I've been working with Windows for more years than I care to remember and there always seems to be something new to learn.

Still, I'm a little surprised that Microsoft don't have a more fool-proof way to address this issue in the GUI with, say, a tick box within the "Change Drive Letter and Paths" window called "Automatically assign a Drive Letter". You and I may be comfortable with exploring options from the command line but I suspect most end users would find it difficult although I suppose they probably wouldn't have reason to remove a drive letter in the first place. You are certainly correct that backing up the memory stick is advisable as, although I didn't mention it, more than once while I was experimenting, Windows told me the "USB device not recognized" which was disconcerting to say the least although it was eventually recognized and the contents were intact. Another reason for some surprise that this whole area of drive letters and mounting is not more robust and easier to manage given the maturity of the OS at least as far as Windows 10.

I understand your concerns and frustrations regarding the management of drive letters in Windows. While it is true that Microsoft could potentially make the process more user-friendly, there are many technical complexities involved in managing hardware devices and assigning drive letters.

That being said, Microsoft has made efforts to simplify the process in Windows 10. For example, the Disk Management tool includes a feature that allows users to easily change the drive letter of a device by right-clicking on the device and selecting "Change Drive Letter and Paths". This feature also allows users to assign a new drive letter to a device, which can be especially useful when a device is not automatically assigned a letter.

It is also worth noting that the issue you encountered with the USB device not being recognized may not necessarily be related to the management of drive letters. There are many factors that can cause a device to not be recognized, such as hardware malfunctions or driver issues. Therefore, it is always a good idea to back up important data on a regular basis to prevent data loss.

Overall, while the management of drive letters in Windows can be complex, there are tools and resources available to help users manage their devices effectively. It is always a good idea to research and familiarize oneself with the process before making any changes to device configurations.

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  1. 3 Simple Ways to Assign a Drive Letter in Windows 10/8/7

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  2. How to assign permanent letters to drives on Windows 10

    how do you assign drive letters

  3. How to Assign and Remove Drive Letter with Diskpart in Windows 10 or 11?

    how do you assign drive letters

  4. How to Assign / Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

    how do you assign drive letters

  5. How to assign permanent letters to drives on Windows 10

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  6. [Free Guide]: Use Diskpart Assign Drive Letter in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7

    how do you assign drive letters

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  5. How to Manually Assigning a Drive Letter Using CMD / Diskpart in Windows 11/10 [Solved] #diskpart

  6. How to format and/or assign drive letters using Disk Management in Windows 7

COMMENTS

  1. How to Change a Drive Letter on Windows 10 or Windows 11

    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."

  2. How to assign permanent letters to drives on Windows 10

    While the easiest way to assign a new drive letter is to use Disk Management, you can also use DiskPart in Command Prompt to perform the same task. To assign a drive letter using...

  3. Change a drive letter

    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. Tip 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.

  4. How to assign a drive letter in Windows 10

    Right-click on the Start button. Click Disk Management to open the Disk Management console. Right-click the volume that has the drive letter you want to change. Click Change Drive Letter...

  5. How to Change a Drive Letter

    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.

  6. Change and Assign Drive Letter in Windows 10

    1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type diskmgmt.msc into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Disk Management. 2 Right click or press and hold on the drive (ex: "F") you want to add or change the drive letter, and click/tap on Change Drive Letter and Paths. (see screenshot below) 3 Click/tap on the Change button. (see screenshot below)

  7. How to Use the Diskpart Utility to Assign and Remove Drive Letters

    You'll need to start by opening an administrator mode command prompt -- type cmd into the search box, and then right-click and choose Run as administrator, or use the CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER keyboard shortcut. Once there, run the diskpart command, and then type in the following to list out the volumes on your system. list volume

  8. Assign Drive Letters to Folders in Windows

    Method 1: Use the subst DOS Command Method 2: Use the psubst Utility Method 3: Use a Graphical Tool For this example, we will assign a drive letter for the following folder: C:\Users\Lori Kaufman\Documents\My Work. Open the Start menu and enter " cmd.exe " (without the quotes) in the Search programs and files box.

  9. 3 Simple Ways to Assign a Drive Letter in Windows 10/8/7

    This post covers three ways to assign a drive letter by using Disk Management, a partition manager, and Diskpart in CMD. Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7 100% Secure Updated by Tracy King on Nov 23, 2023 Written by Cedric What Is a Drive Letter A drive letter is an alphabetic character identifying a physical computer disk or drive partition.

  10. How to Assign / Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

    Right-click the drive that you want to change or free the letter from and click "Change Drive Letter and Paths…". Click the "Change…" button. If you want to free up the letter you can ...

  11. How to Change a Drive Letter on Windows 11 & 10

    To change a drive letter on Windows 11 or Windows 10 using Disk Management: Click the Start button or press the Windows key and type disk management. Select Create and format hard disk partitions ...

  12. Manually assigning a drive letter using CMD/Diskpart

    Open up a command prompt (CMD/PowerShell). Type "diskpart" to start up diskpart. You will see the prompt change to "DISKPART>". Type "list vol" to list all available volumes. You can identify the drive by size and file system. Additionally, the volume doesn't currently have a drive letter. Select the volume using "sel vol <number>".

  13. Windows Tip: Assign Permanent Letters to Removable Drives

    1. To set this up, plug in the drive that you want to assign a permanent letter. Then open the Run dialog ( Windows Key+R) and type: compmgmt.msc and hit Enter or click OK. Or, right-click...

  14. How to change drive letter on Windows 11

    Open Start. Search for Create and format disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management tool. Right-click the volume and select the "Change Drive Letter and Paths" option. Click the Change button. Select the "Assign the following drive letter" option. Choose a different letter for the drive.

  15. How to assign permanent drive letters to removable USB hard drives

    23. You can do this in Computer Management without external tools. The interface is slightly different in Windows 7 but the location is the same. Start -> Type compmgmt.msc and press Enter -> Storage -> Disk Management. or. Press Win + x and then press k to choose Disk Management. Share. Improve this answer.

  16. How to Assign or Change Drive Letter in Windows 11?

    Here is how the default drive letter assignment in Windows work: A: - floppy disk drive for IBM computers (obsolete) B: - floppy drive for MS-DOS and Windows computers (obsolete) C: - Windows and app installation files D: - storage space partition E: - the letter after your storage partition for CD drive (if CD/DVD drive is available)

  17. How To Change A Drive Letter On Windows 10 Or 11

    Press Win + R, type cmd, and press CTRL + Shift + Enter. Type diskpart and press Enter. Type list vol and press Enter. Note the volume number (#) of the drive whose letter you're trying to change. Type sel vol 5, replace 5 with the appropriate volume number from Step 3, and press Enter.

  18. Assign or Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 & 11 File Explorer

    Assign or Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 & 11 File Explorer by Vivek January 15, 2024 Drive letters are one of the two ways to identify a drive on your Windows computer. The other is the Drive name. Since Windows lets users easily rename drives, it isn't the most reliable way to identify drives. Therefore, drive letters are very important.

  19. How to assign drive letter to external hard drive in Windows 10

    1. Press 'Win + X', and click/tap on Command Prompt, or Command Prompt (Admin) to open it in Administrator mode. 2. After that type 'list disk', press Enter. 3. Type 'select disk X (where X is the number your drive shows up as)', press Enter and type 'clean', press Enter. 4.

  20. How to Assign a Persistent Drive Letter to a USB Drive in Windows

    Right-click the USB drive to which you want to assign a persistent drive letter and then click "Change Drive Letter and Paths." The "Change Drive Letter and Paths" window the selected drive's current drive letter. To change the drive letter, click "Change."

  21. How to Assign the Same Drive Letter for USB Drive in Windows

    Now, safely eject the external drive. Launch the Registry Editor ( regedit.exe) Go to the MountedDevices registry branch below: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices. Rename the \DosDevices\G: value to \DosDevices\R: Exit the Registry Editor. Next time when you connect the same drive, Windows assigns it the R: drive letter if it's free.

  22. How Do I Assign A Drive Letter To An External Hard Drive

    Here's a step-by-step guide on how to assign a drive letter using Disk Management: Connect your external hard drive to your computer using the appropriate cable. Ensure that the drive is properly powered on. Right-click the "Start" button and select "Disk Management" from the context menu.

  23. In Windows 10 how do I revert drive letter allocation for a specific

    To use command prompt or PowerShell commands to remove a drive letter, you need to open an elevated command prompt or PowerShell window. Then you can use one of the following methods: Using Diskpart: Type diskpart and press Enter. Then type list volume and press Enter. Make note of the volume number for the drive letter you want to remove.