Removing Old Drive Letter Assignments

RE: Dell Optplex 3020
Windows 10: Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363
x64

Hi,
Have a small problem and I am going in circles..

I was moving a HDD and the DVD drive around so that I could get the HDD on D and the DVD on any other letter (Needed D for something else that I could not change). Found out something. Windows doesn't want to let go of a drive letter even if the drive is no longer installed.

Finally, after trying partition programs, and others, reading a lot on the screen, I finally took a look in the Registry. There they were, drives that were active, and drives that were removed a while back. It was showing the D drive.

I need to assign D to the HDD due to a older program that, if I replaced it, it would be $$$, but only likes D. Any ideas, help, thoughts, or whatever would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Rich G

Try going to Device Manager, click on View and select Show Hidden Devices.

Devices that were once connected show up with lighter icons.

Right-click and select Properties to confirm it is not connected.

Then, simply uninstall the device.

There is also a freeware tool called Device Cleanup that will do it all for you.

Tools for Windows

This is the solution that finally worked. Got it from an advisor at Microsoft. (D is the desired drive. DVR drive can be any other)

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices. Search for the drive number. You will wind up on a page with all active drives displayed.

Check and see if the D drive is there. If so, do not delete--change the drive to the one you want to use as D. You may have to move whatever is on D prior to going here in the registry. Here is where I made the mistake, I did not look at the commands, I just deleted.

Thanks for all your comments and help.

Stay safe.