Change drive letters from command line via a script

I have to manage dozens of PCs which includes a clean Windows install every 6 to 12 months.

On every PC I have to use disk management to change drive letters. Windows doesn't assign the letters I want for each drive so I gotz to change them manually every time.

Optical drive letters are always A: and B:

Provided that no drives or partitions are added or removed then the drive letters for a PC are static.

Is there a way I can script this so that I can automate it so I don't have to manually do it every time.

An example might be I want to change drive E: to D: and then J: to A: and F: to E:

PowerShell is the best way to write it, here's a short CMD script which changes the drive letters but also performs sanity checks on the source and destination drive letters. Obviously you need to be Administrator.

ChangeDrive.bat

Code:

<# : batch script
@echo off
powershell -nop Invoke-Expression ('$OldDrive = """"%1""""; $NewDrive = """"%2""""' + [System.IO.File]::ReadAllText('%~f0'))
goto :eof
#>

if ((Get-Partition -DriveLetter $OldDrive -ErrorAction Ignore) -eq $null) {
    "{0}: is not assigned." -f $OldDrive
    exit 0
}

if ((Get-Partition -DriveLetter $NewDrive -ErrorAction Ignore) -ne $null) {
    "{0}: is unavailable." -f $NewDrive
    exit 0
}

try {
    Set-Partition -DriveLetter $OldDrive -NewDriveLetter $NewDrive
    "Changed {0}: to {1}:" -f $OldDrive, $NewDrive
}
catch {
    $_.Exception.Message
    exit 1
}

usage: ChangeDrive.bat F E

powershell script to assign drive letters - Google Search

Thank you for the script. I get these errors;

Code:

I:\PostInstall>chgdrive L Z
L: is not assigned.

This is correct. There is no L: drive.

Code:

I:\PostInstall>chgdrive F Z
F: is not assigned.

This should work as F: drive does exist.

Script run with elevated cmd prompt.

Is F: drive a normal disk, or a DVD or removable drive? On that PC, can you copy the entire output from:
powershell "Get-Partition"

I need to see what's been reported locally. Thanks.

garlin said:

Is F: drive a normal disk, or a DVD or removable drive? On that PC, can you copy the entire output from:
powershell "Get-Partition"
I need to see what's been reported locally. Thanks.

On this PC, there are two opticals, 4 NVMe SSDs and 1 spinner. Drive I: is an external drive.

Get-Partition returns nothing.

Get-Partition -DriveLetter G returns an error;

Code:

get-partition : No MSFT_Partition objects found with property 'DriveLetter' equal to 'G'.  Verify the value of the
property and retry.
At line:1 char:1
+ get-partition -driveletter G:
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (G:Char) [Get-Partition], CimJobException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CmdletizationQuery_NotFound_DriveLetter,Get-Partition

My disk allocation;

"Get-Partition -DriveLetter G" <-no colon

That's very strange that Get-Partition returns no output. What about Get-Volume?

garlin said:

"Get-Partition -DriveLetter G" <-no colon
That's very strange that Get-Partition returns no output. What about Get-Volume?

None of the storage applets work.
Even this doesn't return anything: gcim MSFT_Disk -Namespace root/Microsoft/Windows/Storage
Not that it relevant, but the storage service is running.
This appears to be a known issue:

Reddit - Dive into anything
Reddit - Dive into anything

Nothing in the event log.

Tom's Hardware sez:

sc config winmgmt start= disabled
net stop winmgmt
Winmgmt /salvagerepository %windir%\System32\wbem
Winmgmt /resetrepository %windir%\
sc config winmgmt start= auto

That looks scary :)
I think I will do that on my spare PC, not my main PC.
Will get back to you.

from https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...ry/ba-p/373846

If you suspect WMI or repository corruption, rebuilding repository is the last thing you should do. Deleting and rebuilding the repository can cause damage to the system or to installed applications. Other steps should be taken first to eliminate other possibilities or to confirm we have repository corruption.