How to Enable or Disable Automatic Mounting of New Disks and Drives in Windows
Automount is enabled by default in Windows. When enabled, Windows automatically mounts the file system for a new volume (disk or drive) when it is added (connected) to the system, and then assigns a drive letter to the volume.
If you disable automount, it prevents Windows from automatically mounting and assigning drive letters to any new basic volumes (disk or drive) added (connected) to the system.
Any previously connected disks or drives that have been assigned a drive letter will always continue to be mounted with their former drive letter whenever connected by default, even after disabling automount.
If you like, you can scrub (Option Four or Option Seven) to remove volume mount point directories and registry settings for volumes that are no longer or currently connected to the system. This will clear all assigned drive letters of any previously connected disks and drives that are currently not connected to your PC. This can be handy if you want to disable automount and also want to prevent any previously connected disks and drives from being automatically mounted and assigned a drive letter when connected again. Mounted devices are stored in the registry key below:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the automatic mounting and assigning a drive letter when a new disk or drive is connected (added) in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable the automount feature.
Contents
- Option One: Check if Automount is Currently Enabled or Disabled
- Option Two: Enable Automount using DiskPart > automount Command
- Option Three: Disable Automount using DiskPart > automount Command
- Option Four: Remove Drive Letters of Previously Connected Drives and Disks using DiskPart > automount Command
- Option Five: Enable Automount using mountvol Command
- Option Six: Disable Automount using mountvol Command
- Option Seven: Remove Drive Letters of Previously Connected Drives and Disks using mountvol Command
- Option Eight: Enable or Disable Automount using REG file
1 Open an elevated command prompt.
2 Type diskpart into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
3 Typeautomount
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
4 The command will now return with a Automatic mounting of new volumes enabled or disabled message to let you know the current status.
5 When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.
1 Open an elevated command prompt.
2 Typediskpart
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
3 Typeautomount enable
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
4 Close the elevated command prompt.
5 Restart the computer to apply.
1 Open an elevated command prompt.
2 Typediskpart
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
3 Typeautomount disable
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
4 If you would like to remove the drive letters (mount points) of all previously connected drives and disks not currently connected, type theautomount scrub
command from Option Four into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
5 Close the elevated command prompt.
6 Restart the computer to apply.
1 Open an elevated command prompt.
2 Typediskpart
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
3 Typeautomount scrub
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
4 Close the elevated command prompt.
5 Restart the computer to apply.
1 Open an elevated command prompt.
2 Typemountvol /e
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
3 Close the elevated command prompt.
4 Restart the computer to apply.
1 Open an elevated command prompt.
2 Typemountvol /n
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
3 If you would like to remove the drive letters (mount points) of all previously connected drives and disks not currently connected, type themountvol /r
command from Option Seven into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
4 Close the elevated command prompt.
5 Restart the computer to apply.
1 Open an elevated command prompt.
2 Typemountvol /r
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
3 Close the elevated command prompt.
4 Restart the computer to apply.
The downloadable .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\mountmgr
NoAutoMount DWORD
0 = Enable
1 = Disable
1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Enable_automatic_mounting_of_new_volumes.reg
Download
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Disable_automatic_mounting_of_new_volumes.reg
Download
4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7 Restart the computer to apply.
8 If you like, you can now delete the downloaded .reg file.
That's it,
Shawn
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