How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows  

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    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows

    Published by Category: Hardware & Drivers
    16 Jun 2020
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows


    When you add or connect a new volume (disk or drive), Windows will automatically mount it with an assigned drive letter by default.

    Each drive (volume or partition) will have an unique Volume GUID assigned to it by Windows. This ensures Windows can always uniquely identify a volume, even though its drive letter has changed. On systems with a lot of storage you will often run out of drive letters for your partitions and volumes.

    Whenever you reconnect a drive to the computer, it will always use the same drive letter it was last assigned or changed to.

    If you unmount a drive, Windows removes the volume mount point from the specified directory, dismounts the volume, and makes the volume not mountable. This means the specific drive (volume or partition) will have its drive letter removed and no longer be automatically mounted and assigned a drive letter whenever connected to the computer until you manually mount it again. This can be handy if you no longer want a disk or drive (volume or partition) to be assigned a drive letter when connected until you want to manually mount it.

    When you manually mount an unmounted drive, you make the volume mountable again by creating a volume mount point with an assigned drive letter. This will allow Windows to automatically mount the drive with its last used drive letter each time the drive is connected to the computer.

    This tutorial will show you how to manually mount and unmount a drive or volume in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

    You must be signed in as an administrator to unmount and mount a drive.



    Contents




    EXAMPLE: Mounted drives in Windows 10
    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-mounted_drives_this_pc.png How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-mounted_drive_disk_management.png






    OPTION ONE

    Unmount Drive or Volume in Disk Management


    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 unmount, and click/tap on Change Drive Letter and Paths. (see screenshot below)

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-unmount_volume_disk_management-1.png

    3 Click/tap on the Remove button. (see screenshot below)

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-unmount_volume_disk_management-2.png

    4 Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-unmount_volume_disk_management-3.png

    5 When finished, you can close Disk Management if you like.






    OPTION TWO

    Mount Drive or Volume in Disk Management


    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 unmounted drive without a drive letter you want to mount, and click/tap on Change Drive Letter and Paths. (see screenshot below)

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-mount_volume_disk_management-1.png

    3 Click/tap on the Add button. (see screenshot below)

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-mount_volume_disk_management-2.png

    4 Select (dot) Assign the following drive letter, select an available drive letter (ex: "F") you want to assign to the drive, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-mount_volume_disk_management-3.png

    5 When finished, you can close Disk Management if you like.






    OPTION THREE

    Unmount Drive or Volume in Command Prompt


    The command in this option can be used to create a script to unmount a specific drive on demand.


    1 Open an elevated command prompt.

    2 Type the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

    mountvol <drive letter>: /P

    Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with the actual drive letter (ex: "F") of the volume you want to unmount.

    For example: mountvol F: /P

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-unmount_volume-2.png

    3 When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.






    OPTION FOUR

    Mount Drive or Volume in Command Prompt


    The command in this option can be used to create a script to mount a specific drive on demand.


    1 Open an elevated command prompt.

    2 Copy and paste the mountvol command into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below step 3)

    3 Make note of the Volume GUID (ex: "\\?\Volume{68df4d51-9b8e-11ea-8a09-049226cfe682}\") of the unmounted drive (volume) you want to mount. (see screenshot below)

    This will usually be a drive (volume) that has the *** NOT MOUNTABLE UNTIL A VOLUME MOUNT POINT IS CREATED *** message under its Volume GUID.

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-mount_volume-1.png

    4 Type the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

    mountvol <drive letter>: <Volume GUID>

    Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with an available drive letter (ex: "F") you want to assign to the drive (volume).

    Substitute <Volume GUID> in the command above with the actual Volume GUID (ex: "\\?\Volume{68df4d51-9b8e-11ea-8a09-049226cfe682}\") from step 3 the unmounted drive (volume) you want to mount.

    For example: mountvol F: \\?\Volume{68df4d51-9b8e-11ea-8a09-049226cfe682}\

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-mount_volume-2.png

    5 When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.


    That's it,
    Shawn






  1. Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       #1

    Another great Tutorial @Brink!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2

      My Computers


  3. Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       #3

    Good afternoon,

    I have a Win 10 ISO file that I right-click and then click Mount. It assigns it a drive letter, G: for example.
    I know that I can click Drive Tools and eject it, but I am trying to do this via a batch script.

    For some reason I can't seem to get this working [ I am having a weird day though! ].
    Code:
    PowerShell.exe Dismount-DiskImage -ImagePath "G:\"
    I really want to be able to achieve this just using the assigned drive letter [ G: ] as opposed to including the full name of the ISO. The reason is, this will be part of a script that runs and then after it has finished I want to unmount / eject the drive via the batch script.

    Thanks in advance.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #4

    @Paul Black,

    I just noticed this tutorial is for mounting and unmounting a drive/volume and not an ISO like below.

    You can use the PowerShell command to unmount an ISO.

    Mount or Unmount ISO and IMG file in Windows 10

    (In PowerShell)
    Dismount-DiskImage -DevicePath \\.\<drive letter>:

    OR

    (In command prompt)
    PowerShell Dismount-DiskImage -DevicePath \\.\<drive letter>:
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       #5

    Brink said:
    You can use the PowerShell command to unmount an ISO.

    Mount or Unmount ISO and IMG file in Windows 10

    (In PowerShell)
    Dismount-DiskImage -DevicePath \\.\<drive letter>:

    OR

    (In command prompt)
    PowerShell Dismount-DiskImage -DevicePath \\.\<drive letter>:
    I said I was having a weird day!
    Anyway, the second option above works great, thank you.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Paul Black said:
    I said I was having a weird day!
    Anyway, the second option above works great, thank you.
    You're most welcome.
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       #7

    Brink said:
    You're most welcome.
    For anybody following this thread at present or in the future, I added >nul to the end of the cmd to suppress the output as I will be using it in a batch script and there is no need for the output to be shown.

    @Brink, I don't know if you want to add that as an addition entry in the Tutorial?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Paul Black said:
    For anybody following this thread at present or in the future, I added >nul to the end of the cmd to suppress the output as I will be using it in a batch script and there is no need for the output to be shown.

    @Brink, I don't know if you want to add that as an addition entry in the Tutorial?
      My Computers


  9. Posts : 943
    windows 10 professional 64-bit, 22H2
       #9

    Deleting Volumes


    Hi Shawn:
    I looked at my mounted drives in the registry & I have a number of volumes, in addition to the lettered drives. I'm wondering if I can delete all these volumes & just keep the lettered ones.

    How to Mount and Unmount a Drive or Volume in Windows-image.png

    The reason that I want to is that sometimes, when I'm not careful, & I start Macrium Reflect, it has a number of these additional volumes listed & then says my backup was aborted because it can't find the drive.

    If I unplug all my external & thumb drives, reboot & then delete all the volumes, I assume they won't show up in Macrium Reflect & then I can make sure I have the correct lettered drive.

    Thank you for a wonderful tutorial!
      My Computers


 

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