How to Change and Assign Drive Letter in Windows 10
By default, Windows 10 will automatically assign an available drive letter to any connected internal and external storage devices.
Windows progresses through the alphabet from A to Z to assign available drive letters to devices as connected.
- Windows usually assigns the drive letters A and B for floppy drives, but they can still be used to manually assign to drives if wanted.
- The drive letter C can only be used for the drive Windows is installed on. If you multi boot operating systems, the currently running Windows will always show its drive letter as C.
- If non-assigned drives are connected then the letters D onwards are allocated in turn.
- If the assigned drive is not connected then Windows will give away its drive letter as part of these allocations.
- If the drive with the assigned drive letter is connected later on then it will simply be allocated the next letter that happens to be available.
If you use multiple USB drives, then you may have noticed that the driver letter can sometimes be different each time you connect one.
If you like, you can change the drive letter of a drive to be any available drive letter you want instead of the driver letter automatically assigned by Windows. When you change the drive letter of a drive, it will assign letter to the drive that will not change on your PC unless you change it or possibly when you disconnect the drive. The assigned drive letters are stored in the registry per drive referenced by their volume ID like in option 4. This doesn't set the drive letter in stone to the device.
See also: Change a drive letter | Microsoft Docs
This tutorial will show you different ways on how to change the drive letter of a drive to assign a permanent drive letter you want to the drive in Windows 10.
You must be signed in as an administrator to change or assign a drive letter.
For a Windows 11 version of this tutorial, see:
Change Drive Letter in Windows 11
Contents
- Option One: To Change Drive Letter in Disk Management
- Option Two: To Change Drive Letter in Command Prompt
- Option Three: To Change Drive Letter in PowerShell
- Option Four: To Change Drive Letter in Registry Editor
- Option Five: To Change Drive Letter in Settings
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)
Click/tap on the Add button instead if the drive doesn't have a drive letter assigned to it.
4 Select (dot) Assign the following drive letter, select an available drive letter you want to assign, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
5 Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)
6 When finished, you can close Disk Management if you like.
1 Open an elevated command prompt.
2 Typediskpart
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
3 Typelist volume
into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
4 Make note of the volume number (ex: 5) for the drive letter (ex: "F") of the drive (volume) you want to change.
5 Type the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
select volume <volume number>
Substitute <volume number> in the command above with the actual volume number (ex: "5") from step 4 above for the drive you want to change the drive letter of.
For example:select volume 5
6 Type the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.7 When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.
assign letter=<new drive letter>
Substitute <new drive letter> in the command above with the actual new drive letter (ex: "G") you want to assign to the drive.
For example:assign letter=G
If the new drive letter you assign is not available, you will get an error message indicating so in the command prompt. You will just need to repeat this step to assign an available drive letter.
1 Open an elevated PowerShell.
2 TypeGet-Partition
into the elevated PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
3 Make note of the drive letter (ex: "G") of the drive you want to change.
4 Type the command below into the elevated PowerShell, and press Enter.
Get-Partition -DriveLetter <current drive letter> | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter <new drive letter>
Substitute <current drive letter> in the command above with the actual current drive letter (ex: "G") of the drive you want to change.
Substitute <new drive letter> in the command above with the actual new drive letter (ex: "F") you want to assign to the drive.
For example:Get-Partition -DriveLetter G | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter F
If the new drive letter you assign is not available, you will get an error message indicating so in PowerShell. You will just need to repeat this step to assign an available drive letter.
5 When finished, you can close the elevated PowerShell if you like.
1 Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
2 Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
3 In the right pane of the MountedDevices key, right click or press and hold on the binary (REG_BINARY) value (ex: "\DosDevices\G:") for the drive letter (ex: "G") of the drive you want to change, and click/tap on Rename. (see screenshot below)
4 Rename only the drive letter part of the binary (REG_BINARY) value (ex: "\DosDevices\G:") name with an available drive letter (ex: "\DosDevices\F:") you want for the drive instead, and press Enter to apply. (see screenshot below)
5 When finished, you can close Registry Editor.
6 Sign out and sign in, or restart the computer to apply.
This option is only available starting with Windows 10 build 20197.
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the System icon.
2 Click/tap on Storage on the left side, and click/tap on the Manage Disks and Volumes link on the right side. (see screenshot below)
3 Expand open the disk (ex: "Disk 2") that contains the volume you want to change the drive letter of. (see screenshot below)
4 Click/tap on the drive (ex: "F") you want to change the drive letter of, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)
5 Click/tap on the Change drive letter button under the Volume Data section. (see screenshot below)
6 Select a drive letter (ex: "G") you want in the drop menu, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
7 You can now close Settings if you like.
That's it,
Shawn
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