Menu
homeiOS

Rename drive letter in windows 7. How to change drive letter


Welcome to ! A short instruction on how to change the drive letter in Windows 7 or Windows 8. It seems like a simple question, but many people don’t know how to change the letters local disks. There are a couple of ways, but first, just make sure that the disk is detected correctly by the system. This can be found out by right-clicking on “Computer” > “Management” > “Disk Management”.

There are special cases when easy replacement drive letters may help solve another problem. For example, if Windows does not see or does not find the DVR hard drive connected to a computer or laptop, then the task of connecting it and watching the recorded video is not so trivial. The reason may lie in file system, in which the DVR is formatted, or simple change letters can help you see the contents of the storage. But let's return to the topic of this note and find out how to change the system drive letter.


How to change the drive letter in Windows

If the disk is identified by the system in “Computer” > “Management” > “Disk Management” is identified, but for some reason does not open or is not visible in Explorer, then you should assign a different letter, also in disk management. There is another way to get there:


  1. Open Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Computer Management. If you are asked to enter an administrator password, you need to enter it or do everything.
  2. In the left pane, click on "Disk Management".
  3. Next, right-click on the desired drive to which you want to assign a letter and click the “Change drive letter or drive path” button. We hope that required disk It won't be difficult to find.
  4. To assign a letter, click the Add button, select the letter you want to use, and click OK.

If you have external drive and it is not detected correctly by the system, then before changing the letter of the removable drive, first try disabling and re-enabling the USB controller in “Control Panel” > “System” > “Device Manager” > “USB Controllers”. In Device Manager you need to disable and re-enable everything USB controllers. This may help restore USB controllers.

Also similar problem may also be external in nature, check its connection to USB or SATA interfaces, as well as himself USB connector for performance if it is an external removable data storage. We hope this little tip helped you change the drive letter in Windows 7 or Windows 8.

This article will teach you how to add, change, or remove a drive letter for a partition, volume, or disk device.

Warnings

Letters A and B are reserved for Floppy drives if motherboard supports floppy disks if the drive is physically connected and enabled in the device settings in the BIOS. Otherwise, letters A and B are available for assignment to drives and partitions.

The letter C is reserved for the partition with the operating system installed Windows system. Do not change the letter C under any circumstances.

After changing or deleting a drive letter, all shortcuts whose properties indicate absolute path to files or folders will stop working.

Method 1: Using the Disk Management GUI

1. Open Control Panel (View: Icons) > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.

2. From the left menu, select Disk management.

3. Right-click the partition, volume, or drive for which you want to change the letter.

4. In the opened context menu select command.

5. To change the drive letter:

5.1. Click the button Change.

5.2. In the next window opposite the command Assign a drive letter (A-Z) select a new letter from the drop-down list and click the button OK.

5.3. Confirm the letter change by pressing the button Yes.

6. To remove a drive letter:

6.1. Click the button Delete.

6.2. Click Yes to confirm deleting the drive letter.

Removing a drive letter does not delete the partition and all the data stored on it, but the partition no longer appears in the Computer folder, although you can still see it in Disk Management.

7. To add a drive letter:

7.1. Click the button Add.

7.2. In the window that opens, opposite the inscription Assign a drive letter (A-Z) select the desired letter from the drop-down list and click the button OK.

Method 2. Through the Windows 7 Registry Editor

Warnings

Before you rename a registry setting, make sure that the letter you want to assign to the drive is not used by another drive.

Great care should be taken when editing the registry.

1. Press the WINDOWS+R key combination, type regedit and press OK.

2. In the Registry Editor, open the section:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

All partitions and drives to which letters are assigned are displayed in this registry section as binary parameters \DosDevices\X: (instead of X is the letter of the corresponding drive or partition).

3. To change the drive letter:

Rename.

Enter the desired letter and left-click on the free space.

4. To remove a drive letter:

Right-click the drive letter option you want to change, and from the menu that appears, select Delete.

Confirm deleting the registry value.

If you have several disks installed on your computer, and they are also divided into partitions, then when you install the operating system, the latter will automatically assign a letter to the partition. There is no need to worry, because you can change the letters yourself. I'll tell you how to do this right now.

ATTENTION! Before we begin, I want to make one important announcement that will save you from unpleasant consequences. You can change letters only on those disks or partitions where you do not have operating system. If you change the letter in the partition that contains the operating system, next time it simply will not start and, at a minimum, you will have to restore the system. Even if you change the letter on the drive where you have games installed, they will no longer launch from the desktop shortcut because the physical address has changed.

Based on what was written above, we can draw a simple conclusion - it is best to rename only those disks or partitions on which separate files, for example, music, videos, photos, etc. If programs are installed, you will have to change the path for them so that they are launched from a shortcut on the desktop. This is not a problem if we're talking about about a couple of applications, and if there are hundreds of them... You understand, it will take a lot of time. In general, you perform all actions at your own peril and risk. Be careful.

And now - to active actions.

How to change drive letter on Windows?

Both for Windows 7 and for Windows 8 the process will be identical.

Find the “Computer” icon on the desktop. Right-click on it and select “Manage” from the menu.

If you don't find the Computer icon on your desktop, click on the Start button. A menu will appear, on the right side of which you will see the “Computer” item. Do everything the same as described above.

The “Computer Management” window will open in front of you. Find "Disk Management" and click on it.

A list of disks and partitions will open. Choose the one you need. So, in my case it will be drive E. I right-click on it so that a menu appears, and then select “Change drive letter or drive path” from it.

A window appears with the name of the disk. Click on the “Change” button.

In the new window on the right side there is a list of unoccupied letters. Select the letter you need and click OK.

That's all, the disk has been renamed.

Accordingly, you can rename other disks in exactly the same way. Just don’t forget about the programs that are installed on them - they may stop working for the current session and you will need to register a new physical address for the shortcuts (for this, changing the drive letter in the shortcut properties is enough).

After Windows installations All sections are automatically assigned titles. By default, the system one is assigned the letter C, and the rest are assigned further in the alphabet: D, E, etc. If you connect a flash drive, it will be assigned to the next one in the order of priority. For example, F. Connected external hard disk - it will be called G.

What to do if you don't like the standard name? You can rename the drive letter to whatever you like. There are 26 of them in total: from A to Z.

The first two - A and B - are already occupied. They are "reserved" for floppy drives. Although if you don’t have them (they haven’t been installed on modern PCs and laptops for a long time), then you can easily assign one of these letters to the local partition.

How to change drive letter in Windows? This is done in literally 5 minutes. Or faster. Moreover, its change in different Windows versions performs almost identically. Plus there is universal methods, which work for Windows 10, 8.1, 7 and even XP. Step-by-step instruction See below for information on how to change the drive letter. This is done very simply, and now you will see for yourself.

Let's start with the good old "seven". So, to change the drive letter in Windows 7, do the following:

The first stage is completed. It will be displayed in front of you working window, where the drive letter is changed. All available partitions are displayed here (there are 3 of them in the screenshot), plus connected flash drives and external HDD hard drives (if any).

Select any of them, right-click and click on the line “Change drive letter or path”.

A small window will open - click on the “Change” button.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated here. Just a couple of mouse clicks, a few minutes - and you're done. Go ahead.

How to assign a drive letter in Windows 8?

Assigning a letter to a section in the figure eight is also very simple. And much faster than in the previous version. To change the drive letter in Windows 8:

  1. Open Start.
  2. Write diskmgmt.msc in the search field.
  3. Press Enter.

Or click Win+R and copy this command to Open.

After this it will immediately appear desired window where you can reassign the drive letter. Then everything is done in the same way: select the desired local partition and rename it.

How to change drive letter in Windows 10?

Tens users shouldn’t have any difficulties either. After all, changing the drive letter in Windows 10 is very easy. All you need to do is right-click on the “Start” button and select “Manage” from the menu.

After this, a familiar window will open where you can assign a letter hard drive or flash drive. This is done exactly the same as in Windows 7 or 8.

What to do if after a while you no longer like the new name? How to return the drive letter? Open this window again and restore the previous name.

Finally, I will note a few nuances that you need to know:

  1. The first two methods are universal. They work for all OS: Windows 7, 8, 10 and even XP. So if you need to change the drive letter in Windows XP, choose one of the first two options.
  2. After renaming the partition, a warning message will appear indicating that some programs may no longer run. That is why local disk It is strictly not recommended to touch C at all.
  3. After appointment new letter Shortcuts that referenced that local section may not work correctly for you. Therefore, be sure to check their performance. And if something happens, create new shortcuts.

As a rule, the need to change the partition name appears only in one case - when you use an external HDD drive that is permanently connected to a computer or laptop. If you don't like the given name, you can change it. Similar actions You can do this for a flash drive, but it is usually used only temporarily.

However, there is another situation when a name is not assigned to a new device. This usually applies to the same external HDD drives. In this case, you need to manually set the drive letter using the method described above.

That's all. Now you know how to change the drive letter in Windows 7, 8, 10 and XP. Choose any of these methods and go ahead. But do not forget that there is always a risk of breaking programs (or installed games). Therefore, before assigning a new name to a section, think twice about whether you really need it.

Modern operating systems are aimed at maximizing the simplification of all operations and computer management.

This allows any person to perform certain manipulations without having the skills computer technician. In particular, you can change letter designation local disk.

Changing the drive letter or flash drive in Windows Disk Management

Not everyone knows, but you can rename a local drive in Windows 7 without any special software. The operating system has tools that allow you to perform such an operation.

Important! System media(on which the operating system is installed) cannot be renamed. If you try to do this, an error message will appear.

Control window

The first thing you need to do is open the control window (an element that provides control over all devices).

To do this we do the following:

  1. find the “Start” button and click on it;
  2. In the search bar we type “Management”;
  3. this will result in a wide list various utilities. You need to select the top one called “Computer Management” and open it.

You can enter compmgmt.msc in the line and immediately press Enter. The item you are looking for (device management) will open. The described procedures can only be performed with Administrator rights.

Changing the letter

To change the letter you will need to perform the following manipulations:


Video: changing the drive letter in Windows

Result of action

As a result, the system will ask you to confirm your actions. This is due to the fact that the section has a certain software. Any operations with the storage medium can make adjustments to its operation. If the media is clean, no confirmation will be required.

It is recommended to close all applications stored in this section. Also don't forget about active programs located in the tray. Usually this is antivirus, torrent, Skype, etc. If they are not closed, there is a high probability of critical errors appearing.

At the end, you will need to restart your computer, because only after that all changes will take effect. If serious errors occur in the system (for example, some applications stop working), you can restore the system. To do this, you will need to insert the OS media and run the appropriate utility.

If you change the media name itself, you cannot use the following;con, com, aux, prn, nul, lpt. This is due to the fact that these words are reserved for system data.

How to rename hard drive C using Norton PartitionMagic 8.0

If partition C is system, then standard methods you won't be able to rename it. If you still try to do this, the entire operating system will inevitably crash.

However, Norton PartitionMagic 8.0 allows you to change even system partitions. In addition, it can be used to optimize system operation and achieve maximum performance.

So, to execute this procedure, do the following: