Assign, change, or remove a drive letter Page 1 of 2

To assign, change, or remove a drive letter

Using the Windows interface

1. Open Computer Management (Local).

2. In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Where?

Computer Management (Local)

Storage
Disk Management
3. Right-click a partition, logical drive, or volume, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
4. Do one of the following:
 To assign a drive letter, click Add, click the drive letter you want to use, and then click OK.
 To modify a drive letter, click it, click Change, click the drive letter you want to use, and then click OK.
 To remove a drive letter, click it, and then click Remove.

Important
 Be careful when making drive-letter assignments because many MS-DOS and Windows programs make
references to a specific drive letter. For example, the path environment variable shows specific drive letters
in conjunction with program names.

Notes
 To open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Administrative
Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.
 You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete
this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you
from completing this procedure.
 A computer can use up to 26 drive letters. Drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives, but you
can assign these letters to removable drives if the computer does not have a floppy disk drive. Hard disk
drives in the computer receive letters C through Z, while mapped network drives are assigned drive letters in
reverse order (Z through B).
 You cannot change the drive letter of the system volume or boot volume.
 An error message may appear when you attempt to assign a letter to a volume, CD-ROM drive, or other
removable media device, possibly because it is in use by a program in the system. If this happens, close the
program accessing the volume or drive, and then click the Change Drive Letter and Paths command
again.
 Windows 2000 and Windows XP allow the static assignment of drive letters on volumes, partitions, and CD-
ROM drives. This means that you permanently assign a drive letter to a specific partition, volume, or CD-ROM
drive. When you add a new hard disk to an existing computer system, it will not affect statically assigned
drive letters.
 You can also mount a local drive at an empty folder on an NTFS volume using a drive path instead of a drive
letter. For more information, click Related Topics.

Using a command line

1. Open Command Prompt.

2. Type:
diskpart
3. At the DISKPART prompt, type:
list volume
Make note of the number of the simple volume whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or remove.
4. At the DISKPART prompt, type:
select volume n
Select the volume, where n is the volume's number, whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or
remove.
5. At the DISKPART prompt, type one of the following:
 assign letter=L

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Where L is the drive letter you want to assign or change.

 remove letter=L
Where L is the drive letter you want to remove.

Value Description
list volume Displays a list of basic and dynamic volumes on all disks.
Selects the specified volume, where n is the volume number, and shifts the focus to
it. If no volume is specified, the select command lists the current volume with
select volume
focus. You can specify the volume by number, drive letter, or mount point path. On
a basic disk, selecting a volume also gives the corresponding partition focus.
Assigns a drive letter, L, to the volume with focus. If no drive letter is specified,
assign letter=L then the next available drive letter is assigned. If the drive letter is already in use,
an error is generated.
Removes the drive letter, L, from the volume with focus. If no drive letter or mount
point is specified, then DiskPart removes the first drive letter or mount point it
encounters.

remove letter=L The remove command can be used to change the drive letter associated with a
removable drive. You cannot remove the drive letters on system, boot, or paging
volumes. In addition, you cannot remove the drive letter for an OEM partition, any
GPT partition with an unrecognized GUID, or any of the special, non-data, GPT
partitions such as the EFI system partition.
Notes
 To open a command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click
Command Prompt.
 You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete
this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you
from completing this procedure.
 A computer can use up to 26 drive letters. Drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives, but you
can assign these letters to removable drives if the computer does not have a floppy disk drive. Hard disk
drives in the computer receive letters C through Z, while mapped network drives are assigned drive letters in
reverse order (Z through B).
 You cannot change the drive letter of the system volume or boot volume.
 An error message may appear when you attempt to assign a letter to a volume, CD-ROM drive, or other
removable media device, possibly because it is in use by a program in the system. If this happens, close the
program accessing the volume or drive, and then click the Change Drive Letter and Paths command
again.
 Windows 2000 and Windows XP allow the static assignment of drive letters on volumes, partitions, and CD-
ROM drives. This means that you permanently assign a drive letter to a specific partition, volume, or CD-ROM
drive. When you add a new hard disk to an existing computer system, it will not affect statically assigned
drive letters.
 You can also mount a local drive at an empty folder on an NTFS volume using a drive path instead of a drive
letter. For more information, click Related Topics.
 For more information about DiskPart, click Related Topics.

Related Topics

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