How to change a drive letter in Windows 10

Windows identifies each connected drive and hard drive partition with a letter. This method also applies to CD and DVD players, external hard drives and even memory sticks and cards. Although the assigned letter depends on the system’s own criteria and is assigned automatically, it can be adjusted by Windows. You have to use the Control Panel for that. To access it, open Windows search and type “control panel“ a.

Open System PreferencesOpen System Preferences

Next you look for the section System and Security.

Open system optionsOpen system options

Choose from the list below Create and format hard disk partition). Keep in mind that you must have administrator rights on your account to gain access to this.

Open Disk ManagerOpen Disk Manager

Select the device or partition you want to change the letter for. Then right-click and open the option Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Change drive letterChange drive letter

In the dialog window that now opens, select the drive that you want to assign a new letter to and click on change.

Select driveSelect drive

Open the drop down menu next to Assign the following drive letter. Select the letter you want to assign to the selected drive or partition.

Select drive letterSelect drive letter

To save the changes, click OK.

confirm changeconfirm change

From that point on, the partition or device identifier will have changed. If you used this method to change the letter on an external hard drive or memory stick, the letter will remain the same each time you connect it to your computer. Avoid changing the letter assigned to the system partition, as this can cause serious errors on your computer. Make sure you only apply this process to external storage devices or secondary partitions.

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