How to Change the Letter of a Drive in Windows 11

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This summary explains how to change or assign a drive letter to storage devices in Windows 11. Windows 11 automatically allocates letters to connected devices. A and B are traditionally for floppy disks, C for the system’s drive, and D for the second hard drive or CD/DVD drive. Other letters are assigned alphabetically. Users can…

This post shows students and new users how to change or assign a drive letter to an external or internal storage device in Windows 11.

Windows 11 automatically assigns available letters to connected internal or external hard drives. Letters from A through Z are used to identify and name storage devices attached to Windows.

A and B have always been assigned to floppy disk drives by default. However, you probably will never see a computer with a slot for a floppy disk. In this case, you can assign A or B to another storage device connected to your computer.

Letter C is assigned to the system’s main drive, where the Windows operating system is installed. In a multi-drive computer, the letter D is assigned to the second hard drive or CD/DVD drive if a second drive isn’t available.

Letters E, F, G, and so forth are assigned based on devices connected, with the first device being assigned the next unassigned letter in the alphabet.

If you’d like to name a drive other than what is automatically assigned, the steps below will show you how to do that.

To get started with assigning a drive letter to connected storage devices, follow the steps below:

How to change drive letter in Windows 11

Again, letters are automatically assigned to the storage device to identify them as they’re connected to Windows. If you want to assign a different letter than the one automatically assigned, use the steps below to do that.

Windows 11 has a centralized location for the majority of its settings. Everything can be done, from system configurations to creating new users and updating Windows from its System Settings pane.

To get to System Settings, you can use the Windows key + I shortcut or click on Start ==> Settings, as shown in the image below:

Alternatively, you can use the search box on the taskbar and search for Settings. Then select to open it.

Windows Settings pane should look similar to the image below. In Windows Settings, click System, and select Storage on the right pane of your screen, as shown in the image below.

On the Storage settings pane, click on Advanced storage settings to expand.

Then select Disks & volumes as highlighted below.

On the Disks & Volumes settings pane, select the disk drive you want to rename or change its letter. Then select Properties.

On the drive Properties pane, Windows automatically assigned an available letter. However, we want to change the letter from the one assigned to a different one.

Click on the Change drive letter button to change it.

Choose any available letter for the drive on the pop-up screen.

Then click OK to apply.

The drive will immediately be changed to the special letter you chose. File Explorer will now reference the drive by the new letter.

That should do it!

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to change the drive letter in Windows 11. If you find any error above, please use the comment form below to report.

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One response to “How to Change the Letter of a Drive in Windows 11”

  1. A Guide to Changing Drive Letters in Windows 11 - Geek Rewind

    […] post describes changing a drive or volume letter in Windows […]

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