How to change Drive Letter for External Drives in Windows

Are you tired of having to constantly check which drive letter your external drive is assigned to?

Well, have no fear because today we’re going to walk you through the process of changing the drive letter of your external drive in Windows.

Maybe you have multiple external hard drives and want to assign them specific letters for organization purposes, or maybe you’re just tired of having to remember which letter your drive is assigned to.

Whatever the reason may be, changing the drive letter is a quick and easy process that can save you a lot of headache in the long run.

In this post, we’ll go over how to find the current drive letter, how to change it using the Disk Management tool in Windows, and how to verify that the changes have been made. So, grab your computer and let’s get started!


Finding the current drive letter

Alright, now that we’ve covered the why and what of changing drive letters, let’s dive into the how. First things first, we need to figure out which drive letter we’re looking to change.

To view all of the drive letters currently assigned to your connected drives, we’ll be using the Disk Management tool in Windows.

computer-management

To access this tool, go to your Start menu and type in “Computer Management” and hit Enter. Then select Disk Management Tab.

disk-management

You should now see a list of all of your connected drives and their assigned drive letters. Take a look at the list and identify the drive that you want to change the letter for.

It’s important to make sure you’re selecting the correct drive, so double check that the drive is the correct one before proceeding.

You don’t want to accidentally change the wrong drive letter and end up with more headaches than you started with!

Once you’ve identified the drive, take note of its current drive letter. This will come in handy later when we start the process of changing the letter. Now, we’re ready to move on to the next step!

Changing the drive letter

Alright, we’ve made it to the meat of this post – changing the drive letter. This is where the fun begins!

First, open the Disk Management tool in Windows.

Once the Disk Management window is open, locate the drive you identified in the previous step and right-click on it. A menu should appear with an option to “Change Drive Letter and Paths.”

select-drive-to-change-letter

Click on this option and a new window will appear.

Here, you’ll see the current drive letter assigned to the drive and an option to “Change” the letter. Click on “Change” and a new window will appear where you can select the new drive letter you want to assign to the drive.

select-drive-letter

Make sure to choose a letter that isn’t already in use by another drive, otherwise Windows will give you an error message. Once you’ve chosen the new letter, click on “OK” and the change will be made.

change-drive-letter

It’s important to keep in mind that changing the drive letter might cause issues with certain programs or files that were previously accessing the drive with the old letter.

So, be sure to double check that everything is still working properly after the change.

Also, it’s always a good idea to backup your important data before performing any changes like this.

And that’s it! You’ve successfully changed the drive letter of your external drive in Windows. Wasn’t that easy? Now let’s move on to the last step of verifying the changes.

Verifying the changes

Alright, we’re in the home stretch! The drive letter has been changed, but how do we know for sure that the changes have taken effect?

First, let’s check the Disk Management tool again. Go to your Start menu and type in “disk management” and hit Enter.

Locate the drive you just changed the letter for and check that the new letter is displayed. If it is, then the change was successful.

verify-drive-letter

You can also check the drive letter in File Explorer. Navigate to This PC or My Computer and check the drive letter of the external drive. If it’s the new letter you assigned, then you’re all set!

verify-drive-letter-my-computer

Now that the drive letter has been changed, you can access the drive with the new letter just like you would with the old one.

Go ahead and open up some files and folders, or transfer some data to make sure everything is working properly.

And that’s it! You’ve successfully changed the drive letter of your external drive and verified that the changes have taken effect. Congratulations! You’re now a pro at changing drive letters in Windows.

Keep in mind that if you have any software or programs that are using the old drive letter to access the external drive, you might need to update the software’s settings to point to the new letter.

Hope this post was helpful and informative. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions or concerns.


Conclusion

And there you have it, tech enthusiasts! You’ve made it through the entire process of changing the drive letter of your external drive in Windows.

To summarize, we went over how to:

  1. Find the current drive letter
  2. Change the drive letter using the Disk Management tool
  3. Verify that the changes have been made

By following these steps, you should now be able to change the drive letter of your external drive with ease.

We hope this post was helpful and informative for you. Changing drive letters can be a bit confusing, but with the right guidance, it’s a quick and easy process that can save you a lot of headaches in the long run.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or reach out to us. We’re always happy to help.

Thanks for reading and happy tech-ing!