Can I change drive letters?

sprite1275 · 10 Jan 2015 at 20:21

Just done a reinstall of windows and after doing all the driver updates, window updates I've just looked and it's selected my HDD as drive "E" and my disc drive as "D"

It's set my ocd into overdrive so my question is;

Can I swap the two drive letters around? Will it effect the OS as that's how it's selected them in the installation?

easyrider · 10 Jan 2015 at 20:29

No

Assign another letter to D then apply....then now D is free you can assign E to D leaving E free then assign E to D

sprite1275 · 10 Jan 2015 at 20:43

easyrider said:
No

Assign another letter to D then apply....then now D is free you can assign E to D leaving E free then assign E to D

Lol yea I now what your getting at. Is it OK to do that then, it won't effect the OS?

easyrider · 10 Jan 2015 at 21:39

sprite1275 said:
Lol yea I now what your getting at. Is it OK to do that then, it won't effect the OS?

No

hyperseven · 10 Jan 2015 at 22:11

dont change the OS drive letter, it will not boot.
Everything in the registry, system variables etc are pointing to E:

easyrider · 10 Jan 2015 at 22:14

hyperseven said:
dont change the OS drive letter, it will not boot.
Everything in the registry, system variables etc are pointing to E:

I assumed he was talking about a second drive and DVD drive ....

Not sure why the install would choose e for boot.

hyperseven · 10 Jan 2015 at 22:16

easyrider said:
I assumed he was talking about a second drive and DVD drive ....

Not sure why the install would choose e for boot.

Can't really make it out from what he has said :confused:

OP: could you post a screen shot from disk management

GAM8LE · 12 Jan 2015 at 13:31

Windows normally forces drive C where the OS directory is, this is very strange.

Please post a screenshot from disk management showing this.

If you want it back to C you "can" change it, but it will mean nothing will boot as people said so what you could do is change it, and format it and then reinstalled the OS to the newly assigned "C" drive.

Grenache · 12 Jan 2015 at 15:15

First, check which drive is the system drive, as you should not attempt to change that one:
From a command prompt: set systemdrive
will tell you.

Now, if that is not the one you want to change, run
diskmgmt
to start the disk management console.

To change a letter, right-click on a volume and setect Change Drive Letter.

If the letter you want to use is already used, change that one to something else first.
E.g. to swap D and E:
D->F
E->D
F->E

Regards
G

Craiig · 12 Jan 2015 at 16:10

easyrider said:
No

Assign another letter to D then apply....then now D is free you can assign E to D leaving E free then assign E to D

+1

bledd · 12 Jan 2015 at 16:42

Reinstall Windows, but remove all other drives before doing so.

Put your Windows HDD/SSD in the lowest SATA port (ie PORT0) -assuming it's a quick port.

---

^Rule #1 when installing Windows

I wouldn't bother attempting to edit the current drive back to C. It will just cause hassle as many links will be set to that letter. Best option is to format.