This is weird..... (Drive letter assignment shenanigans)

skankeh · 7 Nov 2021 at 19:55

I've done a fresh install of Windows 11 (installed on PCIe NVMe SSD), for some strange reason a number of programs are listing my SATA SSD as system disk and even listing the incorrect driver letter (should be e:\ but showing as c:\). Even stranger, in HWMonitor the used and free capacity is also swapped.

Intel Optane shows the SATA SSD as System drive (wrong).
In disk management the PCIe SSD is C: and the SATA SSD is E: (correct).

The SATA SSD has been reformatted since installing Windows 11.
Some SSD Benchmarking utilities also show the incorrect drive letter and used capacity.

Ignore the drive actually labelled "NVMe" there are 2 NVMe drives installed.

Check the image for all the weirdness.

Has anyone seen this sort of issue before and knows how to resolve it?

Buffalo2102 · 8 Nov 2021 at 09:55

What happens if you power down, disconnect the SSD and then power up again? Does Intel Optane and HW Monitor then show the system drive correctly?

skankeh · 8 Nov 2021 at 19:25

This happened:

I tried startup repair and repairing BCD using Windows USB, no dice.

Thing is, I didn't have this SATA SSD connected when I installed Windows so I have no idea why it decided to need it attached to boot.

Stumped.

Buffalo2102 · 8 Nov 2021 at 19:31

You're right - it's weird.

I don't think I've seen anything like that in all my years so I don't think I'm going to be any help, sorry. Hopefully someone else can step in with suggestions.

bremen1874 · 8 Nov 2021 at 20:33

Did you disconnect all drives except the boot drive during the install?

edit: just saw that you said you had.