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 »  Home  »  Miscellaneous Page 2  »  Change Hard and CD ROM Drive Letter in XP
Change Hard and CD ROM Drive Letter in XP
By  Super Admin  | Published  02/27/2005 | Miscellaneous Page 2 | Rating:
Change Hard and CD ROM Drive Letter in XP

1. Click the start button

2. Go into Administrative tools (either in the start button or in "All Programs"

3. From Administrative Tools, go into "Computer Management"

4. In "Computer Management", click on "Disk Management" under "Storage" from the left menu

5. You should see a window from the lower right hand corner open (it shows all the hard disk drives and cd-rom drives)

6. To change...

...hard drive, click on the hard disk with a blue horizonal bar, the box should be shaded; next right click that box that you desire to change the letter then click on "Change Letter Drive and Path"

...cd-rom drive, click on the box that you desire the drive letter; next right click that box that you desire to change the letter then click on "Change Letter Drive and Path"

7. click the "change..." button

8. from the "assign the following drive letter", select the letter you want to assign to the hard drive or the cd-rom drive

9. click ok

10. click ok

11. (optional) redo the whole step to reassign other hard drives or cd-rom drives


There! You have succeeded in changing the hard drive or cd-rom drive letter. Enjoy!

Notes: You can not change the drive letter of your boot or system drive this way. You can not assign drive letters that are already in use. Assign temporary letters as a workaround.

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Comments
  • Comment #1 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    the directions were so easy to follow
     
  • Comment #2 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    OK, but you need to have a readable CD in the CD drive for it to appear in Disk Management.
     
  • Comment #3 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Sorry, my last comment was wrong: you don't need a CD in the drive, but without one the drive will not appear in the upper right hand pane, only in the lower right hand graphical pane.
     
  • Comment #4 (Posted by texmant@yahoo.com)
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    that's great if you don't need to change a hard drive letter. My hard drive is drive F: and I need to change it to C: so that a program will install.
     
  • Comment #5 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    It says you can't change the boot drive this way, but does not state if there is a way to change the boot drive letter.
     
  • Comment #6 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Some of the comments seem silly. The OS, not the author has limitations. Good article that told me exactly how to change my drives lettering. Thank You.
     
  • Comment #7 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    smart,easy and good
     
  • Comment #8 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Clear and concise, unlike the XP help file, and exactly what I was looking for.
     
  • Comment #9 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    I got done what I wanted, with out stressing out a lot.
     
  • Comment #10 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Most excellent. Thank you!!!
     
  • Comment #11 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Thanks, just what i wanted
     
  • Comment #12 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    God Bless you , you just saved hundreds of hours of work on projects i had established in my computer ,,, thank you so much
     
  • Comment #13 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Doesn't mention limitations regarding renaming C: drives - as in transfering the system to a new hard driver using Symantec's Ghost.
     
  • Comment #14 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Can't change the system drive :( Now it's F:, but I read somewhere that if your system drive is not C: it's less possible to get a virus, because they're directed do C:windows... :)
     
  • Comment #15 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    txnks a lot i binched my head couse of that
     
  • Comment #16 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    This was the only help on the net which worked, by the time you find help on the microsoft site your pc would need updated ! thanks mw1@tesco.net
     
  • Comment #17 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Steps 1 & 2 should have been: 1) Start Button & select settings; 2) Select Control Panel & Click on Administrative Tools
     
  • Comment #18 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    does not work for boot drive
     
  • Comment #19 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Simple and effective steps 1 & 2 wrong though.
     
  • Comment #20 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Thanks for such easy and useful direction!
     
  • Comment #21 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    when i clicked the cange button windows denied
     
  • Comment #22 (Posted by Chi_Gas)
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    It does not always work. I have a 2 DVD drives, for whatever reason the slave drive drive letter will not remain the new letter I changed it to.
     
  • Comment #23 (Posted by Francis Byrne)
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    Easy steps, got it working first time, cheers!
     
  • Comment #24 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    yes exellent you just told me i cannot do what i realy whant to do .still better to know i supose
     
  • Comment #25 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    told me exactly what I needed to know. Thanks
     
  • Comment #26 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    'Administrative tools' contains nothing
     
  • Comment #27 (Posted by DJC)
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    Excellent; Clear and Concise Instructions easily helped me Getter Done.
     
  • Comment #28 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    windows cannot modify the system letter of your system volume or boot volume
     
  • Comment #29 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Dear Ilan22! Thanks! But I wrote the letter changing (in my question) exactly this (your) way. After rebooting the PC it happened again. Most of the times, but not all the time! (From 10 booting 7-8 bad changing) With regards: Peter (edward1)
     
  • Comment #30 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Great stuff...go nd get a work at Apple! :-)
     
  • Comment #31 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    I NEED TO ASSIGN MY HARDRIVE LETTER FROM H TO C: HOW CAN I DO THAT
     
  • Comment #32 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    This doesnt work.
     
  • Comment #33 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    I would mention that in order to see the CD-ROM in the list of Storage devices there must be something in it. If the drive is empty it will not show up.
     
  • Comment #34 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    The option does not show the cd/dvd drives
     
  • Comment #35 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Easy to understand and follow. Thanks.
     
  • Comment #36 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Fixed my problem in 30 seconds! Thanks!
     
  • Comment #37 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Found out exactly what I needed. :)
     
  • Comment #38 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    It did exactly what I wanted
     
  • Comment #39 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    iwill give it a try . I have to change the boot drive but will remove the c assigned to other drive then try to move the c drive open to boot. Will see if it works
     
  • Comment #40 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    That's great if you aren't changing the hard drive letter. My hdd letter is I but need to go to C for some programs to install. All I get is a message that tells me I can't do that even though I am not using c drive because it is blank.
     
  • Comment #41 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    it was just what I was looking for and needed
     
  • Comment #42 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Thanks!
     
  • Comment #43 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    cant change the boot drive to a different letter...
     
  • Comment #44 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    I always wanted to know how to do this! Thanks!
     
  • Comment #45 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    it was very very help ful for me ,thanks
     
  • Comment #46 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    windows cannot change the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume , you need to do it through the registry and restart. In other words you cant change your hard drive letter this way. oh and administrative tools is in the controlpanel
     
  • Comment #47 (Posted by rudy)
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    This works for the boot drive 1. Make a full system backup of the computer and system state. 2. Log on as an Administrator. 3. Start Regedt32.exe. 4. Go to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMMountedDevices 5. Click MountedDevices. 6. On the Security menu, click Permissions. 7. Verify that Administrators have full control. Change this back when you are finished with these steps. 8. Quit Regedt32.exe, and then start Regedit.exe. 9. Locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMMountedDevices 10. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "DosDevicesC:". 11. Right-click DosDevicesC:, and then click Rename. Note You must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry key. 12. Rename it to an unused drive letter "DosDevices:". This frees up drive letter C. 13. Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "DosDevicesD:". 14. Right-click DosDevicesD:, and then click Rename. 15. Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "DosDevicesC:". 16. Click the value for DosDevices:, click Rename, and then name it back to "DosDevicesD:". 17. Quit Regedit, and then start Regedt32. 18. Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators (this should probably be Read Only). 19. Restart the computer.
     
  • Comment #48 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    Easy to follow and did "what it said on the tin". Thanks
     
  • Comment #49 (Posted by an unknown user)
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    2. Go into Administrative tools (either in the start button or in "All Programs" Wasn't there. I searched every folder. Administrative tools can be found in Control Panel in Classic View though.
     
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