Change Hard Drive & Optical Drive Letters

[Guest]

I'd like to change my Hard Drive Letters to:
(C) Hard Drive
(D) Hard Drive
(E) Hard Drive
(F) DVD-RW
(G) DVD-RW

Presently my HDs bear letters and numbers ie
Hard Drive 1 (C
Hard Drive 2 (F
Hard Drive 3 (G
DVD-RW Drive (D
DVD-RW Drive (E

I find the present order quite annoying. Pls, where in the registry can I
make the changes? Does the lettes Have to be shown as (C or can the colon
be omitted?
I'd welcome any suggestions. Thx

 

[Alias]

I'd like to change my Hard Drive Letters to:
(C) Hard Drive
(D) Hard Drive
(E) Hard Drive
(F) DVD-RW
(G) DVD-RW

Presently my HDs bear letters and numbers ie
Hard Drive 1 (C
Hard Drive 2 (F
Hard Drive 3 (G
DVD-RW Drive (D
DVD-RW Drive (E

I find the present order quite annoying. Pls, where in the registry can I
make the changes? Does the lettes Have to be shown as (C or can the colon
be omitted?
I'd welcome any suggestions. Thx

Right click on My Computer and choose "Manage" and change the letters there.

Alias

Use the Reply to Sender feature of your news reader program to email me.
Utiliza Responder al Remitente para mandarme un mail.

 

[Richard Urban]

Using disk management, you have to get the optical drives out of the way. I
find it is best to designate them as Y and Z. This prohibits them from
getting in the way when you are adding a new drive or partitioning an
existing drive.

Then, you will have to reboot. After that, D: and E: will be free. Change
your hard drive partitions to these letters and reboot again. You will be
good to go.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Ron Sommer]

Right click on My Computer and choose "Manage" and change the letters
there.

Alias

Use the Reply to Sender feature of your news reader program to email me.
Utiliza Responder al Remitente para mandarme un mail.

Right click on My Computer and choose "Manage".
Click on Disk Management.
Right click on a drive, Change drive letters and paths.
Change the DVD-Rw letters to R and S.
Change the hard drive letters to D and E.
Change the DVD-RW letters to F and G.

This is what you will have:
Hard Drive 1 (C
Hard Drive 2 (D
Hard Drive 3 (E
DVD-RW Drive (F
DVD-RW Drive (G

You can change the hard drive name by right clicking on a drive, Properties.
Windows adds the drive letter after the drive name.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I'd like to change my Hard Drive Letters to:
(C) Hard Drive
(D) Hard Drive
(E) Hard Drive
(F) DVD-RW
(G) DVD-RW

Presently my HDs bear letters and numbers ie
Hard Drive 1 (C
Hard Drive 2 (F
Hard Drive 3 (G
DVD-RW Drive (D
DVD-RW Drive (E

I find the present order quite annoying. Pls, where in the registry
can I make the changes? Does the lettes Have to be shown as (C or
can the colon be omitted?
I'd welcome any suggestions. Thx

Others have told you how to do it. I want to add a caution. If you have
software installed on a drive whose letter you change, that software will
stop working if you change the drive's drive letter.Almost all programs but
a few very small ones, have references to where they are located throughout
Windows, and if you change the drive letter they are imstalled on, those
references will all be wrong.

There is software available which purports to find all the references and
change them for you (such as COA2.exe), but in my experience these do not do
a perfect job.

 

[Guest]

Thx for replying Alias. It was a start but I needed explicit details as I'd
never been in that area before.

 

[Guest]

Ron your explanation was excellent. One I could follow - good idea to get
the Optical drives out of the way while changing the letters.
I just noticed now that u say to click on Properties to change the name ...
where
should I do that? In WExplorer or in Disk Mgmt or does it matter?

 

[Guest]

Richard Thx. I followed your instructions as to rebooting after each change
then proceed to the next step. I wouldn't have thought of doing that.
I tried to use TweakUI v2.10 and Keith's 09Dec04 instructions to correct the
Path for Option 2 to Select 4 - Drive Letters before description. I failed
miserably. One attempt I ended up with the Drive letters after the name and
the other two attempts resulted in no Drive letters. I ended up doing it in
the Registry - easier besides being successful. Has that been corrected in
a newer version than I was using 2.10? Too confusing for a Novice.

 

[Guest]

I hadn't read this before doing my changes! I'm so lucky I didn't have to
change the letter on my C Drive. Still this made me feel weak, knowing how
close I was to having to do a format. Maybe instructions on changing Drive
letters, especially the C Drive, should be preceded by this warning. Thx for
posting this.

 

[Ron Sommer]

in Disk Management.
--
Ron Sommer

Ron your explanation was excellent. One I could follow - good idea to get
the Optical drives out of the way while changing the letters.
I just noticed now that u say to click on Properties to change the name
...
where
should I do that? In WExplorer or in Disk Mgmt or does it matter?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I hadn't read this before doing my changes! I'm so lucky I didn't
have to change the letter on my C Drive. Still this made me feel
weak, knowing how close I was to having to do a format. Maybe
instructions on changing Drive letters, especially the C Drive,
should be preceded by this warning. Thx for posting this.

You're welcome, Edna. Glad to help.

Assuming that your C drive is the one with WIndows installed on it, that's
the one drive letter you wouldn't have been able to change anyway. Windows
protects you against doing this.

 

[Richard Urban]

TweakUI doesn't do all things equally well. In fact, it is an unsupported
tool from Microsoft. Some things just have to be done the correct (and
complicated, time consuming) way. (-:

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Guest]

Since changing my HD Letters which are now as I wanted them, and show
accurately in My Computer and WExplorer, I have what may be a problem in
Computer Mgmt, Disk Mgmt.
My 3 HDs in the upper and lwr portions of this Window, used to read:
Hard Drive 1 (C Drive Letter wasn't Changed.
Hard Drive 2 (F Drive Letter Changed to (D
Hard Drive 3 (G Drive Letter Changed to (E
now read in this Window only, not in My Computer or WExplorer
Hard Drive 1
Hard Drive 2
Hard Drive 3
I rt click, say Hard Drive 3,
click Change Drive Letter or Paths,
click Add,
"Assign the following drive letter" is enabled
but ... the drop down Menu starts with an "H".

I have also, still in Disk Mgmt: rt click say Hard Drive 3, Properties,
enter: (E in front of the words Hard Drive 3.
Result in Disk Mgmt look fine but ...
not in My Computer and WExplorer: (E (E Hard Drive 3.

I tried putting the (E AFTER Hard Drive 3
(The letter in Disk Mgmt was, prior to changes, shown After Hard Drive)
Result in My Computer and WExplorer : (E Hard Drive 3 (E.

Should I be concerned that the Letter isn't showing in Disk Mgmt AND that
the Add Menu has lost all the letters from A to G.
H is unused but I to M is used by Removable Disks. I dislike that long
string of letters showing in WExplorer but ... if necessary I'll live with
them.

Also I'll mention this now as I think it's related ... Each one of my
folders in WExpl. has lost the Sharing & Security Window I USED to have being:
Share this folder / Do Not Share.
I have - well it's different. I no longer have those boxes to
enable/disable.
I'm so sorry for this long post but I wanted it to be clearly defined as to
what I was seeing. Too bad we can't send Pix.

 

[Ron Sommer]

In Disk Mgmt, View, Top, check Volume List
Was Disk List checked before?
--
Ron Sommer

Since changing my HD Letters which are now as I wanted them, and show
accurately in My Computer and WExplorer, I have what may be a problem in
Computer Mgmt, Disk Mgmt.
My 3 HDs in the upper and lwr portions of this Window, used to read:
Hard Drive 1 (C Drive Letter wasn't Changed.
Hard Drive 2 (F Drive Letter Changed to (D
Hard Drive 3 (G Drive Letter Changed to (E
now read in this Window only, not in My Computer or WExplorer
Hard Drive 1
Hard Drive 2
Hard Drive 3
I rt click, say Hard Drive 3,
click Change Drive Letter or Paths,
click Add,
"Assign the following drive letter" is enabled
but ... the drop down Menu starts with an "H".

I have also, still in Disk Mgmt: rt click say Hard Drive 3, Properties,
enter: (E in front of the words Hard Drive 3.
Result in Disk Mgmt look fine but ...
not in My Computer and WExplorer: (E (E Hard Drive 3.

I tried putting the (E AFTER Hard Drive 3
(The letter in Disk Mgmt was, prior to changes, shown After Hard Drive)
Result in My Computer and WExplorer : (E Hard Drive 3 (E.

Should I be concerned that the Letter isn't showing in Disk Mgmt AND that
the Add Menu has lost all the letters from A to G.
H is unused but I to M is used by Removable Disks. I dislike that long
string of letters showing in WExplorer but ... if necessary I'll live with
them.

Also I'll mention this now as I think it's related ... Each one of my
folders in WExpl. has lost the Sharing & Security Window I USED to have
being:
Share this folder / Do Not Share.
I have - well it's different. I no longer have those boxes to
enable/disable.
I'm so sorry for this long post but I wanted it to be clearly defined as
to
what I was seeing. Too bad we can't send Pix.

 

[Ron Sommer]

I didn't answer the second part of your post.
Let's work on one problem at a time.
I suspect that using Tweakui caused your second problem.

 

[Guest]

Ron, Opening this menu just now, I found Volume List to be already checked.
Bottom has a check mark against Graphical view.

 

[Guest]

Ron, A friend came up with the solution not more than an hour ago, for
changing the Share & Security Window back to show as they did before.
I changed one at that time and just now found they've all followed suit.

Unfortunately I'm unable to put it in this post for others to read as I
didn't write down what it said that I clicked on but it was the bottom
section of the window something to the effect "If u accept that others can
view ... ".

I had thought I'd have to change each folder but changing one, fixed them
all.
Whatta relief! LOL

 

[Guest]

In Disk Mgmt, When you rt click, say Hard Drive 3,
click Change Drive Letter or Paths,
click Add,
"Assign the following drive letter" is enabled
but ... the drop down Menu starts with an "H"

Question: All my drive letters are being used from A to G.
Maybe then that little Menu SHOULD be starting with an H being the next
available letter. Maybe there's nothing wrong with my Menu????

 

[Ron Sommer]

Every seems ok.
--
Ron Sommer

In Disk Mgmt, When you rt click, say Hard Drive 3,
click Change Drive Letter or Paths,
click Add,
"Assign the following drive letter" is enabled
but ... the drop down Menu starts with an "H"

Question: All my drive letters are being used from A to G.
Maybe then that little Menu SHOULD be starting with an H being the next
available letter. Maybe there's nothing wrong with my Menu????

 

[Guest]

LOL Hmm does that response mean that the Menu SHOULD be starting with an H
being the first Letter not being used, and not show A to Z?
Humour me Ron, give me a couple more words!

Relative to the Hard Drive description in Disk Mgmt, missing the letters C,
D and E. Does that matter or is there a way to get them back. I'd like to
have them back if possible as I'd like to remove those nbrs 1,2 and 3 but
don't want to without the letters being visible.