Change a hard drive letter in Windows XP

By Mitz

Free computer Help

Although the drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives, every other letter in the alphabet is available to be assigned to the hard drives in a computer. The main hard drive, by default, is always C drive. When you add more hard drives or cd drives, Windows Xp assigns a drive letter to them automatically.

If you don't like what drive letter Windows XP has assigned, it is your choice to change it. I usually like the hard drives set with drive letter that run in a row. For example, I have 2 hard drives with drive letters C and D. The cd drive and dvd drive are E and F.

Here's how to change a hard drive letter in Windows XP

1. Go to the Start Menu, choose control panel.
2. Then Double click on the Administrative Tools, then computer management.
3. Choose Disk Management in the left side menu. Then you see all your drives listed in the right side.
4. Right-click on the drive you want to change.
5. Then choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
6. Click Change, then click Assign the following drive letter, choose the drive letter you want to assign, and then click OK.

When you try to change an existing drive letter, you receive the following error message:

The volume volume_label drive_letter is currently in use.
If you continue, the new drive letter will be assigned; but you can still use the old drive letter to access the volume until you restart your computer. The old drive letter will not be available for assignment until you restart.

Warning: Changing the drive letter of a volume could cause programs to no longer run.

• If your computer does not have a floppy disk drive, you can assign A and B as drive letters to removable drives.

• The best time to change a drive letter is when it is new. If you already have programs installed on the hard drive you change, it may cause your programs to malfunction.

• Another way to get to computer management is to Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.

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