How to assign permanent letters to drives on Windows 10

You can assign drive letters manually, and in this guide, we show you how on Windows 10.

how to assign letter to drive using cmd

On Windows 10, when connecting a removable storage device or an internal hard drive, the system detects and assigns a drive letter automatically to make it usable. However, when reconnecting an external drive (such as a USB flash drive or SD or microSD cards), the system can end up assigning a different letter, which can be annoying.

If you want to see the same drive letter on a particular device, you can manually assign a permanent letter to any drive connected to your computer, and on Windows 10 , you can do this in at least three different ways, using Disk Management, Command Prompt, or PowerShell.

Using this approach will prevent Windows 10 from assigning a new letter or trying to set a letter already in use, which can cause conflicts. Also, it helps to select a drive letter that makes more sense to you.

In this Windows 10 guide, we walk you through several methods to manually assign a permanent letter to a drive, as long as you're connecting the drive to the same device and the letter isn't already in use.

How to assign a drive letter using Disk Management

How to assign a drive letter using command prompt, how to assign a drive letter using powershell.

To manage drive letters with the Disk Management tool, use these steps:

  • Open Start .
  • Search for Create and format hard disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management experience.
  • Right-click the drive and select the Change Drive Letter and Paths option.
  • Click the Change button.
  • Select the Assign the following drive letter option.
  • Use the drop-down menu to assign a new drive letter. Quick tip: To avoid the system trying to assign the same letter to another drive, it's a good idea to start adding letters in backward order. For instance, instead of using D, E or F, it better to start with Z, Y or X when assigning a new letter.
  • Click the OK button.
  • Click the OK button again.

Once you complete these steps, the drive will permanently retain the assigned letter, even after reconnecting it. However, if you connect the drive to another device, it may receive a different letter.

While the easiest way to assign a new drive letter is to use Disk Management, you can also use DiskPart in Command Prompt to perform the same task.

To assign a drive letter using Command Prompt, use these steps:

  • Search for Command Prompt , right-click the result, and then select the Run as administrator option.
  • Type the following command to start DiskPart and press Enter : diskpart
  • Type the following command to list all the available volumes and press Enter : list volume
  • Type the following command to select the volume (drive) to assign a new letter and press Enter: select volume 3 In the command, make sure to change "3" to the number that represents the drive on your device.
  • Type the following command to assign a new drive letter, and press Enter : assign letter=Z The command assigns the letter "Z" to the drive assuming it's available. However, you need to make sure to change the letter for the one that you want to use.

After completing these steps, similar to Disk Management, every time you reconnect the storage to the same device, Windows 10 should assign the same letter automatically.

Alternatively, you can also use PowerShell to change a drive letter on Windows 10 using these steps:

  • Search for PowerShell , right-click the result, and then select the Run as administrator option.
  • Type the following command to list the available drives and press Enter : Get-Disk
  • Type the following command to assign a permanent letter to the drive and press Enter : Get-Partition -DiskNumber 1 | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter Z In the command, make sure to change "1" to the number that represents the drive that you want to modify, and change "Z" for the new letter that you want to use.

Once you complete the steps, the drive will be accessible through File Explorer using the letter that you assigned, and Windows 10 won't try to change it.

Updated March 7, 2019: We revised this guide to make sure it's current with the latest version of Windows 10.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

  • Windows 10 on Windows Central – All you need to know
  • Windows 10 help, tips, and tricks
  • Windows 10 forums on Windows Central

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Mauro Huculak

Mauro Huculak is technical writer for WindowsCentral.com. His primary focus is to write comprehensive how-tos to help users get the most out of Windows 10 and its many related technologies. He has an IT background with professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA, and he's a recognized member of the Microsoft MVP community.

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how to assign letter to drive using cmd

StackHowTo

  • How To Assign Letter To Drive In CMD

I n this tutorial, we are going to see how to assign a drive letter in CMD. To assign a letter to a drive such as an external hard drive or a USB flash drive, there is a tool called Diskpart that makes drive letter assignment faster.

In order to assign a drive letter, we will use Diskpart command prompt which also allows you to create a partition, delete a partition, and format a partition, etc. Well, how to assign a drive letter with Diskpart?  

How To Assign Letter To A Drive In CMD

how to assign letter to drive using cmd

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MiniTool

How to Change Drive Letter with CMD Windows 10

Diskpart is a command-line tool in Windows system that allows you to manage your disks and partitions. This post introduces how to change drive letter with CMD in Windows 10, namely, by using Diskpart CMD tool. MiniTool software provides users a free disk partition manager, data recovery software, system backup and restore software, etc.

If you want, you can change drive letter for a drive with CMD (Command Prompt) in Windows 10. This post includes detailed guides for how to use Diskpart command-line tool to change driver letter in CMD.

How to Change Drive Letter with CMD in Windows 10

Diskpart is a Windows built-in CMD tool that lets you easily manage hard drive and change drive letter. To change or assign drive letter in CMD, you can firstly open Diskpart utility in Command Prompt. Check the steps below.

Step 1. Open CMD in Windows 10

You can press Windows + R , type cmd , and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open elevated Command Prompt .

Step 2. Open Diskpart tool

In Command Prompt window, you can type diskpart command, and press Enter . This will open the Diskpart command-line utility.

Step 3. Change drive letter CMD

Next you can type the command line below to change drive letter in Command Prompt in Windows 10. Remember to press Enter after typing each command line.

  • list volume (this command will list all available volumes detected by your computer)
  • select volume * (replace “*” with the exact volume number of the target partition)
  • assign letter=* (replace “*” with the preferred drive letter like “F”)

Windows change drive letter

After you change or assign a drive letter for a drive or device, Windows will display the same letter automatically next time you reconnect the device to your computer.

If you want to remove the drive letter of a specific drive, you can type remove letter=* command and press Enter . Still, replace “*” with the exact drive letter of the target drive.

How to Change Drive Letter Using PowerShell

Some Windows 10 users might find that Command Prompt is missing from Win + X menu , and instead, it shows Windows PowerShell. Windows PowerShell can do most things that Command Prompt does. Alternatively, you can also use Windows PowerShell to change drive letter in Windows 10.

Step 1. Press Windows + X , and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin) to run Windows PowerShell utility as administrator.

Step 2. Next type get-disk command and press Enter to list all available drives the computer detected.

Step 3. Then you can type the command: Get-Partition -DiskNumber 1 | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter F , and press Enter to assign a new drive letter. You should change “*” with the actual disk number of target drive, and replace “F” with the new drive letter you’d like to assign to the drive.

change drive letter PowerShell

MiniTool Partition Wizard – Professional Free Disk Partition Manager

Instead of using CMD or PowerShell to change drive letter for a drive in Windows 10, you can also utilize third-party free disk partition manager like MiniTool Partition Wizard to easily change drive letter and manage disk partitions on Windows 10.

MiniTool Partition Wizard let you easily create/delete/extend/resize/format/wipe partitions, convert partitions formats, migrate OS, clone disk, test hard drive speed , analyze hard drive space usage, check and fix disk errors , and more.

change drive letter with MiniTool Partition Wizard

By following the detailed guides above, you can easily change drive letter with CMD (Command Prompt), PowerShell or MiniTool Partitioon Wizard on Windows 10.

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  • DiskPart Command Line Utility

[Free Guide]: Use Diskpart Assign Drive Letter in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7

This post will show you how to use Diskpart assign drive letter in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7. In addition, another free GUI software will be introduced to assign or remove the drive letters.

how to assign letter to drive using cmd

Why use Diskpart assign drive letter?

As we all know, Windows assigns drive letters to all available drives on your computer, such as internal hard drives, optical drives, SD cards, and external USB drives. A drive letter is an alphabetical identifier for a volume, and each drive letter can be used once on a computer.

But sometimes, users want to change the original drive letter to another drive letter. Or due to some operation, the drive letter will not be available and the user needs to assign a new drive letter. So a computer-experienced user might assign drive letter by Diskpart, as this is the faster way. The purpose of this article is to provide you with some methods for assigning a drive letter , including Diskpart, Disk Management, and another easier way.

Step-by-step: Assign drive letter by Windows built-in tools

Windows OS users know they have two amazing tools for managing disks and partitions - Disk Management and Diskpart.

The Disk Management tool in Windows provides you with an easy-to-use graphical interface to manage your disks with a single mouse click. And Diskpart is a command-line tool that allows you to quickly manage your disks or partitions from the command prompt. The next section will show you how to use Disk Management and Diskpart to assign drive letters.

│ Use Diskpart to assign drive letter

Diskpart is a Windows built-in tool that you can use to manage your hard drive, like format disk partition, create partition, delete partition , etc. Well, how to use Command Prompt Diskpart assign drive letter? The following parts may help you a lot.

Step 1.  Press "Windows + R". Then, type "diskpart" and press Enter.

Step 2. Type in "list volume" and press Enter. Now, you can see all volumes on PC.

Step 3. Type in "select volume 7" and press Enter(here take volume 7 as an example).

Step 4.  Finally, type in“assign letter=F” and press Enter.

If you want to remove the drive letter, type “remove letter=X”(X is the drive letter you want to remove).

Actually, you may assign a drive letter when you create a new one. For that, you need to create partition first. After creating a partition, type “assign letter=?” to that partition. Or, if there is some volume hidden, it will not have the drive letter, to unhide it, you need to assign a drive letter for it. 

│ Assign drive letter via Disk Management

In addition to Diskpart, Disk Management may be another good choice to assign drive letter.

Step 1.  Press “ Win + R ” to open the “ Run ” window and type  diskmgmt.msc  in the box.

Step 2 . Right-click the drive you want to assign, and select change Drive Letter and Paths  in the pop-up window.

change drive letter and path

Step 3.  Click  Change  to summon the next window.

change

Notice:  If you want to remove the drive letter of your partition, you can select " Remove " and follow the instructions step by step.

Step 4.  After that, you should choose the new drive letter from the drop list, and then, click  OK .

assign new letter

Now, do you understand how to use Disk Management and Diskpart assign drive letter?

Although it's convenient for most people, you need to be aware that sometimes you can't assign drive letter successfully, because Disk Management and Diskpart only support assigning drive letter with FAT or NTFS. When the drive's file system is another type, you can format it to NTFS or FAT, or use another method to assign a drive letter.

Diskpart assign drive letter alternative

Disk Management and Diskpart are not perfect because they have limitations. Fortunately, there is an easier way to make up for their shortcomings perfectly.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a completely free third-party partition manager. It supports users to assign drive letters through a more friendly interface, which can be done with just a few clicks, much simpler than Diskpart. Also, it can assign drive letter on any file system. More importantly, it has more complete functions and allows you to manage disks flexibly.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, it will show you all storage devices in the main interface. you can see the removable drive doesn't have a drive letter. If you want to assign a drive letter for the drive, here you need to right click it, select Advanced-> Change Drive Letter.

Assign Drive Letter

Step 2. Then, select a drive letter for the drive.

Choose New Drive Letter

Step 3. Click Apply to submit the task.

Apply Assign Drive Letter

Now, do you know how to use Diskpart assign drive letter? If you are a user who has a computer background, Diskpart may be the quickest method to assign the drive letter. However, if you are normal user, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is the correct choice.  After you upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional , there are more advanced features you can try, such as allocating free space from one drive to C, and Move the installed app from one drive to another.

Last but not least, although the system drive letter can be changed, do not do it because that would make the system unable to boot.

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How to Assign / Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

We show you how to change the drive letter in CMD, DIsk Management, PowerShell, and Registry editor in Windows 10.

https://winbuzzer.com/2020/08/07/bitlocker-for-windows-10-how-to-use-encryption-for-system-disk-partitions-or-any-other-drive-xcxwbt/

  • 1 How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 via Disk Management
  • 2 How to Change Drive Letter in CMD using a DISKPART Disk Management Command
  • 3 How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 with a PowerShell Disk Management Command
  • 4 How to Change / Assign a Drive Letter via the Registry Editor

Windows 10 helpfully assigns drive letters to disks as they're added, but they aren't always the most logical choices. While we all know that C: is the system drive, it doesn't make quite as much sense to have D: as your games drive or E: as your media drive. Luckily it's quite easy to change a drive letter in Windows 10, and we're going to walk you through the process today.

How does Windows 10 drive letter assignment work?

For the most part, Windows 10 automatically assigns letters to drives as they're connected, in alphabetical order. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule that may leave some users confused.

As mentioned earlier, C: is always reserved for the system drive, but A: and B: are reserved too, for rarely used floppy drives. Because of Windows automatic assignment, you may have also noticed that Windows changes the drive letter of your USB stick if you've connected another before it.

If you want letters that are easier to identify in bios or don't want your USB letters jumping around, it's quite easy to permanently change a drive letter in Windows 10 to something of your choosing. We're going to cover a few different ways today, including how to change the drive letter in CMD.

How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 via Disk Management

The most user-friendly way to assign drive letters in Windows is through the Disk Management interface, which is relatively easy to use.

Start - Disk Management

How to Change Drive Letter in CMD using a DISKPART Disk Management Command

Though it's not quite as user-friendly, it can be much faster to change a drive letter with Command Prompt.

Windows 10 - Open Elevated Command Prompt

How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10 with a PowerShell Disk Management Command

Those more familiar with PowerShell can use this method instead to achieve the same result.

Windows 10 - Open PowerShell as Admin

How to Change / Assign a Drive Letter via the Registry Editor

Alternatively, if none of the above methods worked or you're just feeling brave, you can modify the drive letter via the registry. Just be sure to read our safe registry editing guide first.

Windows 10 - Open Registry Editor

If you enjoyed this guide, you may want to consider enabling or disabling disk caching or turning on BitLocker for your newly customized drives.

  • Assign drive letter
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How-To Geek

How to change a drive letter on windows 10 or windows 11.

You can change your drive letters in Windows 10 and 11 using the Disk Management utility.

Quick Links

What changing a drive letter does, how to change a drive letter, how to fix programs broken by changing a drive letter.

Changing the letter of a drive is easy on Windows 10 and Windows 11, but you should do it as soon as you add the drive to prevent future hassles. Find out how to change a drive letter here.

Windows assigns drive letters alphabetically --- starting with C --- when they're initialized. If you want to change a drive letter, you should do it before you install anything on the drive. Changing a drive letter after programs are installed could break them since there will be references to an installation location that is no longer there.

Windows has gotten pretty smart about updating shortcuts so that programs work after changing a drive letter. Most of your applications' shortcuts will probably be automatically corrected. Unfortunately, Windows isn't as good about updating file associations. You'll have to manually set the default apps associated with files to fix file associations if they were broken by changing the drive letter.

It is possible to change the boot drive letter to something else, but we don't recommend it. Changing C:\ to another letter is likely to result in severe issues, like a PC that cannot boot into Windows at all. Even if it were able to boot, there would be a huge number of programs that would not be able to run.

Technically speaking, while they are commonly called drive letters, each letter actually refers to a partition on a disk. If you have multiple partitions on a single disk, you will need to assign a letter to each partition to make them all accessible. If a disk has just a single partition, it will just have a single letter pointing to that partition. (However, you do not have to assign a letter to each partition. Partitions without drive letters will not appear in File Explorer and elsewhere.)

Changing a drive letter is pretty simple. Click the Start button, type "Disk Management" in the search bar, and then hit Enter.

The program name displayed in the search will not be Disk Management. It will be "Create and format hard disk partitions."

You could also hit Windows+X or right-click the Start button, and then click "Disk Management."

Identify the drive you'd like to change in the Disk Management Window. In this example, we'll change the letter of the D:\ drive to J:\. You can right-click the drive on the text list, or on the menu below. Either works.

Select "Change Drive Letter and Paths" in the right-click menu that appears.

In the window that pops up, click "Change."

Select whatever letter you want from the drop-down menu. Then click "Ok."

Two popups will warn you about changing your drive letter. Click "Yes" on both of them, and then restart your computer.

Once Windows has restarted, the drive letter should be changed.

There are a few ways you can fix a program broken by changing the drive letter.

Fix The Shortcut

If you're lucky, the only thing that is broken is the shortcut. Fix a shortcut by right-clicking the shortcut on your desktop, and then click Properties.

You need to change the target of the shortcut to the new drive letter.

For example, if GIMP was previously installed at " D :\GIMP 2\bin\gimp-2.10.exe," and you changed the D drive to J, change the target of the shortcut to " J :\GIMP 2\bin\gimp-2.10.exe."

Finalize the change by clicking "Apply" and then "Ok."

Reinstall the Program

Reinstalling the program will generate new entries in the registry, so everything on the computer will know where to look for the program. Some installers won't like reinstalling directly over existing files, so you may need to rename or delete the old installation first.

Change the Drive Letter Back

If you changed the drive letter of a drive with a lot of programs installed, it might be easier to change the drive letter back. Changing the drive letter back should automatically fix any programs and file associations that were broken.

Edit the Registry

You can break programs, or even Windows itself, by editing the registry. Be careful, and learn about how to edit the registry before you try it. Make sure you backup the Windows registry first. You should not attempt this method unless you have no other options.

Windows, and a lot of programs, track where programs are installed via the Windows registry. It is possible to manually adjust the registry to fix broken programs. Keep in mind that there could be dozens of registry entries you need to edit. A program like GIMP can have registry entries for the context menu, for the "Open With" menu, for any file associations, and for the location of its executables. Other programs may only have a few entries related to where it is installed.

If you're not deterred, here's how you do it.

First, you need to know where the program was previously installed. In this case, the program was installed to the "D:\GIMP 2" folder, and the executables were found the "D:\GIMP 2\bin" sub-folder. It is now located at "J:\GIMP 2" instead.

We need to update the registry to reflect the change in location. Click the Start button, type "regedit" into the search bar, right-click Regedit, and click "Run as administrator."

In Regedit, hit Ctrl+F to bring up a search window. Type in the old location for the program you're trying to fix --- "D:\GIMP 2" for our example --- then click "Find Next."

Once Regedit has found something with "D:\GIMP 2" as part of a path, it'll show it to you. Here is an example from the GIMP search.

To actually change them, double click the name of the registry entry you want to modify. Then change the drive letter to J, or whatever you chose. If you didn't otherwise move the folder, leave the rest of the path alone. Then click "Ok."

You'll need to repeat this multiple times. To find the next result using your search term, you can hit the F3 key. There will be a popup once you've found all of the entries.

Changing drive letters can be a simple way to customize your PC. Do it before you install anything on the drive, however. You'll prevent any problems before they occur, and probably save yourself quite a bit of troubleshooting.

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how to assign letter to drive using cmd

Assign, change or remove Drive Letter with Diskpart

Diskpart is very powerful Windows Utility, which allows certain number of operation with hard disk. In this article we will show you how to assign, change or remove drive letter with Diskpart using.

Windows-10-x64-Original-2016-09-05-14-24-29

You bought hard drive for Backup, but it has automaticaly gained letter D . You want to change it to E . First we need to open Command Prompt with Administrator Rights.

Type cmd into the search box, and then right-click and choose Run as administrator. If you have Windows 10 use the CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER keyboard shortcut on Screen 1 , or click on Start with right click and choose Command Prompt (Admin) on Screen 2 .

cp001

When Command Prompt pops up, run the diskpart command.

run_dpt

Now we type list volume to list our volumes, we need to know the number of our volume.

list_vol

In our case our hard drive is Volume 3 and that number is 3 .

Now we use command select volume 3 to make changes to that volume. If your volume number is different, you need to replace number  3 with the number from your volume. After we have selected our volume we use command assign letter E , to assing letter E to our volume.

asn_let

Now you know how to change or assign another letter to your volume, also if you need you can remove volume letter with command remove letter E

rem_let

For security reasons you cannot change or remove your current system disk letter (esp C ), it will not work.

To exit diskpart type in exit .

exit

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how to assign letter to drive using cmd

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How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

By default, Windows 10 automatically assigns drive letters to connected drives, including internal and external drives. You might want to change these letters. Here is how it can be done.

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Windows 10 assigns an available drive letter to a new drive connected to the computer. The operating system goes through the alphabet from A to Z to find the first available letter to assign it to various drives. Historically, it reserves the drive letters A and B for floppy drives.

Modern Windows versions assign the C letter to the system partition which Windows is installed on. Even in a dual-boot configuration, Windows 10 displays its own system partition as C:.

USB Drive Icon In This Pc With Setup

Changing drive letters will allow re-arranging drives in the This PC folder. This can be useful after you add an extra drive or create a new partition. For example, you might want to change its drive letter to display it before the DVD drive. Also, when you change the drive letter of a USB drive, it will be assigned permanently. Often Windows 10 randomly changes the drive letter for external drives when you connect them, so this way you can make this process more predictable.

Tip: Show drive letters before drive names in This PC / Computer folder .

There are a number of methods you can use to change the drive letter of a drive in Windows 10. Let's review them.

To change the drive letter in Windows 10 , do the following.

  • Press the Win + X keys together.

Win+X Menu Disk Management Command

You are done. The drive will appear in File Explorer under the letter you've chosen.

Change the drive letter in the command prompt

  • Open an elevated command prompt .
  • Type diskpart .

Windows 10 Diskpart List Volume

You are done.

Change the drive letter in PowerShell

  • Open an elevated PowerShell instance .

Windows 10 PowerShell Get Partition

For example, the command can look as follows:

PowerShell Assign Drive Letter

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Change a drive letter

  • 4 contributors
Applies To: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2016

If you want to change a drive letter assigned to a drive, or you have a drive that doesn't yet have a drive letter, use Disk Management to change it. You can also mount the drive in an empty folder so that it appears as a folder. For more information, see Mount a drive in a folder .

If you change the drive letter of a drive that already contains Windows or apps, apps might have trouble running or finding the drive. We suggest not changing the drive letter of a drive that already contains Windows or apps.

The following steps show how to change the drive letter.

Open Disk Management with administrator permissions.

In Disk Management, select and hold (or right-click) the volume on which you want to change or add a drive letter and select Change Drive Letter and Paths .

Screenshot showing the Disk Management window with the Change Drive Letter and Paths feature selected.

If you don't see the Change Drive Letter and Paths option or it's grayed out, the volume either isn't ready to receive a drive letter or it's unallocated and needs to be initialized . It might also be that the drive isn't accessible, which is the case with EFI system partitions and recovery partitions. If you've confirmed that your volume is formatted with a drive letter that you can access but you're still unable to change it, that's beyond the scope of this article. We suggest contacting Microsoft Support or the manufacturer of your PC for more help.

To change the drive letter, select Change . To add a drive letter if the drive doesn't already have one, select Add .

Screenshot of the Change Drive Letter and Paths dialog.

Select the new drive letter and choose OK . Then select Yes when prompted about how programs that rely on the drive letter might not run correctly.

Screenshot of the Change Drive Letter or Path dialog that shows how to assign a new drive letter.

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How to assign a drive a letter using Diskpart

Industries top insights, delivered to your inbox.

Introduction:

Windows volume drive letters can be altered from the command line using Diskpart.

Requirements:

Access to the Windows command line.

From your taskbar, start a search for

Enter the command:

Example output:

but replace “2” with the desired volume number. Enter the command:

but replace the “q” with any desired letter that is not already being used by another volume.

More Information:

within  diskpart  for more information.

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How to Remove and Assign Drive Letters in Windows with Diskpart

how to assign letter to drive using cmd

Diskpart is one of the most powerful Windows command line utilities which first appeared in Windows XP. Diskpart is mainly used by Windows administrators to manage tasks like partition management, formatting, creating, re-sizing and getting a detailed information regarding the hard disk or other removable disks attached to the computer. Even though you have a built-in GUI application called Disk Management utility in Windows, Diskpart is much more flexible and works well in a server environment where you need to set up some advanced features like RAID.

Note: This post isn't intended for beginners, and doing something wrong while using Diskpart utility may cause drive failures and data losses, so make sure that you have a good backup before continuing. You have been warned.

Assign Drive Letter Using Diskpart

Remove drive letter using diskpart.

Assigning a new drive letter to a partition or removable device using Diskpart is really easy. First, search for the command prompt in the Start menu, right click on it and select the option "Run as administrator." If you are using Windows 8, press "Win + X" to open the power user menu and select the option "Command Prompt (Admin)."

diskpart-launch-cmd-as-admin

The above action will open the command prompt window with administrative rights. Here enter the following command to start the Diskpart utility.

diskpart-cmd-diskpart

The next step is to list all the volumes in your computer so that you can clearly see all the volume numbers and drive letters of your hard disk partitions and any other removable devices. Use the command below to list all the volumes.

diskpart-list-volume

Once the Diskpart utility lists all the volumes, take a note of the volume number of the drive you want to assign a new drive letter. In my case, I'm trying to assign a new drive letter to the drive I:\ , so my volume number is 7 . Now execute the following command to select the volume while replacing the # symbol with an actual volume number.

diskpart-select-volume

Once the volume is selected, use the following command to assign a new drive letter. Don't forget to replace the letter "V" with the drive letter you want to assign.

diskpart-assign-letter

That's all there is to do; you have successfully changed or re-assigned a new drive letter to a partition or a removable drive in Windows. In fact, if you open the Windows explorer, you can see that the change is reflected immediately.

diskpart-drive-letter-changed

Before moving any further, removing or un-assigning drive letter will effectively hide the drive or partition from plain sight, i.e. you cannot see that drive in the Windows explorer. To remove a drive letter, follow the above steps 1 through 4 and then use the below command to remove the drive letter of a drive or partition. Don't forget to replace the letter "I" with the actual drive letter.

diskpart-remove-letter

As soon as you have done that, Diskpart will remove the drive letter for that volume. If you list the volumes again, you will see that the drive you just interacted with will have no drive letter next to it.

diskpart-letter-removed

Moreover, if you navigate to the Windows explorer, you will see that the drive which got un-assigned isn't listed anymore. But again, always be careful while you are messing around with Diskpart utility; it may cause irrecoverable data loss if used incorrectly.

Hopefully that helps, and do comment below if you face any problems while following the steps or to simply share your thoughts.

Vamsi is a tech and WordPress geek who enjoys writing how-to guides and messing with his computer and software in general. When not writing for MTE, he writes for he shares tips, tricks, and lifehacks on his own blog Stugon.

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How to automatically assign a drive letter by using the Diskpart.exe command on VISTA based computer

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Welcome to the Microsoft Windows Vista Communities site.

Driver letter assignment in Windows Vista…

You can use Diskpart to assign driver letters, but it can be complex and cumbersome for the average user.

I’d recommend that you use Disk Management if you would like to assign a driver letter to a given device or volume. Disk Management has an advantage over Diskpart , for the average user, as it is run from a GUI (Graphic User Interface) versus the Command Prompt .

I’ve included instructions outlining how to use Disk Management to change a driver letter. However should you still want to use Diskpart I recommend you review the information found here .

Jared - Support Engineer - MSFT

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how to change drive letter when using pushd

When we use pushd to change directory to remote server location, it will automatically generates drive letter. If we want to generate specific drive letter, is that possible?

navi27's user avatar

  • 1 You could map a drive with net use . See stackoverflow.com/questions/23294761 –  Matthew Strawbridge Jan 31, 2016 at 21:41
  • Possible duplicate of cmd - Is it possible to temporarily assign an available drive letter to a local path? –  user4317867 Jan 31, 2016 at 23:52
  • Possible duplicate of How to create MAP Drive by batch file –  Mofi Feb 1, 2016 at 5:42

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IMAGES

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COMMENTS

  1. How to Use the Diskpart Utility to Assign and Remove Drive Letters

    At this point you can easily assign a new drive letter. Just type in this command, substituting R for the drive letter you'd like to use: assign letter=R Make sure to hit enter once you're done, of course. Once you've made that change, your drive should show up again as a new device, and be available for browsing immediately.

  2. Manually assigning a drive letter using CMD/Diskpart

    Manually assigning a drive letter using CMD/Diskpart [Localization from this article: Manuelles Zuweisen eines Laufwerksbuchstaben mit CMD bzw. Diskpart - Microsoft Community] Technical Difficulty: Expert Applies to: Windows 10 & 11 In some cases, Windows will not assign a drive letter automatically to an inserted drive.

  3. How to assign permanent letters to drives on Windows 10

    Type the following command to assign a new drive letter, and press Enter: assign letter=Z The command assigns the letter "Z" to the drive assuming it's available. However, you...

  4. How To Assign Letter To Drive In CMD

    Step 2: Type list volume and press Enter. Step 3: Type Select volume n and press Enter. Here you need to know the number of the volume whose drive letter you want to assign. Step 4: Finally, type assign letter=R to assign or change the drive letter. Step 5: You can check if the drive letter was changed as shown on the following screenshot.

  5. assign

    You can also use this command to change the drive letter associated with a removable drive. If no drive letter or mount point is specified, the next available drive letter is assigned. ... You can't assign drive letters to system volumes, boot volumes, or volumes that contain the paging file. In addition, you cannot assign a drive letter to an ...

  6. How to Change Drive Letter with CMD Windows 10

    Step 1. Open CMD in Windows 10 You can press Windows + R, type cmd, and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open elevated Command Prompt. Step 2. Open Diskpart tool In Command Prompt window, you can type diskpart command, and press Enter. This will open the Diskpart command-line utility. Step 3. Change drive letter CMD

  7. [Free Guide]: Use Diskpart Assign Drive Letter in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7

    Step 1. Press "Windows + R". Then, type "diskpart" and press Enter. Step 2. Type in "list volume" and press Enter. Now, you can see all volumes on PC. Step 3. Type in "select volume 7" and press Enter (here take volume 7 as an example). Step 4. Finally, type in"assign letter=F" and press Enter.

  8. How to Assign / Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

    Press "Ctrl+ X", and click "Disk Management". Open the Windows 10 Change Drive Letter interface Right-click the drive that you want to change or free the letter from and click "Change...

  9. How to Change a Drive Letter on Windows 10 or Windows 11

    Click the Start button, type "Disk Management" in the search bar, and then hit Enter. The program name displayed in the search will not be Disk Management. It will be "Create and format hard disk partitions." You could also hit Windows+X or right-click the Start button, and then click "Disk Management."

  10. Change and Assign Drive Letter in Windows 10

    1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type diskmgmt.msc into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Disk Management. 2 Right click or press and hold on the drive (ex: "F") you want to add or change the drive letter, and click/tap on Change Drive Letter and Paths. (see screenshot below) 3 Click/tap on the Change button. (see screenshot below)

  11. Batch File Assign Drive Letter

    It's better just to leave the drive letter as-is and mount the drive to another drive instead. You can use subst in a batch file instead (which can run by any users) and mount the drive that contains that batch file. @echo off cls echo Drive Letter Change Tool echo. echo Please Enter The Letter You Wish To Assign set /P "NewLetter=Please Enter ...

  12. Assign, change or remove Drive Letter with Diskpart › Knowledge Base

    After we have selected our volume we use command assign letter E, to assing letter E to our volume. Now you know how to change or assign another letter to your volume, also if you need you can remove volume letter with command remove letter E. For security reasons you cannot change or remove your current system disk letter (esp C), it will not ...

  13. How to Change Drive Letter in Windows 10

    Let's review them. To change the drive letter in Windows 10, do the following. Press the Win + X keys together. In the menu, select Disk Management. In Disk Management, right-click on the partition whose drive letter you would like to change. Select Change Drive Letter and Paths in the context menu.

  14. How to Manually Assigning A Drive Letter Using CMD / Diskpart

    This Tutorial Helps to How to Manually Assigning A Drive Letter Using CMD / Diskpart00:00 Intro00:09 Open Command Prompt00:20 Enter Diskpart Command00:50 Ass...

  15. Change a drive letter

    In Disk Management, select and hold (or right-click) the volume on which you want to change or add a drive letter and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. Tip If you don't see the Change Drive Letter and Paths option or it's grayed out, the volume either isn't ready to receive a drive letter or it's unallocated and needs to be initialized.

  16. 3 Simple Ways to Assign a Drive Letter in Windows 10/8/7

    This post covers three ways to assign a drive letter by using Disk Management, a partition manager, and Diskpart in CMD. Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7 100% Secure Updated by Cici on Jul 20, 2023 Written by Cedric What Is a Drive Letter A drive letter is an alphabetic character identifying a physical computer disk or drive partition.

  17. How to assign a drive a letter using Diskpart

    Enter the command: select volume 2. but replace "2" with the desired volume number. Enter the command: assign letter=q. but replace the "q" with any desired letter that is not already being used by another volume.

  18. How to Remove and Assign Drive Letters in Windows with Diskpart

    select volume # Once the volume is selected, use the following command to assign a new drive letter. Don't forget to replace the letter "V" with the drive letter you want to assign. assign letter =V That's all there is to do; you have successfully changed or re-assigned a new drive letter to a partition or a removable drive in Windows.

  19. How To Manually Assign Or Change A Drive Letter Using Command Prompt

    How to change drive letter using cmd/Diskpart on Windows 10/11Type "diskpart"Type "list vol"Select the volume using "sel vol number"Assign the drive letter u...

  20. How To Manually Assign a Drive Letter using CMD in Windows 11

    Intro How To Manually Assign a Drive Letter using CMD in Windows 11 Tricknology 153K subscribers Join Subscribe 700 views 11 months ago #CMD #Windows11 #DriveLetter Here in this quick...

  21. How to automatically assign a drive letter by using the Diskpart.exe

    If you wish to change the drive letter assignment for a removable storage device or volume: a. Right-click the appropriate volume, and then select Change Driver Letter and Paths. b. From the drop down list select the drive letter you would like to use. c. Please read the on-screen warning message, and click Yes if you wish to proceed.

  22. how to change drive letter when using pushd

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