Sérgio's Notebook

Windows XP: change the disk drive letter

Mar 07

smachadoWindows 5 Comments

Recently I had to start installing applications on a removable/external hard disk due to lack of free space on my system/internal hard drive. Installing applications on Windows means registering them with the system, having shortcuts created and so on – they get integrated into the system. This means that the system will need to find files for those applications and it will use the full path for those files. That includes the hard drive letter that Windows assigns to storage devices (hard drives, cd-roms, usb memory cards, etc).

Unfortunately Windows doesn’t consistently assign the same drive letter to the same device and this makes things complicated. Fortunately Windows will only mess around your device letters if you start up your computer after connecting devices that you don’t usually connect. For example I normally connect my usb 3g modem, an usb hub with a keyboard and mouse connected into it and an external disk drive – and I connect them to the same usb ports every time. This makes Windows use the same device letter consistently. But if I connect an ebook reader with a memory card on it that will add 2 storage devices to the system and make Windows change the drive letter configuration.

The temporary solution I found was:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Open Administrative Tools (Windows XP Professional)
3. Open Computer Management
4. Select Disk Management under Storage
5. An applet will open. Right-click on the drive you want to modify the drive letter.
6. Select Change Drive Letter and Paths
7. Select the drive letter and click Change.
8. Select the drive letter you want to change to from the drop down list.

That’s it! you made it =)

Have fun!