Unable to Change Letter or Assign Drive Letter to D/E/F/G
Qiling Partition Master is a third-party disk management software that overcomes the limitations of Disk Management, allowing users to solve common hard disk problems, including changing drive letters, when Disk Management is unable to do so.
Change A Drive Letter in Disk Management
To change or assign a drive letter in Windows, log in as an administrator. You can change the default C: drive letter for the system partition or assign a new letter to other primary or logical partitions. Simply open Windows Disk Management and select the drive you want to modify. From there, you can choose a new letter from D, E, F, G, H, and so on. This allows you to easily reassign a drive letter to a needed one.
Step 1: Open "Disk Management" under Storage by right-clicking "Computer/This PC" > "Manage".
Step 2: Right-click the drive that you want to change, and then click "Change Drive Letter and Paths".
In the next step, you can do any one of the following:
To assign a drive letter, click Add, then select the desired letter and click OK.
To change a drive letter, click Change, then click Assign the following drive letter, select the desired letter, and click OK.
To remove a drive letter, click Remove and confirm the action by clicking Yes.
Why Can't Change Drive Letter As Wanted
If you're unable to change the drive letter in Disk Management due to grayed out options, it's likely because the disk is in use by the system or another process. To resolve this, try restarting your computer in Safe Mode, then access Disk Management. If that doesn't work, try disconnecting any external drives and peripherals, and then restart your computer. Once you've restarted, open Disk Management and see if the options to change the drive letter are now available. If not, you may need to boot in a different mode, such as Command Prompt or a bootable USB drive, to access and make changes to the disk.
- The drive you're trying to change might be in use, so you are disallowed to make any changes to it. Just close the program or Window that is using the drive and try again.
- You're trying to make changes to a system or boot partition, which is not allowed. You can only make changes to data partitions. If you want to make changes to the system or boot partition, you'll need to boot from a different drive or use a live USB.
- If you're trying to assign a specific drive letter to a drive, but it's not available in the drop-down list, it might be because that letter is already being used by an external storage device connected to your computer, even if it's not listed in the usual drive list.
In Windows, the drive letter assignment is typically done in alphabetical order, with the first available letter being assigned to the first drive, and so on. For example, if you have a C: drive, the next available drive would be D:, followed by E:, and so on.
Windows uses MountMgr to manage drive letters, assigning the next available letter to each device added, regardless of type, starting with the system drive as C, and assigning subsequent drives to the next available letter, such as D for a DVD ROM and E for a Flash drive, and so on. The next drive added would be assigned the letter H, and so on. This process continues until all available drive letters are used, typically up to Z. If more devices are added, Windows will then reuse drive letters from the beginning, starting with C again. This process is known as drive letter reuse.
If there are external storage devices plugged into the computer, unplug them and try booting again. This may resolve the issue.
If the listed circumstances don't favor your case, such as the H letter not being used by another internal or external drive but still being unavailable, try resolving the issue with other capable partition manager software.
How to Fix Unable to Change Drive Letter and Paths in Windows 11/10/8/7
Here are some possible reasons why the option to change a drive letter in Disk Management is greyed out:
- Logical Disk Manager says "Parameter is Incorrect"
- The drive letter is not available because the operating system is unable to recognize the drive letter or the drive is not connected to the system. This could be due to a variety of reasons such as the drive being disconnected, the drive being formatted incorrectly, or the drive being damaged.
If you're having trouble changing, adding, or assigning a drive letter to a local drive or external hard drive in Disk Management, you can try using Qiling, a free partition manager that works similarly to Windows Disk Management. This tool allows you to manage hard drives and removable/external hard disks, including changing drive letters and paths.
Step 1. Run Qiling Partition Master, click the target partition in the "Disk management" page, and choose "More".
Step 2.Select "Change drive letter", and choose a letter from sub-menu.
Conclusion
Changing a drive letter in Windows 11/10/8/7 for drives D, E, F, G, or an external drive is a basic function that can be found in Disk Management. However, this simple modification can sometimes be frustrating, as it may not be possible to change the drive letter in this utility.
With Qiling Partition Master, a comprehensive disk & partition manager, it's easy to solve the problem of not being able to change drive letter or assign a new one to a drive. This third-party tool offers many more practical functions than the default Disk Management program, such as copying partitions, merging partitions, migrating OS to HDD/SSD, and checking partition errors. Download the free partition manager to explore its features and replace Disk Management with a more powerful tool.
Related Articles
- [Top 5] Best USB Format Tool | USB Formatter
- Can You Convert Basic to Dynamic in Windows 11? Yes, Here Is The Guide
- How Do I Reset Hard Drive on My Own? Here Is the Complete Guide
- Fix Windows Cannot be Installed to This Disk MBR on Windows 11
- Resize/Move Partitions to Solve Low Disk Space Issue
- How to Ghost a Hard Drive in 3 Steps