Change Hard Drive Letters

Change Hard Drive and
CD-ROM Drive Letters

By default, when you install a second hard drive in Windows XP, it doesn't assign it as D: drive as Windows 95/98/ME did. It assigns it a new drive letter that follows the last drive you have installed. Example:

     1. Existing Primary Hard Drive - C:\
     2. CD-ROM - D:\
     3. New Slave Hard Drive E:\

If you want to change your hard drive letter or your CD-ROM drive letter, this is the tip you want.

     1. Choose the Start \ Control Panel \ Administrative Tools.
     2. In Administrative Tools, choose "Computer Management"
     3. In "Computer Management", choose "Disk Management" on the left menu.

     4. You will see a window in the lower right hand corner (it shows all the hard disk drives and
         CD-ROMs drives).

To Change A Hard Drive Letter:

     1. Choose on the hard disk with a blue horizontal bar, the box should be shaded.
     2. Right click that box that you desire to change the letter then choose "Change Drive Letter and
         Path".

     3. Choose the Change button.

     4. Select Assign the following drive letter. From the drop down menu, select the new drive letter you
         want the drive assigned as.

     5. A confirmation dialog will appear. Select Yes.

     6. To activate the changes, close out Computer Management and restart the computer.

To Change A CD-ROM Drive Letter:

     1. Choose the box of the CD-ROM drive letter you want to change.
     2. Right mouse click that box and choose "Change Drive Letter and Path".

     3. Follow steps #3 - 6 from above.