How to assign a drive letter in Windows 10

Step-by-step instructions for assigning a specific drive letter to an external drive, SD card, or hard drive partition in Windows 10.

When you connect a new drive to your PC, Windows automatically assigns the next available letter after C, which is normally used for your system drive. So an external hard drive or USB thumb drive could end up as D, E, F, or whatever, depending on how many drive letters are already being used.

This is all well and good, but what if you want to assign the drive a letter? Maybe you want to use M for your music files or X for your top-secret X-Files. Here’s how in Windows 10.

1. Ensure that the drive you’re relettering isn’t in use and that no files from that drive are open.
2. Right-click on the Start button.
3. Click Disk Management to open the Disk Management console.
4. Right-click the volume that has the drive letter you want to change.
5. Click Change Drive Letter And Paths.
6. Click the Change button.
7. Choose from a list of available drive letters. (Don’t use A or B, which have historically been reserved for floppy drives and can sometime confuse older software.)
8. Click OK.
9. Click Yes if a popup windows appears asking if you really want to do this.
10. Close the Disk Management console.

You may need to restart your machine for the change to take effect, but once you do the drive will use the new letter.

More Windows tips…

• How to turn on or off hibernate in Windows 10
• Regain hard disk space by using Windows Update Cleanup in Windows 7 and 8.x
• Restore a Windows XP backup in Windows 8
• How to replace SkyDrive with Libraries in Windows 8.1
• Pro tip: Use an optical Recovery Drive in Windows 8.1

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Bill Detwiler is the Editor for Technical Content and Ecosystem at Celonis. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and previous host of TechRepublic's Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Previously, Bill was an IT manager in the social research and energy industries. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Louisville, where he has also lectured on computer crime and crime prevention.