How To Change Drive Letters in Windows Vista

After a new hard drive installation or maybe just to keep things organized the way you like, you may want to change the drive letter of a hard drive partition, CD or DVD drive in Windows Vista. The Computer Management tool makes this a snap.

Note: You cannot modify the drive letter of your main partition on your PC. In a normal Windows Vista installation, this is the “C Drive”. All other drive letters, including CD and DVD drive letters, can be modified though.

1. Click on Start and then Control Panel.

Tip: In a hurry? Type computer management in the search box after clicking Start. Choose Computer Management from the list of results and then skip to Step 4.

2. Click on the System and Maintenance link.

Note: If you’re viewing the Classic View of Control Panel, you won’t see this link. Simply double-click on the Administrative Tools icon and proceed to Step 4.

3. Click on the Administrative Tools link.

4. In the Administrative Tools window, open the Computer Management program.

5. In the Computer Management window, locate the Disk Management option on the left and left-click on it.

6. If the Disk Management option is not visible, look under the Storage option by clicking the small arrow next to the word Storage.

On the right-hand side of the screen, locate and right-click on the drive that you wish to change the drive letter of and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths….

7. In the Change Drive Letter and Paths window, click on the Change… button.

8. The Change Drive Letter or Path dialog box will appear. Choose the drive letter you wish to assign to this partition.

Click OK.

9. The Confirm window that appears advises you that “Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Do you want to continue?”.

Note: If you have software installed to this drive, the software may stop functioning after a drive letter change. Nearly all software defaults to the primary drive though, so this is rarely a concern.

10. If you’re sure you want to make this change, click Yes. Depending on the speed of your PC, the change should be nearly instant.

11. You can now close the Computer Management and Administrative Tools windows.