How to Allocate a Drive Letter

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posted on 14 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Allocating drive letters on your computer will let you personalize the identity of each new drive you add to your system. You can assign drive letters by pulling up Disk Management in Windows XP, Vista, and 7. You need to be logged on as an administrator in each version to change drive letters. Mac OS X does not typically utilize drive letters to identify different directories, although you can manually rename them. Here's how to allocate drive letters.

Steps

Allocating a Drive Letter in Windows

Open the Start menu.

Click on Control Panel. Which option you click depends on your version of Windows. Click on "System and Security" if using Windows 7. Click on "System and Maintenance" if using Windows Vista. Click on "Performance and Maintenance" if using Windows XP. (Note that in Classic View, you won't be able to see this option.)

Select Administrative Tools.

Double click on Computer Management.

Click on Disk Management. It is located in the left pane.

Right-click on the drive you want to change. Select "Change Drive Letter and Path" from the drop-down menu.

Select "Add," "Change," or "Remove." If you selected "Add" or "Change," click "OK." If you selected "Remove," click "Yes." "Add" allows you to label a drive with a previously unused letter. "Change" allows you to swap the letters of existing drives. "Remove" takes away the letter assigned to a drive. In Windows XP, you need to click "OK" and then "Yes" if you are changing or removing a drive letter.