Drive Letters Assigned to Computer Drives Are Not in Sequence

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Drive Letters Assigned to Computer Drives Are Not in Sequence

During the installation of any Windows operating system, as per the Microsoft’s recommendation, only one partition with the desired size is created on which the Windows is to be installed. As soon as disk drive is created, Windows automatically assigns the drive letter C: to it. Since Microsoft strongly recommends that the administrators should create additional partitions in the hard disk drive using the GUI interface from within the Windows, the next available drive letter, i.e. D: is automatically assigned to the installation media drive which may be either a CD/DVD-ROM drive, or USB flash drive.

After the Windows is successfully installed, and administrators create new partitions, the available drive letters that are assigned to the new partitions start from E:. Because of this reason, the additional partitions that are created in the hard disk drive do not remain in sequence.

Don’t panic.
The issue is not that big.
You just need to follow the steps given below to swap the drive letters assigned to the different partitions of the hard disk drive. Although the process of stopping the drive letters can be a bit confusing for the new users, once the concepts are understood, it can be easily done every time the drive letters are not sequentially assigned to the partitions.

Warning: Whatever you do, do NOT try to change the drive letter assigned to the system drive, i.e. C:. Doing so would permanently damage your system, and you will need to reinstall the Windows to get it up and running again.
Here’s what you need to do:

■Using the administrator account, log on to the computer on which drive letter sequence is to be corrected.
■On the desktop screen, press the Windows + R keys simultaneously to initiate the Run command box.
■In the available field, type DISKMGMT.MSC command and hit Enter key.



■On the opened Disk Management snap-in, right-click the partition that has been assigned with the next sequenced drive letter, e.g. D:.
■From the context menu, click Change Drive Letter and Paths option.



■On the opened box, ensure that the partition with the target drive letter is selected, and click Change.



■On the Change Drive Letter or Path box, ensure that the Assign the following drive letter radio button is selected.
■From the available drop-down list, choose any other drive letter (any random letter but not the next available one).



Note: Doing so will release the engaged drive letter and will make it available for the very next partition to which it is to be assigned.
■Follow the steps from 4 to 8 on the partition whose assigned drive letter is to be replaced by the sequenced one. While performing the 8[super]th[/super] step, choose the sequenced drive letter that was freed up earlier.
■On the displayed warning box, click Yes button to accept the changes.
■Follow the procedure given above multiple times to put all the drive letters in sequence.