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How to assign a drive letter in Windows 10

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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.

• Ensure that the drive you’re relettering isn’t in use and that no files from that drive are open.
• Right-click on the Start button.
• Click Disk Management to open the Disk Management console.
• Right-click the volume that has the drive letter you want to change.
• Click Change Drive Letter And Paths.
• Click the Change button.
• 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.)
• Click Yes if a popup windows appears asking if you really want to do this.
• 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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Change a drive letter

• 4 contributors

Applies To: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2016

If you want to change a drive letter assigned to a drive, or you have a drive that doesn't yet have a drive letter, use Disk Management to change it. You can also mount the drive in an empty folder so that it appears as a folder. For more information, see Mount a drive in a folder .

If you change the drive letter of a drive that already contains Windows or apps, apps might have trouble running or finding the drive. We suggest not changing the drive letter of a drive that already contains Windows or apps.

The following steps show how to change the drive letter.

Open Disk Management with administrator permissions.

In Disk Management, select and hold (or right-click) the volume on which you want to change or add a drive letter and select Change Drive Letter and Paths .

If you don't see the Change Drive Letter and Paths option or it's grayed out, the volume either isn't ready to receive a drive letter or it's unallocated and needs to be initialized . It might also be that the drive isn't accessible, which is the case with EFI system partitions and recovery partitions. If you've confirmed that your volume is formatted with a drive letter that you can access but you're still unable to change it, that's beyond the scope of this article. We suggest contacting Microsoft Support or the manufacturer of your PC for more help.

To change the drive letter, select Change . To add a drive letter if the drive doesn't already have one, select Add .

Select the new drive letter and choose OK . Then select Yes when prompted about how programs that rely on the drive letter might not run correctly.

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Additional resources

How Do I Assign a Drive Letter in Disk Management? A Step-by-Step Guide

Assigning a drive letter in Disk Management is a crucial process that allows users to access and manage their storage devices effectively. Whether you want to assign a letter to a newly connected external hard drive or change the existing drive letter for easier navigation, this step-by-step guide will walk you through the process, ensuring a seamless experience for Windows users.

Table of Contents

Understanding Disk Management: An Overview Of Drive Letter Assignment

Drive letters provide a unique identification for each storage device connected to a computer, making it easier for users to access and manage their data. In this subheading, we will delve into an overview of drive letter assignment, including the importance of drive letters, their limitations, and the benefits they offer.

By understanding the fundamentals of drive letter assignment, users can make informed decisions when managing their storage devices. This subheading will serve as a foundation for the subsequent steps and troubleshooting techniques discussed in the article, ensuring readers have a comprehensive understanding of the topic.

**2. Launching Disk Management: Accessing the Tool in Windows** Launching Disk Management is the first step to assign a drive letter in Windows. This subheading explains how to access the Disk Management tool on your computer.

For older versions of Windows, such as Windows 7 or Windows 8, you can access Disk Management by right-clicking on “Computer” or “My Computer” on the desktop or in the Start menu, selecting “Manage,” and then clicking on “Disk Management” under the “Storage” category.

Once you have opened Disk Management, you will see a list of all the drives connected to your computer. From here, you can proceed to the next step of choosing a drive to assign a letter.

Choosing A Drive To Assign A Letter: Identifying The Correct Disk

To choose the correct drive, you first need to understand the layout of your computer’s disks. Disk Management provides a visual representation of the disks connected to your system, including their sizes and partitions.

To identify the correct disk, consider its size, which should match the physical size of the disk you want to assign a drive letter to. Additionally, you can look at the disk’s layout, including the number and type of partitions it contains, to help you make an accurate identification.

Double-checking the disk’s size and layout will ensure that you are assigning the drive letter to the correct disk and prevent any unintended consequences.

Assigning A Drive Letter: Step-by-Step Instructions

2. Identify the Drive: Scroll through the list of drives displayed in Disk Management and locate the one you want to assign a drive letter to.

5. Choose a Drive Letter: From the drop-down menu, select an available drive letter of your choice. It’s recommended to choose a letter that is not already in use by other drives or devices.

6. Confirm the Changes: After selecting the drive letter, click on the “OK” button to confirm the changes.

By following these step-by-step instructions, you can easily assign a drive letter to your desired disk using the Disk Management tool in Windows.

Reassigning A Drive Letter: Modifying Existing Assignments

Reassigning a drive letter is a straightforward process that allows you to modify existing assignments in Disk Management. This can be useful in situations where you need to change the drive letter of a particular device or volume.

To begin, open Disk Management by following the steps outlined in the previous section. Once you have launched the tool, you will see a list of available drives and their associated drive letters. Locate the drive or volume whose letter you want to modify.

Right-click on the drive or volume and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths” from the context menu. A new window will pop up, displaying the current drive letter assignment.

Click on the “Change” button and select a new drive letter from the drop-down menu. Make sure to choose a letter that is not already in use by another drive or volume.

By reassigning drive letters, you can effectively manage your storage devices and volumes to suit your needs. Whether you need to organize your drives or troubleshoot an issue, being able to modify existing assignments in Disk Management is an essential skill.

Troubleshooting Drive Letter Assignments: Common Issues and Solutions

Some of the common issues include drive letters not appearing or being already assigned, error messages preventing letter assignment, or issues with inaccessible drives.

To resolve these issues, we will cover steps such as checking for conflicting drive assignments, using the “Change Drive Letter and Paths” option, or utilizing third-party disk management tools. We will also discuss the importance of administrative privileges and how to troubleshoot issues with specific drive types, such as external hard drives.

By following the troubleshooting steps outlined in this section, users can tackle any issues they may encounter during the drive letter assignment process in Disk Management. Ensuring a smooth and efficient assignment will help organize and manage their storage devices effectively.

Best Practices For Drive Letter Assignment: Tips For Optimal Organization And Efficiency

When it comes to drive letter assignment in Disk Management, there are some best practices that can help you maintain optimal organization and efficiency. Here are some valuable tips to consider:

1. Plan your drive letter assignment strategy: Before assigning drive letters, think about how you want to organize your disks and partitions. It’s recommended to use meaningful letters or names that are easy to remember and understand.

4. Avoid assigning temporary or removable drives with fixed letters: If you frequently connect and disconnect external drives or USB devices, refrain from assigning them fixed drive letters. Let Windows automatically assign the letter to avoid conflicts when the drive is not connected.

5. Be mindful of networked drives: If you have networked drives, allocate drive letters at the end of the alphabet to prevent conflicts with local drives. For example, assign network drives the letters X, Y, or Z.

By following these best practices, you can achieve a well-organized and efficient drive letter assignment in Disk Management, making it easier to navigate and manage your storage devices.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. how do i open disk management in windows.

To open Disk Management in Windows, press the Windows key + X on your keyboard and select “Disk Management” from the menu that appears. Alternatively, you can right-click on the Start button and choose “Disk Management” from the context menu.

2. Can I assign a drive letter to a new, unformatted hard drive?

3. how do i change the drive letter of an existing partition, 4. can i remove a drive letter assignment in disk management.

Yes, you can remove a drive letter assignment in Disk Management. Right-click on the partition with the assigned drive letter, choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths,” and click on “Remove.” Confirm the action and the drive letter will be removed from the selected partition.

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3 Simple Ways to Assign a Drive Letter in Windows 10/8/7

How to assign a drive letter in Windows 10/8/7? This post covers three ways to assign a drive letter by using Disk Management, a partition manager, and Diskpart in CMD.

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Updated on Apr 19, 2024

What Is a Drive Letter

A drive letter is an alphabetic character identifying a physical computer disk or drive partition. Windows will assign an accessible drive letter by default, to any storage device. It starts from A to Z, going through all the alphabet. Windows will assign an accessible drive letter by default, to any storage device.

The system reserves the drive letters A: and B: for the floppy drive and portable media, such as tape drives. Even if your computer doesn't have these drivers installed. But you can still assign such letters manually if you wish. On computers with hard drives, the default drive letter is always C:. The CD-ROM or other disc drive is the last drive letter (e.g., D:). It's because C: is the first drive letter available on a hard disk. The drive letter C: can only be assigned to the drive on which Windows or MS-DOS is installed.

Windows will always be the drive letter C:,  even if you have several operating systems running. Most modern desktops and laptops now have hard drives and disc drives, like DVD drives, but not floppy disks. Even in this case, the C: drive is assigned to the hard drive, and the D: drive is assigned to the DVD drive.

Windows assigns the last drive letter to flash drives, smartphones, and other drives. For example, if the last drive letter was F:, and you plug a new drive, it is allocated as a G: drive until you unplug it. If you install more drives or create new partitions, they are allocated to drive letters other than C:, like D:, E:, F:, G:, and so on. Instead of the drive letter given by Windows, you may alter it to any other accessible drive letter.

How Assigned Drive Letters Work

You can alter the drive letter assigned by Windows. In the case you alter a drive's drive letter, the registry saves it per drive and volume ID. This does not permanently assign a drive letter to the device. The drive letter on your PC may change if you unplug the device or if you alter it.

If you use many USB drives, you may have observed that the drive letter changes each time you attach one. When non-assigned drives are attached, the letters D and onwards are assigned in turn. If the assigned drive is not attached, Windows will assign its drive letter to another drive. If you connect the drive with the given drive letter later, it will be assigned the next available letter.

Windows gives you several options for changing the drive letter of your computer. With this guide, you'll learn how to assign drive letters using three different tools. We will use Disk Management, EaseUS Partition Master, and Windows Command Prompt.

Extended Reading: Drive Letter Not Available

Assign a Drive Letter on Windows 10 with Disk Management

The Disk Management utility that comes with Windows lets you manage your disks. Change drive letters , create new partitions, delete existing partitions, and more.

Follow the steps below to change the drive letter.

Step 1. You will need to open Disk Management with administrator privileges. Right-click on the Start button, then choose Disk Management.

Step 2. In the Disk Management window, right-click the volume you want to change or add a drive letter. Then click "Change Drive Letter and Paths".

Step 3. Pick "Change" to alter the drive letter. Or pick "Add" to add a drive letter for drives without one.

Step 4. Choose a new drive letter, click "OK". The Disk Management will warn you that some programs might not run properly. Just close the window by clicking "Yes" to confirm.

Assign and Change Drive Letter with EaseUS Partition Manager

Your team is working on a project and you need to copy some files to a USB drive. But you have no idea what is the drive letter of the USB of your team. Most people have dealt with this issue before. As an easy solution, you can assign a drive letter to each driver using EaseUS Partition Master .

Users can manage disks with EaseUS Partition Manager without needing to go through a lengthy process. This program also provides advanced features such as  resize/move partition to solve low disk space issues, merge partitions, clone disk , create/delete/format partition, wipe data, disk/partition conversion, etc.

Now, free download this easy partition tool to assign drive letters with simple clicks.

Step 1.  Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the target partition, and choose "Change Drive Letter".

Step 2.  In the new window, click the down arrow and choose a drive letter for the partition from the drop-down menu, then click "OK".

Step 3.  Click the "Execute 1 Task(s)" button in the top-left corner, check the changes, and click "Apply" to change the drive letter of the selected partition.

Assign a Drive Letter Windows 10 Using Command Prompt

Windows Command Prompt can be used to assign drive letters to any directory on a computer. It especially benefits users with many storage devices connected to their computers. Below, we will show step-by-step how to change a drive letter with the command prompt.

Step 1. Access the elevated command prompt. Press Windows + S to run the search box. Type cmd . When the command prompt appears, right-click and select "Run as administrator".

Step 2. Type diskpart at the command prompt. Press Enter.

Step 3. Type list volume , then press Enter.

Step 4. Pay attention to the volume number of the drive you want to change the letter. Type select volume . Substitute volume number by the number of the volume inside the <>.

Step 5. Type assign letter . Substitute the new drive letter with the new letter for the drive inside the <>. Done. After finishing, you can close the command prompt.

You can assign different letters for your drivers in various ways. For example, with Windows Disk Management, and from the command prompt. But EaseUS partition manager gives you total control over your hard drive.

EaseUS Partition Master will assign a drive letter to any drive or partition and much more. Besides changing drive letters, you can also delete, split and wipe partitions. All without having to restart your PC several times or risk losing data. These features allow avoiding complicated procedures when working with multiple partitions.

How Can We Help You

Updated by Sherly 

Sherly joined EaseUS in 2022 and she has always loved writing articles and enjoys the fun they bring. She receives professional training here, focusing on product performance and other relative knowledge. She has written over 200 articles to help people overcome computing issues.

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Written by Cedric 

Cedric Grantham is a senior editor and data recovery specialist of EaseUS. He mainly writes articles and how-to tips about data recovery on PC and Mac. He has handled 10,000+ data recovery cases and is good at data recovery of NTFS, FAT (FAT32 and ExFAT) file systems, and RAID structure reorganization.

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I love that the changes you make with EaseUS Partition Master Free aren't immediately applied to the disks. It makes it way easier to play out what will happen after you've made all the changes. I also think the overall look and feel of EaseUS Partition Master Free makes whatever you're doing with your computer's partitions easy.

Partition Master Free can Resize, Move, Merge, Migrate, and Copy disks or partitions; convert to local, change label, defragment, check and explore partition; and much more. A premium upgrade adds free tech support and the ability to resize dynamic volumes.

It won't hot image your drives or align them, but since it's coupled with a partition manager, it allows you do perform many tasks at once, instead of just cloning drives. You can move partitions around, resize them, defragment, and more, along with the other tools you'd expect from a cloning tool.

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How to Reassign Drive Letters in Windows

They aren’t cast in stone..

Reassign drive letters

Disk manager.

This will bring up the Disk Management tool.

Having that second drive assigned “L:” seems somewhat odd, 1 so let’s change it.

Changing an assigned drive letter

The resulting dialog will display all the drive letters currently assigned; in my case, L:.

You can exit the Disk Management tool. Reboot if you were warned earlier about the drive being in use.

Multiple letters and paths

You might infer from the interface that you can assign multiple drive letters to the same drive. You cannot. If you try to Add without Removing first, the ability to assign a drive letter will be grayed out.

An important word about C:

Do not change the drive letter of your system drive. In most cases, that is C:.

When Windows was installed, it was installed onto the drive C:, and doing so will have created many, many references to C: that simply changing the drive letter will not update. It’s possible your machine will not even boot if you change the drive letter of C:.

About A: and B:

Use them if you like. Other than feeling a little odd to have disks “before” the C: drive, there’s no longer any reason not to use them.

Footnotes & References

Podcast audio, related video, 83 comments on “how to reassign drive letters in windows”.

I partition my 300gb drive and have got to n:/ so far. To avoid problems if I increase/reduce partitions I reserve x,y and z for cd and dvd. Sometimes if you change these and try to run a programme installed when the drive letter was F:/ there can be a problem.

How easy was that! – Well done it worked and I have no further problems – Thanks Leo

How brilliant are you! How brilliant is knowledge! I have just spent 4 1/2 hours on the net and speaking to computer buffs searching for the answer to change drive letters (too complicated to explain why). CANNOT BE DONE – CHANGE THE BIOS – ALTER JUMPERS etc. etc. You managed it in under 2 minutes!!! (After I found you)You are wasted and should be as accesable as a screwdriver. You are now No1 Bookmark Thankyou Kindest regards

Regards, PJ Baron

Oh my i’m so glad that i found you. I have spent 4 days tring to find out why my computer seen my flash drive but didnt show up when i went to my computer. well to keep it short my dvd drive and my flash drive had the same letter so i plugged in my flash drive and did just what you told me and now it works fine thank you ever so much…

That was great help……….

Thanks you soooo much. I have been strugeling to find a easy to understand explination for 5 days now, your pictures and explinations are awesome. Thanks very much

I have the same problem as the question on your website — My drive letters are inverted C and D, so my computer looks through my D drive which it thinks is C to get to C which is marked as D, how can I fix this? (Posted by Sheila, 9-25-06) Were you able to answer this?

Dude. Thanks for the drive switcheroo help. I never knew this stuff and I really appreciate your help, and all the hard work that you put into this site. But, it shouldn’t be called “Ask Leo.” You could name it something comical like “Ask Beardo.” That would be more memorable and funnier. Beards are awesome to the max.

HI This info was helpful but I’m still having a problem with reassigning the drive letter. For some reason when I installed XP it named my boot drive F: and my second drive C:. Before the change in operatiing systems they were boot: C:, and the second was D:Storage. It let me change my storage drive letter, but won’t let me change my boot drive from F to C. Any suggestions? Thanks

iD8DBQFF7OeRCMEe9B/8oqERAqFLAKCMVvnwnKE/sgEMJmQKQr0w/rF1MQCeMd5f CE6OVOs/3gjO7ouPdDFJBRs= =482d —–END PGP SIGNATURE—–

I appreciate it Leo. You’ve made something that most people make out to be a four hour expedition through cmd a 20 second switch. You are now bookmarked bro.

But my system always forgets the new drive letter assignments on my CDROM & CDRW drives. Everytime I boot up, the drive letters have changed back to the first available letters above my HDDs’ partitions. To match my older computer’s CDROM & CDRW drives’ letters V: and T:, I have done the disk management drive letter change routine over and over, but each time I reboot these two drive come back as M: & N:. Additionally, Roxio’s (EMC8) drag-to-disk will not let you change the non-existent M: to T: so that I can use it to eject, format, etc. It holds on to the erroneous M: even though no M: exists resulting in a rediculous message such as “Drive is Busy” when I try to use it to eject a CDRW. EMC8 “Home” properly shows the CDRW drive as T: but apparently Drag To Disk checks only during it’s startup process and retains what it found at startup — the erroneous M:. Help!

I reassign drive letters to the way i need them. then everytime i reboot they change back??? why??? I just installed new raid sata hard drive. My raptor which has 200 gigs of info and audio/video session files on it needs to be set at drive D!! for some reason the dvd drive wants that letter evrytime i reboot??? help please!!???

Sincerly Kenny P.S I read the letters above but I don’t understand it too well.

What about the A: (floppy) drive. I have a computer that is only for use with a particular program. In the program it asked to “backup” and dose so on a floppy. It takes forever. If I could assign the USP card as the a: it would make things so much easier.

thanks Leo and all those great people posting helpful information on the internet! Always amazed how easy it is to find info … thanks to those that devote time to helping others!

Is there any way I can swap my C: and D: or C: and E: as I really want to remove my old drive before it fails???

I agree with Mike French. The site should be called “Ask Beardo” because it makes so much more sense and would be funnier than just boring “Ask Leo”. Thanks for the info!

Many Thanks Colin Hudson

I tried reassignment but only got letters to change that are after the two that are missing.I have HP M370n Media Center.My Dvd writer Cd writer combo wont recognize cds /Mp3s that I recorded on it and shows up at 0 bytes like nothing is on it but there is.Also both my combo player/record and my other HP CD writer that I installed myself after the factory CD rom player quit has reassigned what was formerly E: 300n and F:HP 8000n to G:compactflashI/II – Cd Drive and H: smart media nad has the icons of both by them yet my smart media and compact flash is still L: and M: I cant figure out how to switch them back with icons and make them E and F again.I tried your method but it wont let me change to E or F as those letters seem to be missing.Any clues?Also I cant find updated drivers for 300n.

I bought a new Toshiba notebook, in order to run some of the old software.. I had to partition the HDD with a D: drive.. so, as required.. I had changed the CD ROM drive to E: drive.. after few days of struggle, everything is working.. all in a sudden.. I lost my E: drive?? now I have removed D: drive.. I mean removed the whole partition.. but I still can’t see my CD ROM drive.. it is really frustrating.. anyone had this experience.. any solution? thanks for all your help. Gs

My problems that I posted on March 21, 2007 seem to have finally resolved themselves. My personally assigned drive letter T: for the CDRW & V: for the read only CD player seem to be staying that way between boots now. Must have been corrected in a Microsoft update or something.

Many thank, you have been a great help. Pesky computers!!!

Thankyou very much, that’s exactly what i needed to do.

ok i got a dell 1100 inspiron won’t read dvd/cd rom i tryed updating driver, roll back,and last but not least changing the drive letter. i was thinking unstilling the software and redownloading from dell s website u got any other methods i could try???

hi i have an ifriends computer and i just installed a super multi dvd rewriter but now its sayin cd drive file system unknown and i have zero bytes on my drive d im not to good with computers so im kind of stuck is there something i have dones wrong please help if u can thanks!!

What a brill web site. After days of worrying your answers solved my problem in minutes.

Thanks! This help tool came in VERY handy!

This is just what I needed to know. Thank you.

Originally I’d been trying to access some files on my USB memory stick and it wouldn’t show up in “my computer” so I searched for why this would happen and because I already had a mapped network drive with the same letter I now know that it will only recognise one drive with that letter at a time… the page in question (no idea what page it was specifically) said change the drive letter assigned to it but didn’t tell me how. This page did :o)

Hi.. I want to install Windows XP on my 80GB external HardDisk..Pls suggest me proper steps for same..also I came to know that even if I do it, the OS when booted frm HDD will be very slow..as it will use processor from PC!! Is it the case ??

hi leo, i have recently been attacted by a worm called ‘silly dc’it changes the drive paths of the c and d drives i think i have cleaned it all up, but i am still getting a reference to ‘ resycled\boot’ as the path for the c and d drive how do i change that??? thanks in advance Alex ps im using xp pro with service pack 1

Your directions to change drive letters is very easy to carry out. I have a problem because my D: drive is shown as (Z)(D) I would like to get rid of the (Z). I am not sure wether to follow what you say or wether I would have problems I have sbsribed to your site and am waiting for the email Thanks for a very good site…Brian

Does not work in my case. I have G: drive and want to change it to D:, it does change my letter but after the boot the paths are the same linked to G so all my programs installed on G: are unaccesible.

i ve a mini laptop wit 2gb HDD.I CANT RUN ALL OTHERAPPLICATIONS COS THE HDD SPACE IS SMALL.I TRIED AN OS ON AN ETERNAL HARDRIVE.AFTER FORMATING AND COPYING OF FILES N BOOTING TO INSTALL THE WINDOWS ITS SHOWING ME A BLUE SCREEN .CAN GO FUTHER THAN DAT.WHAT MUST I DO

Very easy to do. Who knew.

I installed a new c drive but it came up as H How can i get it to C ? I unhooked My card reader and my burner rebooted still comes up as H.What can I do ?

Thanks man! My CD drive came up as Z! Without any drives between it! Strange… But fixed now!

P.S. It really works on Windows 7!

Great article, you helped fix a minor emergency. Thanks very much.

After selecting a new drive letter for my external hard drive (I want P instead), I get an error message that says “The parameter is incorrect.” Any ideas why?

To clarify, I’m on a brand spankin’ new Asus laptop with Windows 7, and just about the only thing I’ve done is plug in my external hard drive and load Picasa. (I need the drive to stay the same letter for Picasa.) The laptop says the drive is D: for that external hard drive, and I’m I’m used to D being an important internal hard drive but I’m not sure how this laptop’s set up. Could that be why selecting P doesn’t work? (And I tried Z and it doesn’t work either.)

It turns out that I can use M, just not P or Z or Q. Strange. But M works, so I’m going with it! Thanks for this helpful article.

my h drive has been relabelled j but when i go to the drop down box in disk management it opffers me a,b then from j onwards… why has it skipped H ? i need to relabel it H..help im [ID deleted] on twitter thanks

Thank you Leo. You have saved me so much fruitless messing around on my machine to keep my portable hard drive with F assigned. Thank you, your advice was absolutely spot on.

My computer detects the dvd and the cd as different units, and they are the same. One as F and the other as Z but i need to use z as a network connection. The problem is that i can only see the dvd drive in disk management so i can only change the F. How can i change the letter of the Z cd drive?

i had windows vista in my laptop.i put out the internal hard disc and i made to it a format with a docking stasion.the problem now is that i cant give the letter c again in this disc because its allready on the lap top that the docking stasion was on.now i am tyrying to run windows with thios hdd and they stop and message telling me that is not any hdd in the lap top

Hey, I already passed the point where I can stop. Your warning re C:\ drive should be stated early in the document!

Thanks Leo you just saved me a lot of hours M

Brilliant straight forward answer. Saved hours of frustration trying to reset drive letters. Thanks Leo.

Thanks so much, Leo. I have 3 EHDs and my categories in ACDSee are assigned to one of these so when the letters changed, I lost my ability to go to those searched files. Great tutorial! You’re wonderful! PS: I always read through my recipes before starting to make sure I have everything I need. Sorry Cyberpilot. I hope nothing drastic happened.

my c drive is 1.95gb and my d drive is 35.3 thats how much they can hold not how much free storage there is and my pc is crapping out! please help, {email address removed}

@Ben You should be able to combine the 2 partitions into one with a partitioning utility

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-express/

It is wonderful and I changed my CD/DVD drives to G: and H: long time ago but Windows-10, creates an artificial drive it calls {system reserved” and as I changed one of my drives holding major data to the same letter it had for System Reserved, I had difficulties getting Image Backups and then Restore from these Backups, as they insisted on using the same letter I had before for the then System Reserved. Now, in my Image Backups, avoiding this confusion, I back up C: Only and forget about E: which is actually replaced by J: and E: is a healthy relatively large HDD of 2 TB. My Backup/Restore uses Acronis 2018. which in its memory always included my old E: as the System Restore for C: and not the current J: Interestingly, and this is something your readers should remember, The “System Restore” is not essential to Restoring from a Backup, although a strange unmentioned notice anywhere, the many icons on the Desktop, do not come completely or perfectly using the C: only for both Backup and Restore. So, I kep separately the Desktop data separately on aa a small USB memory that I update regularly. There is also a free software called “System Restore” and I keep its data which is few bytes on same USB memory stick. It allows the icons to be located on “”Geographically” same location, I has them, not just bundled to the left of the screen (Desktop)!

If the software does not care about what physical drive it uses then it should not have to specify it either. And most software does not care. The drive letter system is clunky and should be abstracted away IMO.

It’s a legacy thing, but I tend to agree. You can, if you like, use the mounting approach in Windows, it’s just not quite as transparent.

Is there a reason for that?. Just trying to understand!.

Mostly just for educational purposes, letting people know that there are two steps.

Thanks a lot, Leo!. You know, nowadays, I am very curious about everything that has to do with procedures and new knowledge in computing. I am trying to absorb as much as I can, for I know one day it would be worth the effort. That was the only reason for my question.

Is there any way, having once assigned a persistent letter to a drive, to unassign it and get Windows to go back to assigning a temporary (available) letter instead? How do I do this? Do I have to reformat the drive?

I’ve not found a definitive answer, but two theories: format the drive on a different machine, or use a 3rd party utility per this post: https://www.techspot.com/community/topics/usb-drive-or-flash-problems-how-to-cleanup-and-remove-old-usb-storage-drivers.145884/

I bought a new Asus Laptop with Windows 10 installed. Switched it on and before it had completed updating windows 10 I got a message to say that it could not finish the updates as there was not sufficient Disk space on the internal 30Gb HDD! I purchased a 2.5″ 250Gb Crucial HDD. which fitted into the spare drive bay. formatted it and using easus, Copied the C drive to D. I am now stuck as it will not let me swap the “c” and d”” drive letters. I suppose that could reformat the c drive, but this also contains two other partitions, EFI System Partition and Recovery partition. What do you suggest?

I have an old computer with one hard drive named C. I just purchased a new computer with a 256 GB SSD, which is designated as C and a 1TB hard drive designated as D. If I use the migration tool that came with the new computer it will transfer all the data to drive C, the 256 GB drive and also the boot drive. I want to transfer the data to the D drive, but my old computer has only one drive called C, so I am assuming that it is also my boot drive. If that be the case how could I transfer the data to my new machine? I originally thought I could change the drive and paths to D on the old computer and then migrate it to the D drive on the new computer. However, if this is s also my boot drive, your article says this is a no-no. Help!

{link removed}

I’m not sure if this will work, but Easeus Partition Master is a more powerful tool than Disk Management and might be able to do what you ask. It has a free trial version which is great for a one-off job.

Hello Leo and everyone here, my hard drive recently got corrupt and I was asked to format it, so I didn’t format it, I just did a command prompt and I got the drive repaired. But now it moved my drive letter name from E to F and it’s asking me to format the E drive. Can I format it? And if I format it will it affect the F drive? Please help. I don’t know if I should format it or I should change the drive letter back to E and see if it will work

My problem. Small, solid-state C: drive, 200 GB. Large spinning D: drive, 1 Terabyte. Wish I knew how to safely move bulky programs (like Mathematica) from my C: to my D: drive.

The best way is to find out if the program’s setup program has the option to set up to a custom location. IF it does, then uninstall it, and then reinstall it to the new drive/location.

I had a similar issue. I found a program called FolderMove 3.0 Free. It will allow you to do exactly what you asked. It is available from http://www.FolderMove.com – Before I used it for the first time, I made sure I had done a complete backup of my system.

I have a Windows 10 computer with 1 terabyte drive space. Windows has apparently partitioned my drives into a C drive with 119 GB and a D drive with 931 GB. My C drive is totally out of space. I’ve moved all of my picture and music to my D drive. I don’t even know why I need a D drive if I could increase the size of my C drive. I see that I can shrink my D drive using Disk Management, but it won’t allow me to increase the C drive. Is there a way to increase C? Thanks.

There’s an article for that: Can I Make My C: Partition Bigger by Taking Space from D:?

My Disk 0 is marked as the D drive. Disk 1 is the C drive. The Delete Volume is grayed out for the D drive. Do I have to delete all of the data before I can delete the volume? I tried to shrink the D drive, but after doing so, the C drive still shows the extend volume as grayed out. Any thoughts? Thanks.

If I understand you, C: and D: are on 2 different physical drives. You can’t shrink the D: drive to extend the C: drive because a volume can’t span 2 drives. The drive number such as disk 0 and disk 1 indicate physical drives. The letters represent the logical partitions on the drives. On an unpartitioned drive, the logical drive spans the entire physical drive.

In that article Leo linked to, he recommends EaseUS Partition Master for more complicated situations. I find Partition Master much easier for most partition management tasks, easier than Windows Disk Management. It combines all the steps into one set of clicks.

EaseUS Partition Master says their software won’t work since C and D are on different disks. Here’s a screenshot of my drives. I’m at a loss of what to do. D is on Disk 0 while C is on Disk 1 Disk 2 is my external backup drive. Is there no way to increase the size of my C drive, which is totally out of space?

If they are on 2 different physical disks, they can’t be combined into one. The best you can do is move as many files from C: to D: to make more room on C:.

I had some confusion with getting the drive letter assigned to external drives to stick. I have a set of external drives that I use for off-site backups, using one each month, then at the end of the month I rotate that month’s drive off site and bringing the next drive into use. I set up my backup software, Macrium Reflect, to back up to the G: drive, so I wanted each of these drives to use the letter G: There would never be more than one of these drives connected at the same time so I thought, erroneously, that I could use Disk Management to assign each to G: and that the assignment would stick. However, I learned that, this will not work and I need to assign the drive letter when each drive comes into rotation – or, at least, this is one way to accomplish what I want. This is because Windows remembers that the drive letter is in use and will not automatically use it again although it will let you manually assign it. For example, let’s say, I assign G: to drive #1, rotate it offsite, and then assign G: to drive #2. So far, so good. But when I quit using drive #2 and begin to use drive #1 again, Windows will not automatically use G: for drive #1 because it remembers that letter G is in use. So it will assign it the next available letter, in my case D:. This is simply solved by manually assigning letter G: to drive #1 again.

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How to Change a Drive Letter

Don't like the letters assigned to your drives in Windows? Change them!

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What to Know

• Open Disk Management. Locate the drive you want to change. Right-click and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths > Change .
• Select the drive letter you want to assign from Assign the following drive letter . Then select OK and choose Yes .

The letters assigned to your hard drives, optical drives, and USB drives in Windows are not fixed. Use the Disk Management tool in Windows to change drive letters. These steps apply to Windows XP and newer versions of Windows .

How to Change Drive Letters in Windows

Follow these steps to change the driver letters in any version of Windows.

You can't change the drive letter of the partition that Windows is installed onto. On most computers, this is usually the C drive.

Open Disk Management , the tool in Windows that lets you manage drive letters, among [many] other things.

In Windows 11/10/8, Disk Management is also available from the Power User Menu ( WIN + X  keyboard shortcut) and is probably the quickest way to open it. You can also start Disk Management from the Command Prompt in any version of Windows, but starting it via Computer Management is probably best for most of you.

Locate from the list at the top, or from the map at the bottom, the drive you want to change the drive letter of.

If you're not sure that the drive you're looking at is really the one you want to change the drive letter for, you can right-click or tap-and-hold the drive and then choose Explore . If you need to, look through the folders to see if that's the right drive.

Right-click or tap-and-hold the drive and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths .

Select Change .

If you've selected the primary drive by accident, some versions of Windows will display a message that reads Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume.

Choose the drive letter you want Windows to assign to this storage device by selecting it from the Assign the following drive letter drop-down box.

You don't need to worry if the drive letter is already being used by another drive because Windows hides any letters you can't use.

Select OK .

Choose Yes to the Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Do you want to continue? question.

If you have software installed to this drive, it might stop working properly after changing the drive letter. See details on this in the section below.

Once the drive letter change is complete, which usually only takes a second or two, you're welcome to close any open Disk Management or other windows.

The drive letter is different from the volume label. You can change the volume label using similar steps .

If You Have Programs Not on the Main Drive

Changing drive letter assignments for drives that have software installed to them may cause the software to stop working. This isn't quite as common with newer programs and apps but if you have an old program, especially if you're still using Windows XP or Windows Vista, this is likely to be a problem.

Fortunately, most of us don't have software installed to drives other than the primary drive (typically the C drive), but if you do, consider this your warning that you might need to reinstall the software after changing the drive letter.

No Changes for the Operating System Drive

You cannot change the drive letter of the drive that the Windows operating system is installed on. If you'd like Windows to exist on a drive other than C , or whatever it happens to be now, you can make that happen but you'll have to complete a clean install of Windows to do it. Unless you have a pressing need to have Windows exist on a different drive letter, we don't recommend going through all that trouble.

Change, Don't Switch

There's no built-in way to switch drive letters between two drives in Windows. Instead, use a drive letter that you don't plan on using as a temporary "holding" letter during the drive letter change process.

For example, let's say you'd like to swap Drive A for Drive B . Start by changing Drive A's letter to one that you don't plan on using (like X ), then Drive B's letter to Drive A's original one, and finally Drive A's letter to Drive B's original one.

Using the Command Prompt

You can also change the drive letter from Command Prompt . It's not as easy as using Disk Management and you can't see right away which letters are available to choose, but it is completely doable with the diskpart command.

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Home » Tech Tips » Windows » How to Assign or Change Drive Letter in Windows 11?

How to Assign or Change Drive Letter in Windows 11?

Windows by default uses C drive (C:) for hosting system and application files. You can choose different drives like D: instead of C: while installing Windows on your computer. Similarly, it is also possible to manually change the installed app’s location , though generally users install apps on C: drive. Did you anytime think of changing the existing drive letters in your system? Here is how you can do that in Windows 11 PC.

Default Drive Name Assignments in Windows 11

Let us say, you have two partitions C: and D: volumes on your hard disk. Here is how the default drive letter assignment in Windows work:

• A: – floppy disk drive for IBM computers (obsolete)
• B: – floppy drive for MS-DOS and Windows computers (obsolete)
• C: – Windows and app installation files
• D: – storage space partition
• E: – the letter after your storage partition for CD drive (if CD/DVD drive is available)
• F: onwards – removable storage disks like USB and external hard disks

When you have more partitions on the hard drive, system will use the next drive letters like E: or F: when you insert an external drive. For example, when you have C: and D: drives on your hard disk and insert an USB drive , it will take the letter E: or later.

Changing Drive Letters in Windows 11

It is not necessary to live with the assigned drive letters forever on your system. You can either reduce / increase the drive’s space and assign new letters or simply change an existing drive’s letter. For example, you have 400GB D: drive which you can simply change to F: drive. Alternatively, you can divide it into 200GB + 200GB drives and name them as G: and H: drives.

Windows 11 makes it easy to change the drive letters from the Settings app without using registry or changing system files. However, you can also do the same from Computer Management as with the case in Windows 10 .

1. Change Drive Letter from Windows 11 Settings

If you want to change the assigned drive letters for any partition on your hard disk except C drive then this is the option you should proceed with.

• Press “Win + I” keys or use Windows Search to find Windows Settings app.
• Once you are in the Settings app, go to “System” tab and then click on “Storage” option.

• Go down to the bottom of the “Storage” settings section and click on “Advanced storage settings” available under “Storage management” section.

• This will expand the section and click on “Disks & volumes” option.

• The “Disks and volumes” section will show all your existing drives and click on the one you want to change the letter name. it will show two buttons – “Explore” and “Properties” and click on the “Properties” button.

• On the next screen, you can see the buttons for “Change label” and “Change drive letter”.

• Click “Change drive letter” button and select your favorite letter from the dropdown to assign.

The dropdown will show all letters except C: and the current volume. In the above example, we want to change the D: drive and the system shows A to Z letters except C and D. Since D is the current volume, it is not shown in the list. But C is not shown because it is a system volume partition and you cannot change the drive letter for C. You will not see “Change drive letter” button when selecting properties of C drive. However, you can assign A and B for drive letters which were once reserved only for floppy disks. Since floppy disk is obsolete Windows allows you to assign those reserved drive letters A and B also.

2. Change Drive Letter from Disk Management in Windows 11

Though changing drive letter is easy with Windows Settings, it does not allow changing C drive letter. You can use Disk Management app for changing any drive letter with additional features.

• Press “Win + R” keys to Run prompt .
• Type compmgmt.msc and press “OK” button.

• This will open Computer Management app and select “Disk Management” from the sidebar available under “Storage” section.
• You will see all the drives available on your computer and select C or D or any drive that you want to assign a new letter.
• Go to “Action > All Tasks > Change Drive Letter and Paths…” menu.

• On the pop-up that appears, click on “Change…” button.

• Click on the dropdown against “Assign the following drive letter:” option.
• Select your favorite letter and click “OK” button.

Here you will see all the drive letters except D which is already assigned to another partition volume on the hard disk. Though it is possible to change drive letter for C, we do not recommend as it can affect the installed programs on your computer. Most programs by default install under “Program Files” section in C drive. Changing the drive letter may affect the installed programs and they may stop working. In such a case, you need to uninstall and reinstall the program on the new drive again. This will be a big task if multiple programs stopped working. Therefore, choose the system drive when you clean install Windows first time and stick with that. If you are using preinstalled Windows on C drive, then continue to use that without changing. You can change all other drives using Disk Management or Windows Settings app.

If you want to create parition, select the volume and right click on it. From the menu, select “Shrink Volume” option and select the reduced size for your volume. The remaining size will become unallocated for which you can assign a new label and letter as explained above. Learn more about how to create disk paritions in Windows computer .

Assigning Drive Letter to Removable Disks

As mentioned, Windows will assign the available drive letter for removable disks after the current partition volumes. The problem is when you have multiple removable disks, the assigned letters will change every time which may confuse you. The good part is that you can assign a drive letter as explained above for your removable USB or external hard disk. Windows will remember the assigned letter and use the same whenever you insert the external drive. However, make sure to use the letters clearly away from the current and CD/DVD drives. For example, you can use X or Y or even A or B which are generally not assigned.

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Steps to change a drive letter in windows.

Windows will automatically assign a drive letter. Drive letters can be changed using Disk Management.

Windows 11 and 10

• Right-click the Start button.

Disk Management will display a warning Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Check other programs and change the drive letter to the new one. View the Use of Third-Party Software or Websites disclaimer. Western Digital Support cannot help with third-party software or hardware.

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How to change drive letter on Windows 11

Here are four ways to assign a different letter to a drive on Windows 11.

On Windows 11 , a “drive letter” is automatically assigned to each internal storage, USB drive, DVD drive, and map network drive to identify the volume and make it available on File Explorer or other applications. However, you can change the drive letter to anything you want without deleting the data on the storage. For instance, if you want a drive to use a specific letter related to the content, or the system tries to assign a letter already in use, preventing the storage from appearing on File Explorer and apps.

Whatever the reason, on Windows 11, you can assign a different drive letter in at least four ways using the Settings app, Disk Management, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.

A drive letter (or device letter) can be any character from the English alphabet. However, you cannot use the “C:” because it’s reserved for the main storage that contains the installation. Also, “A:” and “B:” are reserved letters that used to be assigned automatically to floppy drives.

This guide will teach you how to assign a new drive letter on Windows 11.

Change drive letter on Windows 11

• Change drive letter from Disk Management on Windows 11

Change drive letter from Command Prompt on Windows 11

Change drive letter from powershell on windows 11.

To change the drive letter on Windows 11, use these steps:

Open Settings on Windows 11.

Click on System .

Click the Storage tab.

Under the “Storage management” section, click the “Advanced storage settings” option.

Click on Disks & volumes .

Select the drive with the volume with the letter to change.

Select the volume and click the Properties button.

Click the “Change drive letter” button.

Select the new drive letter for the device connected to Windows 11.

Click the OK button.

Once you complete the steps, the system will change the drive’s letter on Windows 11.

Change drive letter from Disk Management

To change the drive letter with Disk Management, use these steps:

Open Start .

Search for Create and format disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management tool.

Right-click the volume and select the “Change Drive Letter and Paths” option.

Click the Change button.

Select the “Assign the following drive letter” option.

Choose a different letter for the drive.

Click the OK button again.

After completing the steps, the drive will appear in File Explorer with the new letter.

To add a new drive letter with Command Prompt, use these steps:

Search for Command Prompt , right-click the result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to launch diskpart and press Enter :

Type the following command to list the volumes and press Enter :

Type the following command to select the volume (drive) to change the letter and press Enter :

In the command, change “2” for the number corresponding to the storage you want to change the letter.

Type the following command to change the drive letter on Windows 11 and press Enter :

In the command, change “H” for the letter you want to use with the drive.

Once you complete the steps, the diskpart tool will assign the new letter to the storage.

To change a Windows 11 drive letter with PowerShell, use these steps:

Search for PowerShell , right-click the result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to identify the hard drive to change the letter and press Enter :

Type the following command to assign or change the drive letter to internal or external and press Enter :

In the above command, change “0” with the disk number of the drive you want to format and “F:” with the letter you wish to assign to the storage.

After completing the steps, the drive will have a new letter assignment. If the drive was previously missing, it will appear in File Explorer.

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter) , YouTube , LinkedIn and About.me . Email him at [email protected] .

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5 Ways to Get the Missing Drive Letters Back in Windows

Is one of your drive letters missing? What should you do?  How to get the missing drive letters back? This post lists several ways to help you solve the drive letter is missing in Windows issue. For instance, try MiniTool Software to unhide partition.

Drive Letter Is Missing In Windows

Driver letter missing? I just upgraded to Windows 10. When I open This PC, my drive letters are missing from Windows Explorer. Now, what should we do when drive letter is missing in Windows?

Let’s drive in.

What Is a Drive Letter?

Here, let’s start with what a drive letter is.

A drive letter is a single alphabetic character A through Z that can be assigned to a physical disk partition, floppy disk drive, removable device, CD-ROM, or even a mapping network drive in the computer.

Generally, drive letter A: is allocated to the first floppy disk drive, B: to the second floppy disk drive, and C: to the first disk partition where the running Windows is installed. The remaining drive letters can be assigned to other disk partitions, removable devices and mapping network drives in accordance with actual demands.

Related : Drive letter assignment.

Once a letter is allocated to a disk partition or mapping network drive (letter for removable devices is changeable), we can say it is fixed unless we change or remove it in Disk Management, Diskpart, or some third-party programs.

However, one day we may find these fixed drive letters are missing in either Windows Explorer or Disk Management, which brings much inconvenience or even makes the partition inaccessible.

Therefore, we wrote this post and introduce 5 different situations where drive letter disappears, and at the same time show ways to get the missing letter back.

Drive Letter Missing from Windows Explorer or My Computer

Generally, after we open the Windows Explorer, we can see the following scenario:

Every local drive and every removable storage device has its own letter, like C: for the first drive, A: for floppy drive, and E for DVD drive. But one day we suddenly found all drive letters have disappeared. This is very strange, though it brings nearly no influence on system running and data access:

What’s wrong? Where are these drive letters going? How can we get these lost drive letters back in several steps? Let’s deal with these questions one by one.

The most probable reason may be that you or someone have hidden the drive letters via settings in Windows Folder Options. To fix this issue, please take the following steps (take Windows 7 for example):

• Go to one of partitions.
• Click “Organize” tab.
• Choose “Folder and search options” from the drop-down menu to get the Folder Options.

Then, select the “View” tab and scroll down the sliding handle to the middle until the “Show drive letters” appears. With checking this option and click “OK,” we can see the missing drive letters in Windows Explorer again.

If you now know the reason for missing drive letter from Windows Explorer or My Computer as well as the solution, it’s time to know why drive letter disappeared from Disk Management.

Drive Letter Disappears in Disk Management

As we know, Disk Management is a Windows snap-in partitioning program designed to help Windows users manage disk and partitions. In Disk Management, every drive should have a drive letter, but sometimes we may find one or some of drives lose their letters like this:

Here we can see the 188.38GB NTFS partition does not have a drive letter. Generally, if a partition is not allocated with a letter in Disk Management, it will be invisible in Windows Explorer:

As a result, we are unable to access files saved in it directly, and all programs relying on the drive letter will be unavailable. Therefore, under this situation, users would be more eager to get the missing drive letter back.

Then, let’s see how.

Steps to Get Missing Drive Letter Back in Disk Management

In Windows Disk Management, the function “Change Drive Letter and Paths,” which appears in the right-click menu of a partition (Windows calls it volume), can help add, change, and remove drive letter:

If “Remove” is selected and applied, the letter of the target drive will be removed and disappear in Disk Management, which is one of the reasons for losing drive letter.

On the contrary, by clicking “Add,” we can assign a letter to the selected drive. Therefore, when a certain drive loses its letter, we can try adding a drive letter in this way. But for successful adding, you may need to pay some attention to the following tip:

Tip: You’d better assign the drive with the original letter. If not, programs relying on the original letter might not work correctly. If the original letter has been taken by new drive, change the letter of the new drive to another available letter and then allocate the released one for the target drive.

In addition, partitions that are hidden via special technologies (set partition type ID to 0x17, for example) are always having no letter.

If a partition is hidden, the function “Change Drive Letter and Paths” for this partition in Disk Management will be unavailable (grayed out). At this time, the best solution is to unhide the partition by using third party program.

If you failed to assign a letter for your drive in Disk Management, now try using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free edition to unhide partition, which is a freeware for Windows home users.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Click to Download 100% Clean & Safe

Partition Wizard Makes Unhide Partitions Easily

Step 1. Run and launch the freeware to get its main interface.

Step 2. Select the hidden partition and click “Unhide Partition” from the left action panel.

Step 3. Select a letter for the partition and click “OK.”

Step 4. Click “Apply” button to apply the change if the missing drive appears in Partition Wizard.

When MiniTool Partition Wizard shows it succeeded in applying the operation, letter of the partition will be visible in Disk Management, and the missing drive will also appear in Windows Explorer.

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After getting a basic understanding of the second scenario, next, let’s see the third scenario.

Drive Letter Missing from the List of Available Drive Letters

We have mentioned that it is very easy to add or change drive letter for certain partition in Disk Management. However sometimes you may find a strange situation where a specific letter is not shown in the list of available drive letters and no other device has that letter assigned.

The most probable reason may be that this letter is reserved for a removable device that was removed or is hidden.

Under this situation, if you want to assign the very letter for the specific drive, you may need to make some modifications in Registry. However, as a slight mistake in Registry may cause data loss or system crash, it is very necessary to backup the registry before doing any modification.

Then, launch Regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMMountedDevices, and see if a device is shown as being mounted at the specific drive letter.

Next, right-click the drive letter that you want and choose “Rename” from the right-click menu to change the letter to any other unused letter, which will free up the selected one.

After reboot, you can add the released letter for your drive. Next, let’s see the fourth reason for losing drive letters.

Drive Letter Disappears after Reboot

When browsing Windows Forum and Windows Seven Forums (2 well known technical forums about Windows), I found a lot of people talking about the problem that drive letters are disappearing after every reboot. Of course, the same issue can be found in other websites or forums since this is a quite common error.

This is my story.

The following screenshot shows the 465GB NTFS partition on Disk 1 has the letter E:

However, after every reboot, the letter will be missing:

If I want to use the partition normally, I have to assign drive letter every time, which is so troublesome.

After lots of searches on Google, I found this error often occurs on Western Digital hard disk, so it may be a bug of WD hard disk. And someone gives the suggestion: fill the disk with zero. MiniTool Partition Wizard, a freeware for Windows home users, can help complete this task in very simple steps.

However, before zero filling the hard disk, we need to backup all desired files, because this will erase both file system and data. For steps to backup a disk, please see Copy Disk . After the backup has been created, we can wipe the disk without any worry.

How to Erase Disk with MiniTool Partition Wizard

Firstly, run and launch the freeware to get its main window.

Here we can see all recognized hard disks. To wipe a disk, please select the target disk and click “Wipe Disk” feature from the left action pane to get the following interface:

There are 5 wiping methods in total, including Fill Sectors with Zero, Fill Sectors with One, Fill Sectors with Zero & One, DoD 5220.22-M (3 passes), and DoD 5220.28-STD (7 passes). From top to bottom, erasing time increases but the effect is better and better. Then, click “OK” to go back to the main interface:

Finally, click the “Apply” button.

Once the disk is erased, we can recreate partitions in either Disk Management or Partition Wizard. The new drive letters would stay in their original place next time you reboot the computer.

Now if you have known how to deal with the issue that drive letter is missing after Windows reboot, let’s see the last situation.

Drive Letter Missing in Map Network Drive

Drive mapping is how operating systems like Windows associate a local drive letter (A through Z) with a shared storage area to another computer over a network. However, these local drive letters may disappear in Windows Explorer without us knowing exact reasons.

After a series of findings, we find 2 possibilities:

• When mapping the drive, users do not check the option “Reconnect at logon.”
• Use the Work online without synchronizing changes over a virtual private network (VPN) connection.

Now that reasons are found, solutions are available now. For the first situation, users just need to remap the network drive and check “Reconnect at login”:

For the second situation, please obtain the latest service pack for Windows, or apply Hotfix to the system that is experiencing the problem.

Bottom Line

Is your drive letter missing or lost under Windows? Have you found the exact reason and corresponding solutions? If you have found, can you please share them with us if they are different from those introduced in this post? If you haven’t found good solutions, this post may be useful.

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How to manage storage devices on Windows 11

Here are the steps to use the Disks & volumes settings and Disk Management consoles to manage storage devices on Windows 11.

On Windows 11 , every storage device needs to have a volume with a compatible file system and drive letter to make it usable. Typically, when you connect an internal or external hard drive, it comes already formatted with the necessary settings to make it plug-and-play. However, sometimes, you will need to manage the storage device manually.

For example, you may need to reformat a drive that was previously connected to a computer or resolve file corruption problems. You may need to change the drive letter or label to make the storage more meaningful for the data you will be storing. Or, instead of using the entire drive to store files, you may want to resize the volume to create additional volumes to store different types of files.

Whatever the reason, Windows 11 includes many ways to manage storage devices, including the Disks & volumes settings and Disk Management. The Disk Management tool has been around for a long time, and it's a console that allows you to view all drives (such as SSDs, HDDs, and USB drives), and you can use the available tools to create, resize, format, and change letters and labels for volumes.

On the other hand, "Disks & volumes" is the new experience designed to replace the Disk Management console. It's available through the Storage settings. It's similar to the legacy console, and it offers an interface to view the drives (if they haven't been initialized), and you can create and delete, change size, format, and choose different letters and labels for storage volumes.

In this Windows 11 guide, we will walk you through the steps to manage drives connected to your computer.

How to manage drives with Disks & volumes settings on Windows 11

• How to manage drives with Disk Management on Windows 11

Windows 11 has a new "Disks & volumes" experience to manage storage drives from the Settings app. Using this experience, you can create new volumes, format, change drive letters and labels, and more. The new settings page is meant to replace Disk Management, but the legacy app is still available.

Create new volume

The Disks & volumes settings make it easy to format and create a new volume on a hard drive. You don't need to bring it online or initialize the drive using this interface. The wizard will automatically bring the storage online, initialize, and set a default partition style.

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To create a new volume on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Open Settings .
• Click on System .
• Click the Storage page on the right side.

• Under the "Storage management" section, click on Advanced storage settings .
• Click the "Disks & volumes" settings.

• Select the drive to create a new volume.
• Select the Unallocated space and click the Create volume button.

• Confirm a drive label in the "Label" field.
• Select the drive letter with the "Drive letter" drop-down menu.
• Select the NTFS option with the "File System" drop-down menu.

• (Optional) Confirm the size of the volume if you plan to create multiple volumes.
• Click the Advanced option.
• Check the Perform a quick format option. Quick tip: If you don't select the "quick" option, the format will take a long time. The reason is that a full format will remove the data and perform a scan for bad sectors that takes the majority of the time.
• (Optional) Check the Enable file and folder compression option.
• Click the Format button.

Once you complete the steps, the wizard will create a new volume that will appear in File Explorer with a file system, drive letter, and label.

Change drive letter

To change the drive letter from the Settings app on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Select the available volume and click the Properties button.

• Click the Change drive letter button.

• Choose the new drive letter for the volume.

• Click the OK button.

After you complete the steps, the new letter will apply to the drive.

Change volume label

To change the volume label on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Click the Change label button.

• Confirm a new label for the drive.

• Click the Apply button.

Once you complete the steps, the new label will be reflected on the drive across the Windows 11 experience.

Format drive

To format a drive with a new volume and file system with the Disks & volumes settings, use these steps:

• Select the drive to format.
• Under the "Format" section, click the Format button.

• Check the Perform a quick format option.

After you complete the steps, the data will be erased, and the volume will be formatted with a new file system, drive letter, and label.

Change file system

You can also change the file system from NTFS to FAT32, but the process will delete everything on the storage. As a result, it's recommended to back up any important data before proceeding.

To change the partition file system on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Select the drive to change the file system on Windows 11.
• Select the NTFS or FAT32 option with the "File System" drop-down menu.

Once you complete the steps, the new file system will apply to the volume, and it'll appear as an empty drive in File Explorer.

Change volume size

To change the size of a volume on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Select the drive to change the volume size on Windows 11.
• Click the Change size button.

• Specify the new size (in megabytes) to shrink or expand the space of the volume.

After you complete the steps, the volume will appear with the new size on the system.

Mount drive as folder

On Windows 11, you can also mount a drive as a folder instead of using a drive letter to reduce the number of system drives.

To mount a drive as a folder on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Select the drive to mount as a folder on Windows 11.
• Under the "Paths" section, click the Add button.

• Click the Browse button.

• Open the location to mount the volume.
• (Optional) Click the New folder button and confirm a name for the folder — for example, data_mount_point .
• Click the Select folder button.

Once you complete the steps, you will be able to access the files from the folder path and the drive letter.

Check drive properties

To view the drive properties to determine the model, serial number, and other information, use these steps:

• Select the drive and click the Properties button.

• Confirm drive information, such as drive ID, manufacturer, model, serial number, media type, etc.

• (Optional) Click the Advanced Disk Properties option to view the legacy information, details, and event information.

After you complete the steps, you will be able to confirm many details about the hard drive, including serial and model numbers and other information.

Check drive health (SSD only)

Windows 11 can also monitor the health of solid-state drives (SSDs) and report any problems before a critical error occurs to give you enough time to back up your data before it's too late. However, you can check the estimated remaining life, spare information, and temperature at any time.

To check the drive health on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Confirm the drive health, including estimated remaining life and temperature.

Once you complete the steps, you will have a better understanding of the current health of the drive.

Check volume properties

To check the volume information on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Select the drive to view the volume information.
• Confirm the volume properties, such as label, letter, type, file system, status, and more.

After you complete the steps, you will find detailed information about the volume.

Covert partition style to GPT or MBR

GUID Partition Table (GPT) and Master Boot Record (MBR) are partition styles that define how data is stored on drives. The MBR is the legacy style required for the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) and supports up to 2TB of storage and four partitions. The GPT style overcomes the limitations for drives up to 9.4ZB and supports 128 primary partitions, and it's the style required for devices using Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).

Although the partition style should already be GPT, you may still come across volumes partitioned using the legacy MBR. If you must change partition styles, you can perform this task from the drive settings. However, it's recommended to back up any data as changing partition styles will completely erase the drive.

To convert a secondary drive from MBR to GPT, use these steps:

• Click the Convert to GPT button. Quick tip: If the option isn't available, click the Take offline and Bring online buttons.

Once you complete the steps, the partition type will convert to GPT. If the partition is already using the GPT style, you can also switch to the MBR (if needed).

If you plan to upgrade to Windows 11, you can convert an MBR drive to GPT with these instructions .

Bring drive online or take offline

To turn the drive on or off without disconnecting it on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Click the Take offline button.

• Click the Bring online button.

After you complete the steps, the drive will go offline or come back up online, depending on the action.

Delete volume on drive

To delete a drive volume and its data on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Click the Delete button.

• Click the Delete volume button.

Once you complete the steps, the data will be erased, and the volume deleted from the hard drive.

How to manage drives with Disk Management settings on Windows 11

Windows 11 still includes Disk Management, which is the legacy interface to manage primary, secondary, and removable drives connected to your computer. Similar to the new Disks & volumes experience, Disk Management has the tools to set up new volumes, including formatting, changing labels and letters, enabling compression, and changing volume size.

Initialize drive

When you connect a drive with raw data, meaning that it was never formatted, you will first need to initialize it.

To initialize a hard drive on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Open Start .
• Search for Create and format hard disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management app.
• Right-click the disk and select the Initialize Disk option (if you are not prompted automatically).

• Select the disk from the list (if applicable).
• MBR (Master Boot Record).
• GPT (GUID Partition Table) (recommended).

After you complete the steps, the hard drive will initialize, allowing the system to connect with the storage to manage partitions and data.

Convert to Dynamic Disk

The Disk Management tool also lets you start a drive as "Basic Disk" or "Dynamic Disk." A "Basic Disk" is the default option when initializing a drive that allows you to manage partitions and data. However, you can also convert the storage to a "Dynamic Disk" to take advantage of many other storage features. For example, you may need to convert a drive to dynamic to set up simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, and RAID 5 volumes.

This is a non-destructive process, which means that you should be able to convert the drive without worrying about the data. However, it's still recommended to create a backup of data before proceeding.

If you must convert from Basic to Dynamic Disk on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Right-click the disk and select the Convert to Dynamic Disk option. Quick note: You can also convert the storage drive. You can't convert bootable drives that contain an installation of Windows.

Once you complete the steps, the drive will become dynamic to allow you access to other storage features, such as mirror, stripped, and parity, and you will also have the ability to expand the storage across multiple drives.

To create a new data volume with Disk Management, use these steps:

• Right-click the unallocated space and select the New Simple Volume option.

• Click the Next button.
• (Optional) Confirm the volume size if you plan to create multiple volumes.

• Select the Assign the following drive letter option.
• Choose a letter for the drive.

• Select the Format this volume with the following settings option.

• Select the Default option with the "Allocation unit size" drop-down menu.
• Confirm a drive label in the "Volume label" field.
• Click the Finish button.

After you complete the steps, you will end up with a new volume that will appear in File Explorer with a file system, drive letter, and label you specified.

To change the letter of drive with Disk Management, use these steps:

• Right-click the volume and select the Change Drive Letter and Paths option.

• Click the Change button.

Once you complete the steps, the letter will be reflected on the drive.

Change drive label

To change the display name of the drive on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Right-click the volume and select the Properties option.

• Click the General tab.
• Change the label for the drive.

After you complete the steps, the label will appear on the hard drive.

To format a hard drive with a new volume and file system on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Right-click the volume and select the Format option.

Once you complete the steps, the tool will wipe out the drive, and it will create a new volume formatted with a new file system, drive letter, and label you specified.

Enable file compression

The NTFS file system available on Windows 11 also includes a lightweight compression feature, which allows you to reduce the size of files and save space while retaining normal access without manual decompression. Since compression and decompression happen on the fly, enabling this feature will require additional system resources. If you have a hard drive with multiple terabytes of storage and don't store any files, you may not benefit from this feature.

To enable file compression at the drive level on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Check the Compress the drive to save disk space option.

After you complete the steps, files and folders that you store on the drive will use compression to reduce the space usage.

Similar to using the Settings app, it's also possible to use Disk Management to change the file system. However, the process will erase everything on the drive. If you have important data, it's recommended to export the files to an alternate location, format the drive with the new file system, and restore the files.

To change the partition file system with Disk Management, use these steps:

• Select the NTFS or FAT32 option with the "File System" drop-down menu to change the file system.

Once you complete the steps, the data on the hard drive will erase, and the new file system will apply.

The Disk Management console includes an option to shrink or extend the size of the drive to manage multiple volumes on the same drive.

• Right-click the volume and select the Shink Volume option.

• Click the Shrink button.

After you complete the steps, the volume will appear with the new size on the computer.

To mount a drive as a folder path on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Select the current drive letter option.
• Click the Remove button.

• Click the Yes button.
• Click the Add button.

• Select the Mount in the following empty NTFS folder option.

Once you complete the steps, the volume will be accessible from a different drive as a folder.

To check the hard drive properties with Disk Management, use these steps:

• Right-click the drive and select the Properties option.

• Confirm details like device type, manufacturer, and location.

• Click the Volumes tab.
• Confirm disk number, type, status, partition style, capacity, and more.

• Click the Driver tab.
• Confirm the device driver information.

After you complete the steps, you will better understand the properties of the physical drive.

To check the volume properties, use these steps:

• Confirm details like storage usage, file system, and type.

Once you complete the steps, you will have detailed information about the volume.

The conversion will delete the data on the drive. As a result, it's recommended to back up any data before proceeding. You can always restore the data after the process.

To convert a secondary drive from MBR to GPT on Windows 11, use these steps:

• Right-click the volume and select the Delete Volume option.

• Click the Yes button to confirm.
• Right-click the drive and select the Convert to GPT Disk option to convert it to GPT.
• Right-click the drive and select the Convert to MBR Disk option to convert it to MBR.

Once you complete the steps, the partition type will convert to GPT. You can also use the same instructions to convert the drive to MBR.

To bring a drive online or take offline with Disk Management, use these steps:

• Right-click the drive and select the Offline option to take the drive offline.

• Right-click the drive and select the Online option to bring the drive online.

After you complete the steps, the hard drive will go offline or come back up online, depending on the action.

Delete volume

If you want to delete the data and volume on a hard drive, use these steps:

Once you complete the steps, the files and folders will be deleted and the volume erased from the storage drive.

Although it's possible to format, review details, and change various settings from within File Explorer, the Disks & volumes settings and the Disk Management console offer the most options to manage storage drives on Windows 11.

More Windows resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10 and Windows 11, visit the following resources:

• Windows 11 on Windows Central — All you need to know
• Windows 11 help, tips, and tricks
• Windows 10 on Windows Central — All you need to know

Mauro Huculak is technical writer for WindowsCentral.com. His primary focus is to write comprehensive how-tos to help users get the most out of Windows 10 and its many related technologies. He has an IT background with professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA, and he's a recognized member of the Microsoft MVP community.

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Gain visibility into everything from class performance to individual student assignment completion with Classroom analytics (coming soon), or export Classroom logs to BigQuery to analyze adoption, engagement, and more.

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5 ways to open disk management on windows 10 or windows 11.

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Windows 11 Recall Feature Is on Hold

11 helpful hidden features on windows 11 you probably missed, 4 signs you don't actually need windows, quick links, open disk management through the computer management menu, search disk management in the start menu, use power user menu to run disk management, open disk management through the run menu, use command prompt or powershell to launch disk management, key takeaways.

• Open Disk Management easily through the Computer Management Menu by searching "Computer management" in the Start menu and clicking on "Disk Management" under "Storage."
• Alternatively, you can search for Disk Management directly in the Start menu and select "Create and manage hard disk partitions" as the search result.
• Use the Power User Menu by pressing Windows+x or right-clicking the Start button, and then clicking "Disk Management" to access Disk Manager quickly.

Disk Management is a utility found in Windows 10 and 11. It is used to initialize hard drives, create, resize, or delete partitions, change drive letters, and more. Find out five ways to open it here.

To access Disk Management through the Computer Management tool, click the Start button, type "Computer management" into the search bar, and hit Enter or click "Open."

Click "Storage" in the Computer Management window if it isn't expanded, then click on "Disk Management."

If you want to bypass the Computer Management window, you can just search for Disk Management directly. There are some differences between the user interfaces of Windows 10 and Windows 11 — in this case, it doesn't change the steps, so don't worry about it too much.

Click the Start button, type "disk management" into the search bar, and then hit Enter or click "Open."

The search result displayed will not be Disk Management, it will be "Create and manage hard disk partitions."

If you want to use the Power User Menu to access Disk Manager you can hit Windows+x or right-click the Start button, and then click "Disk Management."

Disk Management can be launched from the run window as well. Hit Windows+R, type "diskmgmt.msc" into the box, and then click "Ok."

You can also start Disk Management from a command line if you'd like — click the Start button, type "cmd" or "powershell" into the search bar, and then hit Enter. (You can also launch Windows Terminal on Windows 11.)

Type diskmgmt.msc in Command Prompt or PowerShell, and then hit Enter.

Disk Management should open immediately.

Disk Management is a useful tool for managing partitions , and it is worth familiarizing yourself with it. Be careful not to accidentally delete any partitions though.

Hunter Biden's laptop could be used as evidence in federal gun charges trial: What to know

Prosecutors in Hunter Biden's federal gun trial plan to introduce materials from his infamous laptop.

President Joe Biden's son is on trial for three felony gun charges over whether he lied about being addicted to drugs when he bought a gun in 2018.

Biden's laptop and its contents have been a point of controversy since October 2020, weeks before the contested election, when Donald Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani turned it over to police and the New York Post.

The laptop eventually led to aggressive House investigations into President Joe Biden . But its more salacious contents, including explicit photos and videos of Hunter Biden, have continuously stoked the fire of controversy.

Its reemergence in court echoes the sordid tales that came out of former Trump's hush money trial, where porn star Stormy Daniels testified on her alleged sexual encounter with Trump a decade before the 2016 election. Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the hush money payment Daniels' received to keep that story out of the public conversation.

Here is what to know about Biden's laptop:

Hunter Biden trial live updates: A gun, drugs and emotional testimony

Laptop left at repair shop in 2019, never to be picked up

John Paul Mac Isaac , the owner of The Mac Shop in Wilmington, Delaware , said a man identifying himself as Hunter Biden brought in three liquid-damaged laptops in April 2019.

One laptop was left behind , and Mac Isaac said at the time he shared the device with Robert Costello , Rudy Giuliani's lawyer who also testified at Trump's hush money trial, because he believed it would make him safer.

Giuliani, who had been looking for information to damage Biden's presidential campaign, shared the contents of the laptop with the New York Post and local police .

Laptop contents stoked Ukraine interference conspiracy

The laptop materials were used as fodder in a conspiracy Giuliani had been pushing for months. At the center of the story, largely debunked, was that Joe Biden intervened in Ukraine while sitting as vice president to help Hunter Biden, who was a board member on Ukrainian energy company Bursima.

The conspiracy alleged Joe Biden tried to help oust a Ukrainian prosecutor to thwart an investigation into Burisma.

The laptop dump yielded an email purportedly showing a Burisma adviser thanking Hunter Biden for setting up a meeting with Joe Biden while he was vice president during the Obama administration.

Information from the laptop also contributed to impeachment inquiries of President Biden , but committees have not yet found wrongdoing . The White House has dismissed investigations as a partisan effort against the President.

More: House Republicans issue new report on Joe Biden corruption… that again offers no evidence

Intimate images released from Hunter Biden's laptop

The laptop breach also revealed photos of Biden using drugs, naked and engaged in intimate relations with other adults.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. R-Ga., displayed sexually explicit photos of Biden in a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing in July 2023.

Laptop the center of several ongoing lawsuits

In the years since the laptop's contents was published, Huntr Biden has sued several people involved .

Biden lawyer Abbe Lowell filed an ethics complaint against Greene days after the hearing, calling her actions, "a new level of abhorrent behavior.”

In September 2023, Biden sued Giuliani and Costello for allegedly copying, manipulating and distributing the records in a "total annihilation" of his privacy.

Biden and the computer repair man Mac Isaac are also amidst dueling lawsuits.

Biden claims that Mac Isaac invaded his privacy. Mac Isaac claims Biden, as well as media outlets CNN and Politico, conspired to defame him by implying the leaked laptop material was a Russian effort to meddle in the 2020 election.

In February, both sides argued to a judge that their legal claims should prevail without trial. That ruling remains pending.

Contributing: Bart Jansen

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Out of the Centre

Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.  

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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