How to Change Drive Letter on Windows 11（4 Ways）

What is a Drive letter?

On Windows 11, every storage device gets a letter like C:, D:, or E: to help you find it in File Explorer. But guess what? You can change these letters if you want. Maybe you want a special letter or the system picked one that's already taken. No worries! On Windows 11, you can switch it up using the Settings app, Disk Management, Command Prompt, or PowerShell. Just remember, you can't mess with the "C:" because that's for the main storage. Also, "A:" and "B:" are off-limits—they used to be for floppy drives. Let's dive into how to give your drive a new letter on Windows 11.

4 Ways to assign drive letter in Windows 11

As for Windows 11 how to change drive letter, here are 4 ways for you:

Way 1. Change drive letter via Windows Settings

Here's how you can change a drive letter on Windows 11:

Step 1. Press the Windows key + I to open the Settings app and go to System > Storage.

Step 2. In the Storage management section, click Advanced storage settings.

Step 3. Click on Disks & volumes.

Step 4. Choose the drive with the letter you want to change.

Step 5. Select the volume and click the Properties button.

Step 6. Click Change drive letter.

Step 7. Pick a new letter for the device and click OK.

That's it! Your drive's letter on Windows 11 will be changed.

Way 2. Change drive letter from Disk Management

Here's how to change a drive letter using Disk Management:

Step 1. Press Windows + X at the same time and select Disk Management from the result list.

Step 2. Search for Create and format disk partitions and click to open the Disk Management tool.

Step 3. Right-click on the volume and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Step 4. Click the Change button.

Step 5. Choose Assign the following drive letter. Pick a new letter for the drive.

Step 6. Click OK. And click OK again.

Now, your drive will show up in File Explorer with the new letter.

Way 3. Change drive letter from Command Prompt

To add a new drive letter using Command Prompt, follow these steps:

Step 1. Open Start, and search for Command Prompt, right-click the result, and choose Run as administrator.

Step 2. Type the command `diskpart` and press Enter.

Step 3. Type the command `list volume` and press Enter to see a list of volumes.

Step 4. Type the command `select volume 2` (replace "2" with the volume number you want to change).

Step 5. Type the command `assign letter=H` (replace "H" with the letter you want to use).

Step 6. Press Enter to execute the command.

After completing these steps, Command Prompt will assign the new letter to the storage.

Way 4. Change drive letter from PowerShell

To change a drive letter in Windows 11 using PowerShell, do the following:

Step 1. Open Start and search for PowerShell, right-click the result, and choose Run as administrator.

Step 2. Type the command `Get-Disk` and press Enter to identify the hard drive.

Step 3. Type the command `Get-Partition -DiskNumber 0 | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter F` (replace "0" with the disk number and "F" with the desired letter).

Step 4. Press Enter to execute the command.

By following these steps, PowerShell will assign or change the drive letter for the specified internal or external storage.

Suggestion: backup your disk to prevent mistaken operation

Changing drive letter on Windows 11 is usually a relatively safe operation, but care still needs to be taken as it can have some impact on the system and applications. Here are some of the possible risks and considerations:

▪ Application associations: Some applications and system services may depend on specific drive letters. If you change the drive letter that a system or application expects, it may cause those applications to not work properly.
▪ System File Paths: If a system file path contains a drive letter, changing it may cause the system file not to be referenced correctly, which could cause problems.
▪ Boot problems: If the drive letter of the system partition is changed, it may cause boot problems. Make sure you know how to fix boot problems in case you need to.

Before getting Windows 11 change drive letter, it is recommended to perform a system backup so that you can restore the system to a previous state if a problem occurs. Also, make sure you know how to undo or restore drive letter changes if needed. AOMEI Backupper Standard is the best free backup and restore software which supports all Windows PC, including Windows 11/10/8/8.1/Vista and XP. For Server users, it has AOMEI Backupper Server.

▪ Create a disk backup automatically: You can backup the disk daily, weekly, or monthly to keep all the changes on it.
▪ Backup only changed files: By default, it utilizes Incremental Backup as default backup method to backup only changed files, which saves much disk space. Also, Differential Backup is supported in the Professional version.
▪ Diversified backup devices: It allows you to create full disk backup in Windows 11 and save it to an external hard drive, USB flash drive, NAS, network drive, etc.
▪ Perform offline disk restore: It is capable of creating bootable rescue media with USB or CD/DVD to boot the computer from it and then restore disk backup without booting into Windows 11.

Download this software and install it on your PC.

AOMEI Backupper

Best free Windows backup software for personal use.

Download Freeware
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

Then open it, go to Backup > System Backup, and follow the on-screen prompt to complete the whole backup process.

Summary

In this post we discussed 4 efficient and simple ways to change drive letter in Windows 11. However, every operation comes with potential data loss risks. Then create a backup before you do any operation is suggested. You can use AOMEI Backupper to create a bootable media on any normally working computer, and then use it to boot the problematic computer into WinPE for further backup or troubleshooting.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Technician. With the inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed to deploy/restore system image file on server-side computer to multiple client-side computers over network.