How to Assign a Drive Letter to a USB Drive

Learn how to assign a drive letter to a USB drive in Windows XP so that "My Computer" will recognize it.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• USB Drive
• USB Port on the Computer

1. Click the Start button.

2. Right Click My Computer.

3. Click Manage.

4. 
   Computer Management Window

   The screen is divided into 3 sections. On the left you have Computer Management for your machine, on the right the screen is sectioned into 2 sections; the top contains the information about the hard drive (Disk 0), the USB drive and the CD-ROM 0 (DVD G:).
   
   Click on Disk Management. Which is on the left.
   
   We are concerned about being able to change the USB Drive letter. In this case, the drive letter is F:, but we could change it to something else such as K:.

5. 
   Change Drive Letter and Path

   Right click anywhere on the bottom portion of the Computer Management Window screen that represents the USB drive (F:) and click on change drive letter and path.

6. 
   Change Drive Letter and Paths Window

   This will open the following window: "Change Drive Letter and Paths". Click Change.

7. 
   Change Drive Letter or Path

   Make sure the radio button “Assign the following drive letter is chosen”, to the right of this is a drop down box with drive letters currently not assigned to any drives on your local system.

8. READ THIS PART IF YOU ARE ON A NETWORK. If YOU ARE NOT ON A NETWORK PLEASE SKIP TO STEP 9. If you are on a network and have mapped network drives that have an assigned letter, they will appear to be available, when in fact they are not. When you choose an apparently available letter, a warning box will come up with an error saying that you can not use that letter, just choose a different letter until you have a good one that is not in use.

9. 
   Confirm Box

   Once you have chosen the letter for your USB drive, click Ok. A Comfirm Box will come up, click Yes.

10. 
    USB Drive letter is now K:

    You have now changed the drive letter to your USB drive to K:.

Tips & Warnings

• This is especially good to know if you are having difficulties getting your computer to recognize your USB drive. If another computer can recognize the USB drive and your computer will not, even after loading the appropriate drivers, this would be the first place to check to make sure "My Computer" has assigned a drive letter to the USB Drive so that it is recognized in "My Computer".
• If the computer is not recognizing the USB Drive in "My Computer", when you open the Disk Management utility, you will notice the USB drive there, but without a drive letter assigned, once you assign it a letter "My Computer" will recognize it.
• It is always a good idea to let the wizard run when inserting a USB drive into a computer, if you do not let the wizard run, there is a real good chance your "My Computer" will not recognize the USB Drive.
• The hard drive and the CD/DVD-ROM drive letters should not be changed.
• All information is given as is, if you should decide to use this How-To article, I can not be held accountable for any losses.

Resources

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308423