A,B,C,.... Disk Drives

Hello,

I find it mildly annoying and somtimes confusing that my hard drive is split
into C: and E:, and an external drive (eg a usb stick) is called D:

I understand that there are historical reasons for this.

Is there any point in trying to re-assign the drive letters (and if so,
how? ) or would it cause more trouble than it's worth ?

Thanks

K

Hi, KRK.

It's part history, part operating system - and part controllable by you.

In the olden days (in 1977, when I got my first TRS-80), there were NO disk
drives. Then we got a single floppy drive, which became Drive A:. Then we
added a second floppy, Drive B:. My computer grew to 4 floppies, but 2 was
the standard. And then came those humongous 5 MB hard drives! MS-DOS
(Microsoft DISK Operating System) reserved the A: and B: for the standard 2
floppies and assigned the letter C: to the hard drive. And that's the way
it was for a few years.

And then we went wild! We learned to divide a single hard disk into
multiple partitions. Rather than call them Partition C: and Partition D:,
the DOS called them Drive C: and Drive D: - and the name still sticks today,
inviting confusion. The letters C:, D: - and X: - do not apply to the
entire physical drive, but to a partition on the drive, even if there is
only a single partition and it includes the entire drive. Then we added a
second HDD - and maybe more - and partitioned them and assigned "drive"
letters to those partitions. And optical drives, first CD and then DVD;
these usually used disks with only a single partition, but multiple
partitions on these disks are quite possible and sometimes exist.

And then came USB, with its flash drives and card readers and other devices,
along with network drives, and all of these are eligible to be assigned
"drive" letters.

Left to its own devices, Windows Vista Setup assigns the letter C: to its
own "boot volume" and then assigns the letter D: to the "system volume", if
it is not the same as the boot volume. (See KB314470
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314470) for the
counterintuitive definitions of these two terms, "system volume" and "boot
volume"; it is very important to get them straight in your mind.) After
that, it assigns letters to other partitions and devices, generally in
sequence, but with certain exceptions built into the operating system. The
boot and system volume letters are assigned at the beginning, by Setup.exe,
and can't be changed except by running Setup again - that is, by
reinstalling Vista.

All the other drive letters can be assigned and reassigned by an
Administrator. Just run the built-in utility, Disk Management. (There are
several ways to launch Disk Management; I prefer to press Start, type
"diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter.) Here, after studying the layout for a few
minutes, it becomes pretty obvious how to do most jobs. To change your USB
stick from D: to U:, for example, just right-click on Drive D: and choose
"Change drive letter and paths..." The Wizard will guide you to select from
the list of unused letters. Once you've "vacated" the letter D:, you can -
if you choose - right-click on your Drive E: and change it to D:. (There is
no requirement to use them in sequence, so I like to choose mnemonic letters
to help me remember.)

In the top part of Disk Management (the Volume List), widen the Status
column so that you can read it, then look for the labels "System" and
"Boot". There should be ONE of each and they MAY both be on the same
partition. The letter or letters for these partitions cannot be changed,
but all the others are fair game. Once you have explicitly assigned a
letter in Disk Management, the system will attempt to use that same letter
each time you plug in your USB drive or other device, rather than simply
assigning "the next available letter" each time.

Disk Management was introduced in Windows 2000, almost 10 years ago, and it
quickly became one of my favorite features.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"KRK" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hello,
>
> I find it mildly annoying and somtimes confusing that my hard drive is
> split into C: and E:, and an external drive (eg a usb stick) is called D:
>
> I understand that there are historical reasons for this.
>
> Is there any point in trying to re-assign the drive letters (and if so,
> how? ) or would it cause more trouble than it's worth ?
>
> Thanks
>
> K

Hi,

Thanks for this!

Does that mean that if I reset my usb port to U:, it will always be U:, or
do I have to do it every time I login ?

Thanks again

KK


"R. C. White" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi, KRK.
>
> It's part history, part operating system - and part controllable by you.
>
> In the olden days (in 1977, when I got my first TRS-80), there were NO
> disk drives. Then we got a single floppy drive, which became Drive A:.
> Then we added a second floppy, Drive B:. My computer grew to 4 floppies,
> but 2 was the standard. And then came those humongous 5 MB hard drives!
> MS-DOS (Microsoft DISK Operating System) reserved the A: and B: for the
> standard 2 floppies and assigned the letter C: to the hard drive. And
> that's the way it was for a few years.
>
> And then we went wild! We learned to divide a single hard disk into
> multiple partitions. Rather than call them Partition C: and Partition D:,
> the DOS called them Drive C: and Drive D: - and the name still sticks
> today, inviting confusion. The letters C:, D: - and X: - do not apply to
> the entire physical drive, but to a partition on the drive, even if there
> is only a single partition and it includes the entire drive. Then we
> added a second HDD - and maybe more - and partitioned them and assigned
> "drive" letters to those partitions. And optical drives, first CD and
> then DVD; these usually used disks with only a single partition, but
> multiple partitions on these disks are quite possible and sometimes exist.
>
> And then came USB, with its flash drives and card readers and other
> devices, along with network drives, and all of these are eligible to be
> assigned "drive" letters.
>
> Left to its own devices, Windows Vista Setup assigns the letter C: to its
> own "boot volume" and then assigns the letter D: to the "system volume",
> if it is not the same as the boot volume. (See KB314470
> (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314470) for the
> counterintuitive definitions of these two terms, "system volume" and "boot
> volume"; it is very important to get them straight in your mind.) After
> that, it assigns letters to other partitions and devices, generally in
> sequence, but with certain exceptions built into the operating system.
> The boot and system volume letters are assigned at the beginning, by
> Setup.exe, and can't be changed except by running Setup again - that is,
> by reinstalling Vista.
>
> All the other drive letters can be assigned and reassigned by an
> Administrator. Just run the built-in utility, Disk Management. (There
> are several ways to launch Disk Management; I prefer to press Start, type
> "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter.) Here, after studying the layout for a
> few minutes, it becomes pretty obvious how to do most jobs. To change
> your USB stick from D: to U:, for example, just right-click on Drive D:
> and choose "Change drive letter and paths..." The Wizard will guide you
> to select from the list of unused letters. Once you've "vacated" the
> letter D:, you can - if you choose - right-click on your Drive E: and
> change it to D:. (There is no requirement to use them in sequence, so I
> like to choose mnemonic letters to help me remember.)
>
> In the top part of Disk Management (the Volume List), widen the Status
> column so that you can read it, then look for the labels "System" and
> "Boot". There should be ONE of each and they MAY both be on the same
> partition. The letter or letters for these partitions cannot be changed,
> but all the others are fair game. Once you have explicitly assigned a
> letter in Disk Management, the system will attempt to use that same letter
> each time you plug in your USB drive or other device, rather than simply
> assigning "the next available letter" each time.
>
> Disk Management was introduced in Windows 2000, almost 10 years ago, and
> it quickly became one of my favorite features.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64
>
> "KRK" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Hello,
>>
>> I find it mildly annoying and somtimes confusing that my hard drive is
>> split into C: and E:, and an external drive (eg a usb stick) is called D:
>>
>> I understand that there are historical reasons for this.
>>
>> Is there any point in trying to re-assign the drive letters (and if so,
>> how? ) or would it cause more trouble than it's worth ?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> K
>

Hi, KRK.

Please read my post again. As I said:

>> Once you have explicitly assigned a letter in Disk Management, the system
>> will attempt to use that same letter each time you plug in your USB drive
>> or other device, rather than simply assigning "the next available letter"
>> each time.

So your Drive U: should always be Drive U: - until YOU change it,
accidentally or on purpose.

And it's not the port that is becoming Drive U:, it's the flash drive. Plug
the flash drive into a different port and it should still be Drive U:.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"KRK" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for this!
>
> Does that mean that if I reset my usb port to U:, it will always be U:, or
> do I have to do it every time I login ?
>
> Thanks again
>
> KK
>
>
> "R. C. White" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Hi, KRK.
>>
>> It's part history, part operating system - and part controllable by you.
>>
>> In the olden days (in 1977, when I got my first TRS-80), there were NO
>> disk drives. Then we got a single floppy drive, which became Drive A:.
>> Then we added a second floppy, Drive B:. My computer grew to 4 floppies,
>> but 2 was the standard. And then came those humongous 5 MB hard drives!
>> MS-DOS (Microsoft DISK Operating System) reserved the A: and B: for the
>> standard 2 floppies and assigned the letter C: to the hard drive. And
>> that's the way it was for a few years.
>>
>> And then we went wild! We learned to divide a single hard disk into
>> multiple partitions. Rather than call them Partition C: and Partition
>> D:, the DOS called them Drive C: and Drive D: - and the name still sticks
>> today, inviting confusion. The letters C:, D: - and X: - do not apply to
>> the entire physical drive, but to a partition on the drive, even if there
>> is only a single partition and it includes the entire drive. Then we
>> added a second HDD - and maybe more - and partitioned them and assigned
>> "drive" letters to those partitions. And optical drives, first CD and
>> then DVD; these usually used disks with only a single partition, but
>> multiple partitions on these disks are quite possible and sometimes
>> exist.
>>
>> And then came USB, with its flash drives and card readers and other
>> devices, along with network drives, and all of these are eligible to be
>> assigned "drive" letters.
>>
>> Left to its own devices, Windows Vista Setup assigns the letter C: to its
>> own "boot volume" and then assigns the letter D: to the "system volume",
>> if it is not the same as the boot volume. (See KB314470
>> (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314470) for the
>> counterintuitive definitions of these two terms, "system volume" and
>> "boot volume"; it is very important to get them straight in your mind.)
>> After that, it assigns letters to other partitions and devices, generally
>> in sequence, but with certain exceptions built into the operating system.
>> The boot and system volume letters are assigned at the beginning, by
>> Setup.exe, and can't be changed except by running Setup again - that is,
>> by reinstalling Vista.
>>
>> All the other drive letters can be assigned and reassigned by an
>> Administrator. Just run the built-in utility, Disk Management. (There
>> are several ways to launch Disk Management; I prefer to press Start, type
>> "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter.) Here, after studying the layout for a
>> few minutes, it becomes pretty obvious how to do most jobs. To change
>> your USB stick from D: to U:, for example, just right-click on Drive D:
>> and choose "Change drive letter and paths..." The Wizard will guide you
>> to select from the list of unused letters. Once you've "vacated" the
>> letter D:, you can - if you choose - right-click on your Drive E: and
>> change it to D:. (There is no requirement to use them in sequence, so I
>> like to choose mnemonic letters to help me remember.)
>>
>> In the top part of Disk Management (the Volume List), widen the Status
>> column so that you can read it, then look for the labels "System" and
>> "Boot". There should be ONE of each and they MAY both be on the same
>> partition. The letter or letters for these partitions cannot be changed,
>> but all the others are fair game. Once you have explicitly assigned a
>> letter in Disk Management, the system will attempt to use that same
>> letter each time you plug in your USB drive or other device, rather than
>> simply assigning "the next available letter" each time.
>>
>> Disk Management was introduced in Windows 2000, almost 10 years ago, and
>> it quickly became one of my favorite features.
>>
>> RC
>>
>> "KRK" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I find it mildly annoying and somtimes confusing that my hard drive is
>>> split into C: and E:, and an external drive (eg a usb stick) is called
>>> D:
>>>
>>> I understand that there are historical reasons for this.
>>>
>>> Is there any point in trying to re-assign the drive letters (and if so,
>>> how? ) or would it cause more trouble than it's worth ?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> K

Thanks again,

This has really helped. By simply labelling the usb stick as U: I find the
chance of confusing my drives is much reduced.

Your advice....""And it's not the port that is becoming Drive U:, it's the
flash drive. Plug the flash drive into a different port and it should still
be Drive U:. " was the key to my understanding.

Thanks

K





"R. C. White" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi, KRK.
>
> Please read my post again. As I said:
>
>>> Once you have explicitly assigned a letter in Disk Management, the
>>> system will attempt to use that same letter each time you plug in your
>>> USB drive or other device, rather than simply assigning "the next
>>> available letter" each time.
>
> So your Drive U: should always be Drive U: - until YOU change it,
> accidentally or on purpose.
>
> And it's not the port that is becoming Drive U:, it's the flash drive.
> Plug the flash drive into a different port and it should still be Drive
> U:.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64
>
> "KRK" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks for this!
>>
>> Does that mean that if I reset my usb port to U:, it will always be U:,
>> or do I have to do it every time I login ?
>>
>> Thanks again
>>
>> KK
>>
>>
>> "R. C. White" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Hi, KRK.
>>>
>>> It's part history, part operating system - and part controllable by you.
>>>
>>> In the olden days (in 1977, when I got my first TRS-80), there were NO
>>> disk drives. Then we got a single floppy drive, which became Drive A:.
>>> Then we added a second floppy, Drive B:. My computer grew to 4
>>> floppies, but 2 was the standard. And then came those humongous 5 MB
>>> hard drives! MS-DOS (Microsoft DISK Operating System) reserved the A:
>>> and B: for the standard 2 floppies and assigned the letter C: to the
>>> hard drive. And that's the way it was for a few years.
>>>
>>> And then we went wild! We learned to divide a single hard disk into
>>> multiple partitions. Rather than call them Partition C: and Partition
>>> D:, the DOS called them Drive C: and Drive D: - and the name still
>>> sticks today, inviting confusion. The letters C:, D: - and X: - do not
>>> apply to the entire physical drive, but to a partition on the drive,
>>> even if there is only a single partition and it includes the entire
>>> drive. Then we added a second HDD - and maybe more - and partitioned
>>> them and assigned "drive" letters to those partitions. And optical
>>> drives, first CD and then DVD; these usually used disks with only a
>>> single partition, but multiple partitions on these disks are quite
>>> possible and sometimes exist.
>>>
>>> And then came USB, with its flash drives and card readers and other
>>> devices, along with network drives, and all of these are eligible to be
>>> assigned "drive" letters.
>>>
>>> Left to its own devices, Windows Vista Setup assigns the letter C: to
>>> its own "boot volume" and then assigns the letter D: to the "system
>>> volume", if it is not the same as the boot volume. (See KB314470
>>> (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314470) for the
>>> counterintuitive definitions of these two terms, "system volume" and
>>> "boot volume"; it is very important to get them straight in your mind.)
>>> After that, it assigns letters to other partitions and devices,
>>> generally in sequence, but with certain exceptions built into the
>>> operating system. The boot and system volume letters are assigned at the
>>> beginning, by Setup.exe, and can't be changed except by running Setup
>>> again - that is, by reinstalling Vista.
>>>
>>> All the other drive letters can be assigned and reassigned by an
>>> Administrator. Just run the built-in utility, Disk Management. (There
>>> are several ways to launch Disk Management; I prefer to press Start,
>>> type "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter.) Here, after studying the layout
>>> for a few minutes, it becomes pretty obvious how to do most jobs. To
>>> change your USB stick from D: to U:, for example, just right-click on
>>> Drive D: and choose "Change drive letter and paths..." The Wizard will
>>> guide you to select from the list of unused letters. Once you've
>>> "vacated" the letter D:, you can - if you choose - right-click on your
>>> Drive E: and change it to D:. (There is no requirement to use them in
>>> sequence, so I like to choose mnemonic letters to help me remember.)
>>>
>>> In the top part of Disk Management (the Volume List), widen the Status
>>> column so that you can read it, then look for the labels "System" and
>>> "Boot". There should be ONE of each and they MAY both be on the same
>>> partition. The letter or letters for these partitions cannot be
>>> changed, but all the others are fair game. Once you have explicitly
>>> assigned a letter in Disk Management, the system will attempt to use
>>> that same letter each time you plug in your USB drive or other device,
>>> rather than simply assigning "the next available letter" each time.
>>>
>>> Disk Management was introduced in Windows 2000, almost 10 years ago, and
>>> it quickly became one of my favorite features.
>>>
>>> RC
>>>
>>> "KRK" <> wrote in message
>>> news:...
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> I find it mildly annoying and somtimes confusing that my hard drive is
>>>> split into C: and E:, and an external drive (eg a usb stick) is called
>>>> D:
>>>>
>>>> I understand that there are historical reasons for this.
>>>>
>>>> Is there any point in trying to re-assign the drive letters (and if so,
>>>> how? ) or would it cause more trouble than it's worth ?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>>
>>>> K
>

Hi, KRK.

You're welcome, and thanks for the feedback. It's nice when I get one right
now and then. ;<}

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"KRK" <> wrote in message
news:#...
> Thanks again,
>
> This has really helped. By simply labelling the usb stick as U: I find
> the chance of confusing my drives is much reduced.
>
> Your advice....""And it's not the port that is becoming Drive U:, it's the
> flash drive. Plug the flash drive into a different port and it should
> still be Drive U:. " was the key to my understanding.
>
> Thanks
>
> K
>
>
> "R. C. White" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Hi, KRK.
>>
>> Please read my post again. As I said:
>>
>>>> Once you have explicitly assigned a letter in Disk Management, the
>>>> system will attempt to use that same letter each time you plug in your
>>>> USB drive or other device, rather than simply assigning "the next
>>>> available letter" each time.
>>
>> So your Drive U: should always be Drive U: - until YOU change it,
>> accidentally or on purpose.
>>
>> And it's not the port that is becoming Drive U:, it's the flash drive.
>> Plug the flash drive into a different port and it should still be Drive
>> U:.
>>
>> RC
>>
>> "KRK" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Thanks for this!
>>>
>>> Does that mean that if I reset my usb port to U:, it will always be U:,
>>> or do I have to do it every time I login ?
>>>
>>> Thanks again
>>>
>>> KK
>>>
>>>
>>> "R. C. White" <> wrote in message
>>> news:...
>>>> Hi, KRK.
>>>>
>>>> It's part history, part operating system - and part controllable by
>>>> you.
>>>>
>>>> In the olden days (in 1977, when I got my first TRS-80), there were NO
>>>> disk drives. Then we got a single floppy drive, which became Drive A:.
>>>> Then we added a second floppy, Drive B:. My computer grew to 4
>>>> floppies, but 2 was the standard. And then came those humongous 5 MB
>>>> hard drives! MS-DOS (Microsoft DISK Operating System) reserved the A:
>>>> and B: for the standard 2 floppies and assigned the letter C: to the
>>>> hard drive. And that's the way it was for a few years.
>>>>
>>>> And then we went wild! We learned to divide a single hard disk into
>>>> multiple partitions. Rather than call them Partition C: and Partition
>>>> D:, the DOS called them Drive C: and Drive D: - and the name still
>>>> sticks today, inviting confusion. The letters C:, D: - and X: - do not
>>>> apply to the entire physical drive, but to a partition on the drive,
>>>> even if there is only a single partition and it includes the entire
>>>> drive. Then we added a second HDD - and maybe more - and partitioned
>>>> them and assigned "drive" letters to those partitions. And optical
>>>> drives, first CD and then DVD; these usually used disks with only a
>>>> single partition, but multiple partitions on these disks are quite
>>>> possible and sometimes exist.
>>>>
>>>> And then came USB, with its flash drives and card readers and other
>>>> devices, along with network drives, and all of these are eligible to be
>>>> assigned "drive" letters.
>>>>
>>>> Left to its own devices, Windows Vista Setup assigns the letter C: to
>>>> its own "boot volume" and then assigns the letter D: to the "system
>>>> volume", if it is not the same as the boot volume. (See KB314470
>>>> (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314470) for the
>>>> counterintuitive definitions of these two terms, "system volume" and
>>>> "boot volume"; it is very important to get them straight in your mind.)
>>>> After that, it assigns letters to other partitions and devices,
>>>> generally in sequence, but with certain exceptions built into the
>>>> operating system. The boot and system volume letters are assigned at
>>>> the beginning, by Setup.exe, and can't be changed except by running
>>>> Setup again - that is, by reinstalling Vista.
>>>>
>>>> All the other drive letters can be assigned and reassigned by an
>>>> Administrator. Just run the built-in utility, Disk Management. (There
>>>> are several ways to launch Disk Management; I prefer to press Start,
>>>> type "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter.) Here, after studying the layout
>>>> for a few minutes, it becomes pretty obvious how to do most jobs. To
>>>> change your USB stick from D: to U:, for example, just right-click on
>>>> Drive D: and choose "Change drive letter and paths..." The Wizard will
>>>> guide you to select from the list of unused letters. Once you've
>>>> "vacated" the letter D:, you can - if you choose - right-click on your
>>>> Drive E: and change it to D:. (There is no requirement to use them in
>>>> sequence, so I like to choose mnemonic letters to help me remember.)
>>>>
>>>> In the top part of Disk Management (the Volume List), widen the Status
>>>> column so that you can read it, then look for the labels "System" and
>>>> "Boot". There should be ONE of each and they MAY both be on the same
>>>> partition. The letter or letters for these partitions cannot be
>>>> changed, but all the others are fair game. Once you have explicitly
>>>> assigned a letter in Disk Management, the system will attempt to use
>>>> that same letter each time you plug in your USB drive or other device,
>>>> rather than simply assigning "the next available letter" each time.
>>>>
>>>> Disk Management was introduced in Windows 2000, almost 10 years ago,
>>>> and it quickly became one of my favorite features.
>>>>
>>>> RC
>>>>
>>>> "KRK" <> wrote in message
>>>> news:...
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>
>>>>> I find it mildly annoying and somtimes confusing that my hard drive is
>>>>> split into C: and E:, and an external drive (eg a usb stick) is called
>>>>> D:
>>>>>
>>>>> I understand that there are historical reasons for this.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is there any point in trying to re-assign the drive letters (and if
>>>>> so, how? ) or would it cause more trouble than it's worth ?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>
>>>>> K