Solved External drive reassigned its driver letter

I noticed a few minutes ago that my external drive, which has always been E, is suddenly F.
The drives now show as C, D and F. There is no other drive assigned to E.

This might have happened after I plugged a USB hub into the port, and connected both the external and flash drive at the same time.
I only noticed the change after that, so I'm not 100% sure that that was the cause, but it's suspicious.

I ejected/disconnected it and plugged it back in (without the hub), but no change.
I rebooted, but no change.
It won't go back.

When I tried to reassign the drive letter back to E, there was no way to do it, and the partition style is set to Master Boot Record... ???
I've provided a screenshot for proof, lol.

What do I do?

cbiweb said:

I noticed a few minutes ago that my external drive, which has always been E, is suddenly F.
The drives now show as C, D and F. There is no other drive assigned to E.

This might have happened after I plugged a USB hub into the port, and connected both the external and flash drive at the same time.
I only noticed the change after that, so I'm not 100% sure that that was the cause, but it's suspicious.

I ejected/disconnected it and plugged it back in (without the hub), but no change.
I rebooted, but no change.
It won't go back.

When I tried to reassign the drive letter back to E, there was no way to do it, and the partition style is set to Master Boot Record... ???
I've provided a screenshot for proof, lol.

What do I do?

View attachment 30086

Click to expand...

This happens a lot.
Any time any other external device (the uses a drive letter), is connected, when the external drive isn't, will grab whatever the next drive letter happens to be. Mounting an image may even do this as well.

I've found that just giving an external drive a letter further down the alphabet, solves this type of problem.
Like drive X: for... external. :)



You can probably get the drive letter E: back... if you make sure nothing else is connected externally, or "mounted", and "rescanning" disks in Disk Management, or rebooting.

There are 3rd party partitioning tools that can grab the E: drive letter again, as well.
Minitool Partition Wizard, EaseUS Partition Master, (both free), etc.

Ghot said:

This happens a lot.
Any time any other external device (the uses a drive letter), is connected, when the external drive isn't, will grab whatever the next drive letter happens to be. Mounting an image may even do this as well.

I've found that just giving an external drive a letter further down the alphabet, solves this type of problem.
Like drive X: for... external. :)

Click to expand...

So how do I give it a drive letter? My screenshot indicates that I can't....

cbiweb said:

So how do I give it a drive letter? My screenshot indicates that I can't....

Click to expand...

See my edits above. You're too fast for me.

It really doesn't matter as long as the drive works the way it should. Yeah, it happens when you plug, say, a USB flashdrive, and then an external drive. The system will assign whatever the next available letter is. No big deal, really.

There's also an issue with Device Manager > View > Show Hidden devices.... where it seems to have trouble forgetting.
The only things currently attached internally or externally, are shown by the RED dots...




There's a tutorial here or on Ten Forums, about removing ghost devices, which may or may not affect the problem you're having.


There's also this, but I'd wait for verification from someone... like @NavyLCDR






Personally, I think Windows is rather stupid. Which is why I use Minitool Partition Wizard (free), for brute forcing Windows into behave rationally, with regard to drives (internal or external).

Ghot said:

...You can probably get the drive letter E: back... if you make sure nothing else is connected externally, or "mounted", and "rescanning" disks in Disk Management, or rebooting.

Click to expand...

Okay, got it back, and everything looks better in System > Storage >Advanced Storage > Disks & Volumes as well. I was worried about the lack of options, and the MBR assignment that's in my screenshot. That was weird. But it's all good now.

Went into Disk Management, right-clicked the drive, and was able to assign the drive letter in there.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

badrobot said:

It really doesn't matter as long as the drive works the way it should...

Click to expand...

Well, it mattered when I saw that the drive was assigned to the MBR. That was worrisome. :)

cbiweb said:

Well, it mattered when I saw that the drive was assigned to the MBR. That was worrisome. :)

Click to expand...

Like I said. lately, Windows has been... stupid.
Microsoft is remodeling Redmond, Washington. Yes... the whole city.
I have the feeling that rather than hiring people who "have a clue", they're spending all their money on the remodel.



There are tons of articles about this. In typical micro-speak, Microsoft is calling this the Microsoft Campus "Refresh".

Yeah OK, a 7 year project running to NINE figures, is a Refresh.
Nine figures is somewhere between 100-999 million. LOL

They claim, that when finished, the Microsoft employees will love it.
They say nothing about how WE will feel about it, or if it will even affect MS's ability to turn out a good operating system. But don't worry, the employees will love it.






Current crop of proposed Microsoft software engineers, to be used for operating system development, during the Campus Refresh...

The only issue I've had with changing a drive letter has been with the ODD/Optical Disc Drive and a warning that some programs may not work properly. It had to do with where program installs are from and where programs are installed on different drives for other than simple storage.

I always change the optical drive to Z.

I think you missread your screen shot. All it relates to is is how the drive is partitioned...as mbr rather than uefi.

AddRAM said:

I always change the optical drive to Z.

Click to expand...

Yes, but mine is an external. This laptop doesn't even have an optical.

glasskuter said:

I think you missread your screen shot. All it relates to is is how the drive is partitioned...as mbr rather than uefi.

Click to expand...

My terminology was off, but I'd still rather not have my external drive partitioned as MBR.

cbiweb said:

I'd still rather not have my external drive partitioned as MBR

Click to expand...

Then backup whatever you have on it and repartition it as gpt. Change a Master Boot Record (MBR) into a GUID partition table (GPT) disk