Solved External HD's changed from 'D' to 'E'

Hello,

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop running Windows 11, version 24H2 (OS build 26100.4652)

I have 4 Western Digital External Hard Drives. I use 1 for my iTunes Music library files , 1 for my Acronis system image backups files and the others for photos, audio files, graphics and other assorted files and folders. Up until yesterday, I only connected 1 external drive at a time, so each drive was always recognized as the 'D' drive. Yesterday, I connected 2 drives at the same time so I could copy/paste and move files and folders from one drive to another. So they were recognized as 'D' and 'E'. Now when I connect the drive with my iTunes music files it is recognized as the 'E' drive and iTunes is searching for the files on a 'D' drive. Same with the Acronis program and a few others. I know that I can go into the programs and change the destination location to 'E', which should solve the problem, but I would rather have things revert to the way they were before; that is, as each drive, when connected alone, be recognized as the 'D' drive. How can I do that? Or is there a different and better solution?

Thank you for your time and help.

Mike Booker

You can use DriveLetterView to change or remove USB drive letter assignments.

MikeBooker said:

I only connected 1 external drive at a time, so each drive was always recognized as the 'D' drive. Yesterday, I connected 2 drives at the same time so I could copy/paste and move files and folders from one drive to another. So they were recognized as 'D' and 'E'. Now when I connect the drive with my iTunes music files it is recognized as the 'E' drive and iTunes is searching for the files on a 'D' drive.

Click to expand...

Welcome to Eleven Forum.
When a USB drive is connected for the first time it gets assigned the first available letter. When reconnecting a drive Windows tries to assign the same letter it used last time it was connected. Because you were already using D: for the first drive you connected you iTunes drive got reassigned with E:. If you had connected it first it would have got its usual D: and the other drive would be E:.

You can use Disk Management to change the drive letters of your external drive(s). Right-click on a partition to change its letter. Once you have re-assigned D: to your drive Windows should try to use it every time it is re-connected.

Thank you for you helpful and quick response. All is well now.

Mike Booker