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Thread ID: 108759 2010-04-10 08:29:00 Windows 7 re-naming 2nd hard drive problems Digby (677) Press F1
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874967 2010-04-10 08:29:00 Hi Guys

As you may know I have just set up a new machine with Windows 7.
Like it so far.

I just installed a second hard drive that I would like to change the name of to D drive.

I am used to doing this with Windows XP.

How ever I am unable to do it in 7 !

The reason is that I have a DVD drive that shows us as "D" as a CD drive and E as a DVD drive. Therefore my second hard drive shows up as F.

Normally I would rename the DVD to G and then hard drive to D.

But 7 does not seem to offer a way of renaming my CD drive from D to anything else !

Any suggestions ? 		Digby (677)
874968 2010-04-10 09:08:00 Open the start menuu
Type Disk Management
Select the cd-Rom change the letter to an available one.
Right click/ change drive letters & paths.
Do the same with your 2nd hard drive. 		mzee (3324)
874969 2010-04-10 10:17:00 And also be aware that changing drive letters may cause some problems in the registry.

Volume labels are another matter and you can give them any name you want. 		Sweep (90)
874970 2010-04-10 19:59:00 Open the start menuu
Type Disk Management
Select the cd-Rom change the letter to an available one.
Right click/ change drive letters & paths.
Do the same with your 2nd hard drive.

+1

No problems doing this at all....... 		pctek (84)
874971 2010-04-10 21:46:00 I have done this many times on other machines with XP.

My problem is that under "Manage" there is no D drive item showing up and in the drop down the letter D is not showing so that I cannot change any drive to D.

But in My Computer I have a D drive CD drive and an E drive DVD drive !
So that is the problem and I cannot seem to be able to delete the D drive CD. If I right click on it, there is no delete or remove option.

Perhaps I may have to uninstall the DVD drive and re-install it ? (but I really don't want to have to do that) (in case something goes wrong !) 		Digby (677)
874972 2010-04-10 22:43:00 So drives D & E are currently Optical Drives and C & F are HDD's.

When you open Disk Management, doesn't the Optical drives show up Like this (www.imagef1.net.nz) - if they do, thats where you right click, to change the drive letter on the actual name, not in the blank area to the right.

If you want the all drives listed to show in the top Pane, click View/ Top / Disk List - this will show all the drives. You can then right click on the appropriate drive and change its letter.


Normally I would rename the DVD to G and then hard drive to D. Thats Spot on - you have to change the Current D drive letter before the existing D will become available on another drive.


Perhaps I may have to uninstall the DVD drive and re-install it ? (but I really don't want to have to do that) (in case something goes wrong !) "Normally" it doesn't go wrong ( note Normally) the times it does give problems is when you are Dual Booting, that can be fun if you change the drive letters ;) 		wainuitech (129)
874973 2010-04-10 22:56:00 Thanks Wainuitech.

Yes my optical are D and E and my hard drives are C and F

But I have only one physical optical.

But I still can only see a DVD drive D in Manage
But I see a D and E optical in My Computer.

So I don't think I can change things via Windows 7.
I may have to uninstall which I am not sure how to do.

Is it just a matter of going into Device manager and uninstalling the driver ? 		Digby (677)
874974 2010-04-10 23:09:00 Do you have a printer with a card reader? Do you run any virtual CD drives such as Virtual Clone? Any USB flash drives installed? How many physical hard drives are there and how are they partitioned?

Perhaps run Everest or the like and publish the resultant report here. 		Sweep (90)
874975 2010-04-10 23:34:00 One way to change the drive letters - just did it to get some pictures ( easier to explain) Bit of Mucking about, but it works for me :D

Turn off the PC. open the case, and disconnect the Optical drives.


Edit Note: change the drive letters in Disk management - the pictures show in Computer once operations have been done.

Boot the PC back up, go into disk Management, right click the HDD you want to change (Drive F) - this should now give you the option to change it to D.

Example - My DVD drive was D - Optical Drive disconnected (www.imagef1.net.nz) - in disk management changed Drive F to Drive D (www.imagef1.net.nz) - rebooted. make sure the drive layout is how you want. Turn Off the PC again. Reconnect ONE of the optical drives - start PC, in Computer, Optical Drive should now show as Next Drive Letter (www.imagef1.net.nz) - In Disk Management, Change as required (www.imagef1.net.nz) - turn Off PC, reconnect Second Optical drive, change as required. 		wainuitech (129)
874976 2010-04-11 00:26:00 Wainuitech

That idea looked great (I was nearly going to send you one of our desktop cofee mug holders free of charge)

I did what you said.

But when I go into my computer the DVD drive E has gone , but the CD drive D is still there ! (so I can not see D drive on the drop down list)

So is there something in the BIOS or the motherboard I must change to tell it that I don't have a DVD drive connected ?

Sweep
No I don't have any of those things set up or connected (as far as I know) so I will get everest and print a report. 		Digby (677)
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