In general, the question of how to rename a disk in Windows systems is very difficult for many users to find the optimal solution. It is advisable to do such things only in those cases when a letter was assigned to some section incorrectly. In other situations, this is not recommended, because Windows has its own specific rules that govern the organization of installed hard drives and logical partitions.
How are drive and media letters distributed?
Before you deal with the problem of how to rename disks, you must clearly understand the structure and organization of partitions.
It so happened that the letter “C” always corresponds to the system partition, the letters “A” and “B” are highlighted for outdated media in the form of floppy disks, for other hard disks, which include both optical media and USB drives, as well as for logical partitions, characters from D to Z are used (for bootable media, in most cases the letter “X” is used).
And in the question of how to change the drive letter, one should be very careful, because assigning a certain section to an already occupied letter can lead to the fact that one of the sections becomes inaccessible. So, for example, if you give the logical partition the letters “F” or “H”, which are by default mapped to a USB flash drive and an optical drive, respectively, when you try to use them when connecting, you may experience many problems and they won’t be read.
How to change the drive letter in Windows-systems: the simplest method
But let's say the user took this problem very seriously, and you need to change the letters anyway. The problem of how to rename disks in Windows of any latest version is solved by using a special disk management section, which can be called through the administration or the “Run” console by entering the diskmgmt.msc command (in Windows 10, you can additionally use the right click on the “Start” button )
Suppose we need to change the letter of the logical partition D. Select the partition and, through RMB, use the line to change the letter or path.
In the new window, press the button for changing the letter, then select the letter destination line, and in the list to the right, set the desired option. Next, just save the changes.
Please note that when changing letters, a warning will be issued stating that some programs may stop working. This is understandable. After all, if their settings refer to the section with the letter “D”, after changing the letter, the applications themselves will not automatically change parameters, and they will have to be installed manually again.
Section name change
The problem of how to rename disks can be approached from the other side. Above, we considered a method that allows you to change only the letter under which the device will be displayed in the system. However, a disk or partition can also be assigned an arbitrary name.
To do this, in the standard "Explorer" on the selected drive or partition, we make RMB and select the "Rename" item from the context menu. After this, the sections can be assigned their own name (for example, for the system indicate SYSTEM or WINDOWS, for the logical enter PROGRAM or something else). It all depends on the user's imagination. A faster method is to select a partition and use the F2 key, as is done for folders and files.
How to rename a hard drive: swap partitions
Some inquiring minds ask questions of reversing the letters of the system partition and some other logical one. It’s worth saying right away that you don’t need to deal with these, since the whole system can be put into disrepair. However, if you are aware of the seriousness of such actions, there is a solution.
So, we will consider how to rename disks "C" and "D" so that they swap places. To perform such operations, you will need a registry editor (regedit), which must be run with administrator rights (first, for the administrator group in permissions you need to set full access).
In the HKLM branch, through the SYSTEM directory, go to the MountedDevices directory. All disks and partitions will be shown on the right (options starting with "\ DosDevice \"). The general scheme is as follows:
- through RMB, rename the parameter "\ DosDevice \ D:" with the assignment of an unoccupied letter;
- similarly rename the drive "C" with the assignment of the vacated letter "D";
- we assign the letter "C" to the first renamed section, which was previously listed under the letter "D".
Finally
In the end, it is worth saying that such actions (except for changing the name of the section) can lead to the fact that most installed software or devices may not work if the approach is incorrect. When you change the letters of the system and logical partitions, the entire system can be completely destroyed. Thus, the above actions should be performed only at your own peril and risk.