Cannot Change Drive Letter

Anonymous
2009-04-24T12:33:27+00:00

Vita 64 Ultimate. I have an external eSATA unit for backups. Recently got SSD for second drive in my laptop. After formatting, Vista assigned the SSD drive F: which had been being used by the external drive.  Disk Management->Change Drive Letter and Paths->Change Drive Letter returns a Logical Disk Manager error message saying Parameter is Incorrect.  Removing the drive letter appears to work, but rescanning or refreshing Disk Manager causess the letter to reappear.  I need to swap these drive letters.  Can you assist?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2010-11-17T01:46:44+00:00

ACTUALLY I got it to work, finally.  I am not technical.  So just use minitool partition wizard, found here:

http://download.cnet.com/Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition/3000-2094\_4-10962200.html?tag=mncol;6

  1. open the program, right-click on the drive you want to change
  2. select "change letter"
  3. click the drop down box by "new drive letter"
  4. select the letter you want to change it to
  5. click "ok"
  6. at the bottom left corner of the program click "apply"

and that's how you do it

Was this answer helpful?

50+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2009-04-25T01:17:05+00:00

Hello kd4wat,

 Thank you for your reply!

 The error "Parameter is Incorrect" is an indication that the drive is in use.  I have added some steps below that I hope will correct your issue.  Please let me know status.

To change the drive letter or paths in Windows Vista, just follow these simple steps:

  1. Right click on Computer and select Manage to open and access Computer Management Console.
  2. Navigate to and expand the Storage section, and click on Disk Management to access Disk Management Console.
  3. Disk Management Console display the details of all available volumes and disk drives in the computer configuration in the right pane.
  4. Right click on the volume or disk drive that you want to change the drive letter, and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths).
  5. Then click on “Change” button.
  6. Use the drop down list to select the new and your desired drive letter to assign to the disk volume.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Click Yes to confirm.

Any letter between C and Z can be assigned to a hard disk drive, CD drive, DVD drive, portable external hard disk drive, or USB flash memory key drive, while floppy disk drives use up letters A and B. Beside, the drive letter for the system volume or boot partition cannot be modified or changed. And if you install some applications or programs in the drive that you have just changed the drive letter, they may not functioning properly after the change due to the possibilities that the programs will also refer to the specific drive letter or original path used when installation as environmental variables.

James Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Was this answer helpful?

40+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

57 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2015-06-28T19:09:35+00:00

    Hi,

    I recently encountered this issue with my windows 7 64-bit machine.  It usually occurs when the drive is in use... In my case i set up the drive that i wanted to change the drive letter to be used as page file.  I disabled page file on that drive and was able to change the drive letter without having the "parameter is incorrect" error message.  To check this, go to advanced system settings (right click on my computer and click properties. You will see it on the left panel) under performance click on settings.On the performance options window, got to advanced tab and click on change button. Vitual memory window will appear and from there you can see if there is paging file assigned to the drive that you want to change the drive letter.  If there is, click on that drive and select "No paging file", click set and ok.  You need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect then you can easily change the drive letter.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2015-03-15T15:22:37+00:00

    I had this error as well in windows 7. I got a more descriptive error when I tried just removing the drive letter: "Assigning or removing drive letters on the current boot or pagefile volume is not allowed."

    If you're getting this error and all your programs are closed then it might be that the drive you're trying to change is the pagefile drive. To disable that do this:

    WARNING: the paging file gives windows a place to store data when it runs out of memory. Disabling all paging files or assigning the page file to a drive without much space can cause your computer to crash. I recommend closing as many programs as possible before continuing or enabling the page file on a second drive if you have one.

    Since it's not the boot drive it's obviously being used for the page file. To fix this:

    1. R-click Computer in the startmenu and select Properties.
    2. Advanced System Properties on the left side.
    3. Choose Advanced tab->Performance Settings...->Advanced Tab->Virtual memory Change...
    4. Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
    5. Select the drive and change from "system managed size" to "No paging file"
    6. Select ok and restart your computer

    You should now be able to change the drive letter. Don't forget to re-enable your pagefile afterwards!

    Just one more step needed. After your step 5 you need to click on "Set" before OK, otherwise the change will not happen.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2015-02-01T03:00:55+00:00

    ACTUALLY I got it to work, finally.  I am not technical.  So just use minitool partition wizard, found here:

    http://download.cnet.com/Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition/3000-2094\_4-10962200.html?tag=mncol;6

    1. open the program, right-click on the drive you want to change
    2. select "change letter"
    3. click the drop down box by "new drive letter"
    4. select the letter you want to change it to
    5. click "ok"
    6. at the bottom left corner of the program click "apply"

    and that's how you do it

    This worked for some reason when I kept getting the "invalid parameter" error in MS Disk Manager, on any drive letter I attempted to assign. 

    Still don't know why but problem solved anyway. 

    my problem was with windows 8, but same problem.

    The performance options/paging correction would not have worked, because the drive I was trying to assign was not listed.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments