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

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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

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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.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-12-29T13:25:15+00:00

    Happens in windows 7 64 bit ultimate. The drive might have page file in use. Go to control panel/system/Advanced system settings/Advanced Tab/Performance SETTINGS/Advanced tab again. Under virtual memory click the change button. Select the drive you want to change the letter of - select no paging file (radio button) and click SET button. Then REBOOT. Assuming you have Administrator rights you should now be able to change drive letter.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-09-25T20:35:17+00:00

    I was facing the same issue and while searching the solution for the same, I ended up in this thread. Here's how I solved this issue for my Windows 7 x64 desktop. 

    1. Start -> Run -> type diskmgmt.msc and click on**** OK
    2. Select the Drive which you want to rename
    3. Look if you have "Page File" specified for this drive. And Yes this is the key. In my case, it was. If this is the same for you proceed to step 4. If not reply and I can check.
    4.  Start -> Right Click on Computer -> Properties
    5. Choose "Advanced System Settings" from the left hand pane.
    6. Go to "Advanced" tab and select "Settings" under the "Performance"
    1. Go to "Advanced" tab and under "Virtual Memory" select "Change"
    1. Select the drive in concern and select the "System Managed Size" radio button and click on "Set". [do not miss to click on SET otherwise settings will not be saved - I made a mistake here at first]
    2. Click on OK.

    You most probably will have to restart the computer after changing these settings. But the next time you login, you will easily be able to change the drive letter.

    REASON: As mentioned by few, the drive is in use because the operating system is using the drive to mange the page file. Paging is common mechanism to boost system performance using the hard drive space as RAM. Use Google to learn about paging.

    I hope this solves your issue.

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-08-31T15:22:35+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.

    The "drive is in use" seems to be the key, but the "steps below" are simply reiterating what we've tried that didn't work from the beginning.

    I have a laptop with two drives and tried to change the drive letter on a data partition (not the system partition), arriving at this same problem. I did find a solution that worked. I ran msconfig and chose "Selective startup." Under the services tab, I told it to run the Virtual Disk service, which the logical disk manager needs in order to run. On reboot I was able to change drive letters (probably because no other services or startup programs were loaded, making them unable to lock the drive). After I was done, I ran msconfig again and changed back to a normal startup.

    I was doing this with an internal drive. If this procedure causes a USB drive to be inaccessible during the "selective startup" mode, that would probably mean that some other service needs to be running for the USB drive to function.

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