- How Windows assigns drive letters
- Changing drive letters when restoring or cloning in Windows
- Changing drive letters with Windows Disk Management after cloning or restoring
How Windows assigns drive letters
Windows maintains driver letter persistence by storing a reference to each mounted volume and drive letter in the system registry using the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978525.aspx
When restoring using the Windows PE rescue media, the letters assigned to restored partitions are temporary for that Windows PE session only. When you boot into the restored system, drive letter assignments will be exactly the same as they were when the image was created.
Changing drive letters when restoring or cloning in Windows
1. In the Restore Wizard click the 'Layout' icon link after copying or dragging the partition to the target disk:
2. In the 'Partition Properties' dialog click the 'Drive Letter' dropdown selection:
|
Property
|
Description
|
|---|---|
| Auto | Let Windows automatically assign the next available drive letter |
| None | No drive letter will be assigned to the restored partition |
| Letter | Select a drive letter to use from the list of free letters. The original drive letter will be selected by default. |
Changing drive letters with Windows Disk Management after cloning or restoring
Windows ships with a utility to maintain local drives and partitions called the Windows Disk Management Console (DMC). Using the DMC you can easily change the drive letters assigned to any partition on your system, (except for your system drive C:).
1. To start the Windows Disk Management Console, click 'Start' or press the Windows key, then enter the following:
diskmgmt.msc
2. The Disk Management Console will look similar to the example below:
3. Right-click on the partition that you want to change in the lower pane and select 'Change drive letters and paths':
4. In the dialog that opens, select the original drive letter, click 'Change', choose a new drive letter and finally click 'OK'.
