Flash drives and drive letter assignment

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Flash drives and drive letter assignment

When you insert a flash drive, the computer assigns the flash drive a letter. This drive letter can change depending on the computer the flash drive is inserted in.

The computer assigns the drive the first available letter to the drive. Drive C indicates the primary hard drive. Any drive letter after that is assigned to various devices. Usually but not always, the CD-ROM drive is assigned drive letter D, if you have a second CD-ROM drive, it will be assigned drive letter E.

The above scenario can change. If you have a zip drive, it can be drive letter D and the two CD-ROM drives will be drive letters E and F.

If the computer has the hard drive (which is the primary drive) and two CD-ROM drives, the drive letters would be as follows

Drive letter C - primary hard drive
Drive letter D - Primary CD-ROM drive
Drive letter E - Secondary CD-ROM drive

If you insert a flash drive in the system, the system would give drive letter F to the Flash drive. If the system only had one CD-ROM drive, then the flash drive would get drive letter E.

Flash card readers are also assigned drive letters. The readers usually have 4 slots. (some have less and some have more slots). Each slot would be assigned a drive letter. If you have the above configuration and the card reader, the drive letters would be as follows.

Drive letter C - primary hard drive
Drive letter D - Primary CD-ROM drive
Drive letter E - Secondary CD-ROM drive
Drive letter F - Compact Flash drive
Drive letter G - xD/SM drive
Drive letter H - Memory stick drive
Drive letter I - SD Card Drive

If you insert the flash drive, the drive letter would be drive letter J

If you want to rename a drive, click here

Information on flash drives, click here

Information on formatting a flash drive, click here

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