Windows 10: How to remove disk letter from explorer

Hello,
I have in explorer disk letter J: of non existing disk.



When I go to disk manager, all my disk has own letters. So I would like to remove this letter from explorer. Here is image when I clicked on properties of J: drive




Is there any possibility to remove this empty drive from my computer?

:)

 

To Remove Drive Letter in Disk Management

How to Remove a Drive Letter in Windows 10

By default, Windows 10 will automatically assign an available drive letter to any connected internal and external storage devices.

Windows progresses through the alphabet from A to Z to assign available drive letters to devices as connected.

• Windows reserves the drive letters A and B for floppy drives, but you can still manually assign them to a drive.
• The drive letter C can only be used for the drive Windows is installed on. If you multi boot operating systems, the currently running Windows will always show its drive letter as C.

If you remove the drive letter from a volume, partition, or disk, it will no longer be available to show as a drive in File Explorer "This PC".

This tutorial will show you different ways to remove a drive letter in Windows 10.

*Warning You must be signed in as an administrator to remove a drive letter.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Remove Drive Letter in Disk Management
• Option Two: To Remove Drive Letter in Command Prompt using Diskpart
• Option Three: To Remove Drive Letter in Command Prompt using Mountvol
• Option Four: To Remove Drive Letter in PowerShell
• Option Five: Remove Drive Letters of Previously Connected Drives and Disks using DiskPart > automount Command
• Option Six: Remove Drive Letters of Previously Connected Drives and Disks using mountvol Command

OPTION ONE

To Remove Drive Letter in Disk Management
1. Press the Win+R keys to open Run, type diskmgmt.msc into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Disk Management.

2. Right click or press and hold on the drive (ex: "G") you want to remove the drive letter of, and click/tap on Change Drive Letter and Paths. (see screenshot below)



3. Click/tap on the Remove button. (see screenshot below)



4. Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)



5. When finished, you can close Disk Management if you like.







OPTION TWO

To Remove Drive Letter in Command Prompt
1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Enter diskpart into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

3. Enter list volume into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.

4. Make note of the volume number (ex: 5) for the drive letter (ex: "G") you want to remove.

5. Enter the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
*Arrow select volume <volume number>

*note Substitute <volume number> in the command above with the actual volume number (ex: "5") from step 4 above for the drive letter (ex: "G") you want to remove.

For example: select volume 5
6. Enter the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.
*Arrow remove letter=<drive letter>

*note Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with the actual drive letter (ex: "G") you want to remove.

For example: remove letter=G

If the new drive letter you assign is not available, you will get an error message indicating so in the command prompt. You will just need to repeat this step to assign an available drive letter.
7. When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.











OPTION THREE

To Remove Drive Letter in Command Prompt
1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Type the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow mountvol <Drive Letter>: /d

*note Substitute <Drive Letter> in the command above with the actual drive letter (ex: "G") you want to remove.

For example: mountvol G: /d
3. When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.











OPTION FOUR

To Remove Drive Letter in PowerShell
1. Open an elevated PowerShell.

2. Enter Get-Partition into the elevated PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

3. Make note of the disk number (ex: "1") and PartitionNumber (ex: "3") for the DriveLetter (ex: "G") you want to remove.

*note The disks will be listed in numerical order starting with "0" at the top.

4. Enter the command below into the elevated PowerShell, and press Enter to verify the disk number (ex: "1") is correct for the drive letter (ex: "G") you want to remove.
*Arrow Get-Disk <disk number> | Get-Partition

*note Substitute <disk number> in the command above with the actual disk number (ex: "1") from step 3 above for the drive letter (ex: "G") you want to remove.

For example: Get-Disk 1 | Get-Partition
5. Enter the command below into the elevated PowerShell, and press Enter to verify the disk number (ex: "1") is correct for the drive letter (ex: "G") you want to remove.
*Arrow Remove-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber <disk number> -PartitionNumber <partition number> -Accesspath <drive letter>:

*note Substitute <disk number> in the command above with the actual disk number (ex: "1") from step 3 and verified in step 4 above for the drive letter (ex: "G") you want to remove.

Substitute <partition number> in the command above with the actual PartitionNumber (ex: "3") from step 3 for the drive letter (ex: "G") you want to remove.

Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with the actual DriveLetter (ex: "G") from step 3 above you want to remove.

For example: Remove-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber 1 -PartitionNumber 3 -Accesspath G:
6. When finished, you can close the elevated PowerShell if you like.











OPTION FIVE

Remove Drive Letters of Previously Connected Drives and Disks using DiskPart > automount Command
1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Type diskpart into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

3. Type automount scrub into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter.

4. Close the elevated command prompt.

5. Restart the computer to apply.











OPTION SIX

Remove Drive Letters of Previously Connected Drives and Disks using mountvol Command
1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Type mountvol /r into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

3. Close the elevated command prompt.

4. Restart the computer to apply.





That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change and Assign Drive Letter in Windows 10
• How to Hide or Show Drive Letters in Windows 10
• How to Show Drive Letters Before or After Drive Name in Windows 10
• How to Hide Specified Drives in Windows
• How to Enable or Disable Automatic Mounting of New Disks and Drives in Windows

 

How to Remove Unpopulated Drive Letters

Hello:

First let me thank you for the reply and now I will answer your questions:

1. Are you talking about the duplicate Removable drives appearing File Explorer?

Answer: Yes

2. Will they still appear, even after restarting your computer?

Answer: Yes, I have tried this multiple times.

3. Did check them through Disk Management? Press Windows logo key + X, and select Disk Management from the list.

Answer: When spawning Disk Management the same unpopulated drive letters do appear and to clarify, these are the drive letters appearing each time I would insert a thumb drive. The drive letter associated with the thumb drive appears and remains even after
removing the portable flash drive. When viewing the drive letters in disk management and when right clicking each drive the only options appearing are - Change Drive Letter and Path.../Properties/Help

4. What other troubleshooting steps did you tried?

Answer: Unfortunately, I know of no other steps to try. There is one exception. When I attach a ClipSport MP3 player two additional drive letters appear. One is for the onboard memory and the other for the memory card. When removing the player the drive
letters also vanish.

I am at a loss. And I almost forgot to mention. When viewing the vacant drive letters while in Disk Management I do see the Disk # and underneath the disk Removable (letter and then No Media.

Any other thoughts, or questions? Thank you very much and please reply.

Eric

 

Remove Drive Letter Logistics

I've always used disk management to assign (CHANGE) a permanent drive letter on a couple of my USB external backup drives. That works like a charm for backup jobs that require a set drive letter destination. But I got to wondering exactly what the other
two disk management Options of ADD and REMOVE actually do.

In other words does REMOVE (as I've read elsewhere) take the Drive Letter currently assigned to the Drive and remove it from not only the drive, but also from the list (i.e. the drop down list) in disk management you see when you want to change a letter.
So that letter will no longer be available for assignment to any drive? What good does this accomplish?

Can I add this drive letter back to the list with the ADD Option? If not what does the ADD Option do?

I had previously though that REMOVE simply removed the letter assignment the disk and the letter would still be available in the disk management list. And the drive would just go back to being assigned the first available letter windows had from then on.

Appreciate any confirmations on what exactly the ADD and REMOVE do.