Windows 10: Hide or Show Drive Letters in Windows 10

How to: Hide or Show Drive Letters in Windows 10

How to Hide or Show Drive Letters in Windows 10


Information A drive letter is a single alphabetic character A through Z that has been assigned to a physical drive or drive partition in the computer.

This tutorial will show you how to hide or show drive letters in File Explorer for your account in Windows 10.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Hide or Show Drive Letters using Folder Options
• Option Two: To Hide or Show Drive Letters using a BAT file

EXAMPLE: Drive Letters in This PC











OPTION ONE [/i] To Hide or Show Drive Letters using Folder Options
1. Open Folder Options.

2. Click/tap on the View tab, check (default) or uncheck Show drive letters in "Advanced settings" for what you want, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)









OPTION TWO [/i] To Hide or Show Drive Letters using a BAT file


Note The .bat files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

ShowDriveLettersFirst DWORD

0 = Show drive letters
2 = Hide drive letters


1. Do step 2 (hide) or step 3 (show) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Hide Drive Letters
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 4 below.

Hide_drive_letters.bat

Download

3. To Show Drive Letters
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the BAT file below, and go to step 4 below.

Show_drive_letters.bat

Download
4. Save the .bat file to your desktop.

5. Unblock the .bat file.

6. Run the .bat file.

7. You will now notice your screen flicker and a command prompt quickly open and close as explorer is restarted to apply the registry changes.

8. When finished, you can delete the downloaded .bat file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change and Assign Drive Letter in Windows 10
• How to Remove a Drive Letter in Windows 10
• How to Show Drive Letters Before or After Drive Name in Windows 10
• How to Hide Specified Drives in Windows

:)

 

help. USB drive isn't assigned a drive letter.

Any usb flash drive I plug into my computer isn't assigned a drive letter. The physical drive shows in the "safely remove hardware" but it doesnt show up in disk management. I have tried to populate the volume thru the safely remove hardware properties window and it does pop up in the list but it doesn't stay there. This isn't a format or assign a letter problem. It's more complicated then that. Maybe one of the services needed for usb drive management was disabled? Suggestions needed. btw external usb harddrives work fine.

 

2nd and 3rd hard drives show two drive Letters

Hello Andre: I followed the instructions carefully and this is what this process amounted to. I followed this step by step.

Press Windows key + X - Worked fine

Click Disk Management - Worked fine

If you see your drive listed there, but no drive letter, right click it -
All my drives showed up with there drive letters. When I clicked on the drive - Local Disk (D) (I. The panel came up " change drive letter and path.

Click Change Drive Letter and Paths - for local disk (D)" and in the panel it said "Allow access to this volume by using the following drive letter and paths". In
the panel that shows up it shows a drive icon and the letter I: . Below this are the options to ADD, CHANGE and REMOVE.

Click Add - When I click the ADD button a new panel comes up and the only option allowed is "Mount in the following empty NTFS folder". When I enter the letter D:
( the drive letter I'm trying to get too) and click on the OK button it opens a new panel comes up and tells me "The device is not ready".

Click Assign the following drive letter - I then go back a few panels and select CHANGE, this time the same panel opens up but this time the other option is locked
in as my only choice - "Assign the following drive letter". I enter D: again and in the pull down menu the letter D is not available for me to choose.

Click in the Drive letter list box - Then I go back to the previous panel and select REMOVE, now the new panel tells me "Some of the programs you rely on drive letters
might not respond correctly. Are you sure you want to remove this drive letter. I did not proceed as I've done this before and it does remove the drive letter I: but the in Disk Management the now D: dive is no longer accessible.

So now I have explored all three options that were presented when I right clicked on the "Click Change Drive Letter and Paths" In the end I was not able to remove the drive letters I and J from disk management

Thanks very much for the assistance, do you have any other suggestions I can use to correct this issue? I thought I might try deleting the D letter leaving the drive letter I, then going back in and try changing that
drive letter back to D done in two separate steps??? Bill

 

2nd and 3rd hard drives show two drive Letters

Hi Bill

My name is Andre Da Costa; an Independent Consultant, Windows Insider MVP and Windows & Devices for IT MVP. I'm here to help you with your problem.

Did you go through these steps to assign the drive letters you prefer?

Press Windows key + X

Click Disk Management

If you see your drive listed there, but no drive letter, right click it

Click Change Drive Letter and Paths

Click Add

Click Assign the following drive letter

Click in the Drive letter list box

Choose a drive letter - try choosing letters near the end of the alphabet

Click OK

Click OK again

 

2nd and 3rd hard drives show two drive Letters

I recently was required to reinstall Windows 10 after I installed a new SSD as my C: drive. Now, I've got everything up and running I noted the drive letters that were assigned to my second and third hard drives were different than what I use to have and
not the drive letters I preferred. I followed the instructions to change the drive letter and they did not change but rather it added the new drive letter I assigned to the old drive letter. Below, is what File Explorer shows me now. I noted that the I
and J are shown with a colon but D and E do not.

Local Disk (C

Local Disk (D) (I

Local Disk (E) (J

I then went back into Device Manager and chose to "change the drive letter" again but the next window allowed me to remove the extra drive letter so I removed it (J and found that disk no longer appeared in File Explorer at all and became inaccessible.
The drive does continue to show up in Device Manager and Disk Management and continues to show both drive letters.

I have spent several days researching this problem, trying many suggestions listed on Help web pages and nothing has been successful.

 

Problem with letter drives confusing Sony Vegas

Hi,



Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.



I understand your concern and will assist you to resolve this issue.

I suggest you to follow the steps below and check if it helps.

• Open Disk Management (press [Win] +[R], type "diskmgmt.msc", and press [Enter]).
• In the lower pane, right-click on the partition that you want to change drive letter, and click "Change Drive Letter and Paths"
• A dialog should come up, showing the partition's current drive letter. Even if it is correct, click [Change].
• From the dropdown, select any new letter, and then [OK] your way back to Disk Management. And check if it helps.

Hope this information is helpful. Do let us know if you need any further assistance, we'll be glad to assist you.