# Computers - external drives and drive letter assignment

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-external-drives-and-drive-letter-assignment/239169>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 9, 2004, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-external-drives-and-drive-letter-assignment/239169 "2004-04-09T13:11:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-external-drives-and-drive-letter-assignment/239169/1 "2004-04-09T13:11:54Z")

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I recently bought a DVD-R drive and an external firewire enclosure for it.  
The problem is, that the device shows up on my device manager, but it wasn’t automatically assigned a drive letter.  
Is there any way that I can assign a drive letter to my new toy? I have WinXP Home. Any help at all would be wonderful.

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**Author:** ![Daver914](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@Daver914](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daver914)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-external-drives-and-drive-letter-assignment/239169/2 "2004-04-09T14:44:41Z")

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I’m not sure exactly how different XP Home is from XP Pro, but here is the procedure as I know it:

Go to Control Panel -\> Administrative Tools -\> Computer Management

In the Computer Management window, find the “Storage” section and click on the item “Disk Management”. This will bring up a display of all the drives on the machine, even ones that don’t have a drive letter or aren’t formatted. From there you can select the drive, right-click, and use the “Change Drive Letter and Paths” option to give the drive a letter.

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**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computers-external-drives-and-drive-letter-assignment/239169/3 "2004-04-10T15:34:32Z")

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Thanks, Daver914, that was how to do it!