# how to swap the E: and F: drives?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-swap-the-e-and-f-drives/218552>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 12, 2003, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-swap-the-e-and-f-drives/218552 "2003-12-12T07:40:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-swap-the-e-and-f-drives/218552/1 "2003-12-12T07:40:30Z")

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recently i got a DVD drive, which i mounted onto one of my hard disks as a slave. as a result, my CD drive, which used to be the E:, became F:, while the DVD is the E: now.  
the problem with this is that i can’t play audio CDs any more.  
how can i swap the designations of the two, without having to touch the hardware? is there any way to do this in a non-physical manner?

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-swap-the-e-and-f-drives/218552/2 "2003-12-12T13:32:21Z")

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You don’t mention what OS you’re using. In Windows 2000 and XP you can right-click **My Computer** , hit **Manage** , select **Disk Management** under **Storage** in the left pane, then right-click the drive (located along the left side of the bottom pane) and hit **Change Drive Letter and Path**.

In Win9x I believe you can do it through Device Manager.

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**Author:** ![Chagto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@Chagto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chagto)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-swap-the-e-and-f-drives/218552/3 "2003-12-12T13:44:32Z")

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Just outta curiosity, why does the drive letter prevent you from playing audio CDs?

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**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-swap-the-e-and-f-drives/218552/4 "2003-12-12T15:34:32Z")

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To add to what **Number** said, you will need to free up a drive letter before you can assign it to another device.

In this case, disable the E: drive in device manager to free up the E: drive letter. Then change the drive designation for your F: drive to E:, then enable the drive which was disabled. I think it will automatically assign the next available drive letter ( F: ) which is no longer being used.

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**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-swap-the-e-and-f-drives/218552/5 "2003-12-12T16:52:23Z")

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whoops, sorry, that was stupid of me! i have win98.

anyway, it worked fine, thank you Number and rsa! 🙂