[Solved] "Change Drive Letter and Paths" Grayed Out in Windows 10

"Change Drive Letter and Paths option grayed out in Windows 10 Disk Management, need assistance!"

Issue 1: "The Windows 10 Disk Management tool fails to change the drive letter of a drive or partition because the 'Change Drive Letter and Paths' option is grayed out."

Question 2: "I can't change the drive letter in Disk Management on my Windows 10 PC. What should I do? Are there any alternatives that can help me change the drive letter of a hard disk partition or external storage device? How to do it?"

As a built-in management utility of Windows, Disk Management allows users to change drive letters on Windows 10/8/7, shrink or expand partitions, delete partitions, format partitions, and perform other basic disk management tasks. However, sometimes you may be unable to use Disk Management to "Change Drive Letter and Paths", and the "Change Drive Letter and Paths" option might be grayed out for unknown reasons, as shown in the following picture:

When you encounter Drive Letter Not Available, you can change the drive letter to fix it. However, sometimes "Change Drive Letter and Paths" becomes grayed out in Disk Management on Windows 10, preventing you from assigning a new drive letter to a hard disk partition, USB flash drive, SD card, or external storage device. How to solve this problem? Take it easy! Here are some effective methods to change the drive letter even if "Change Drive Letter and Paths" is grayed out in Disk Management.

"How to change drive letter and path grayed out without using Disk Management"

If the Disk Management tool fails to change the drive letter on your computer or storage device, don't worry. You can quickly fix the issue by directly following any of the methods below.

Method 1: Change the Drive Letter with a Free Partition Manager

Free Partition Manager - With the Partition Master Free tool, you can easily change the drive letter of a device without formatting in Windows 10/8/7. With just a few clicks, you can assign or change the drive letter.

It offers more comprehensive disk and partition management features, such as resizing/moving partitions to solve low disk space issue, creating/deleting/formating partitions, cloning disk, merging partitions, erasing data, and converting disk/partition, all for free.

Now, you can download this mature partition manager on your computer for free and follow the steps below to change drive letter without using Disk Management.

Run Partition Assistant, right-click the partition whose drive letter you want to change, and select "Change Drive Letter".

Step 2: In the new window, click the drop-down arrow and select the drive letter for the partition from the drop-down menu, then click OK.

Step 3: Click on the “Perform 1 Task” button on the top left, check the change, and then click “Apply” to change the drive letter of the selected partition.

Method 2: Change the Drive Letter in Command Prompt

If you don't want to use a third-party app, you can change the drive letter via Command Prompt. This method is more suitable for advanced users. If you're a beginner, we highly recommend going with a free partition manager tool.

Step 1. Right-click the Start icon and select Command Prompt (Admin).

Step 2. Log in as an administrator and type diskpart, then hit Enter to continue.

Step 3. In the DiskPart window, type list disk, then press Enter.

Step 4. Type list volume, and press Enter.

Step 5. Type: select disk 0 (replace the 0 with the number of your disk) and press Enter.

Step 6. Type select volume = 0 (replace the 0 with the number of your disk drive) and press Enter.

Step 7. Type assign letter = D (replace the D with the drive letter you want to assign to the new drive), and press Enter.

After doing this, you should successfully have a new drive letter assigned to your device. If you want to get the Disk Management tool working again, keep reading for more solutions.

How to Solve the Grayed Out "Change Drive Letter and Paths" in Disk Management with 2 Methods

Try the following two methods to resolve the issue where you can't change drive letters and paths in Disk Management on Windows 10.

Method 1: Check and Repair System Disk Errors

If the system disk contains some file system errors or bad sectors, the Disk Management tool might not work properly. Therefore, you can try to check and fix the system disk errors that are preventing the Disk Management utility from running.

This is where tools like Partition Master Free come in handy. With its “Check File System” option, you can easily check and fix the file system on your disk.

Step 1: Open Partition Master on your computer. Then, right-click the disk and choose “Advanced” > “Check File System” from the partition you want to check.

Select "Check Partition":

<Step 2> In the Check Disk Utility dialog box, select the option to Try to fix errors if found, and then click Start.

Step 3: The software will now begin checking the partition's file system on the disk. When it's done, click “Finish.”

Finish the partition check

Method 2: Repair Disk Management via System Restore

If the file system check doesn't work, you can try the nuclear option: perform a System Restore to return Windows 10 to a previous, working state, and with it, Disk Management.

Step 1: Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.

Step 2. Click on “Restart now” under “Advanced startup”.

Step 3: In the Choose an option menu, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > System Restore.

Step 4. Choose an appropriate restore point and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the system restore.

After that, you can use the Windows 10 Disk Management to change the drive letter of the device, and more.

In short

If you encounter the problem of grayed out Change Drive Letter and Paths in Disk Management, you can use the other two solutions to change drive letter – Partition Master Free or CMD. We highly recommend that you try to manage your disk or partition with Partition Master tool to boost system performance.

FAQ: "Change Drive Letter and Paths" Grayed Out

See more topics about "Change drive letters and paths" being grayed out in Windows 10, encoded in utf-8.

Why can't I change a drive letter or path?

The "Change Drive Letter and Paths" option might be grayed out for one of the following reasons:

• The drive is not formatted with FAT or NTFS. • The drive is write-protected. • The disk has bad sectors.

How do I change the drive letter assignment forcefully?

If you can't change the drive letter and path of your Windows 10 drive via Disk Management, you can opt for a reliable and free alternative to get the job done.

Step 1: Download and launch Partition Master Free.

Step 2: Right-click on the target partition and select “Change drive letter and paths”.

Step 3: Click the Apply button to save the changes.

Why are there no available drive letters?

If the drive letter is missing, it might be in use by another drive. You can check which drive letters are in use in File Explorer. Drive letters are unique and cannot be reused for different partitions.

Is it safe to change a drive letter?

Generally, changing a drive letter doesn't result in data loss or damage to the device. If you're concerned about data safety, back up your data before assigning a new drive letter.