How Drive Letters are Assigned by Windows
This article applies to (but is not limited to) the following versions of Windows:
- Windows 95/98/Me
- Windows 2000
- Windows XP
- Server 2003
- Windows Vista
- Windows 7
- Windows 8.x
- Windows 10
Windows assigns drive letters, starting with C, in the following sequence:
-
The active primary partition on HD0.
-
The active primary partition (or first primary partition if no active partition) of each other hard drive.
-
All logical partitions (volumes), starting with HD0.
-
Any remaining primary partitions, starting with HD0.