How to remove drive letter on Windows 11

Here are four ways to remove a letter from a drive on Windows 11.

Windows 11 remove drive letter
Windows 11 remove drive letter

You can remove a drive letter on Windows 11 in at least four ways, and in this guide, you will learn how.

Windows 11 automatically assigns a drive letter to every device storage connected to the computer, including internal drives, USB drives, DVD or Blu-ray devices, and mapped network drives to register the logical volume and present them to you in File Explorer or any other app. 

However, sometimes, you may need to remove a drive letter for various reasons. For example, you may want to keep the drive hidden or the system assigned letters to the hidden boot partitions by mistake. (Use these instructions to change or re-assign a drive letter.)

Whatever the reason, on Windows 11, you can remove a drive letter in at least four ways using the Settings app, Disk Management, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.

This guide will teach you how to remove a drive letter on Windows 11.

Remove drive letter on Windows 11

To remove the drive letter on Windows 11, use these steps:

  1. Open Settings on Windows 11.

  2. Click on System.

  3. Click the Storage page.

  4. Under the “Storage management” section, click the “Advanced storage settings” option.

  5. Click on Disks & volumes.

    Disks & volumes

  6. Select the drive with the volume with the letter to remove.

  7. Select the volume and click the Properties button.

    Volume properties

  8. Click the “Change drive letter” button.

    Change drive letter

  9. Select the None option to remove the drive letter on Windows 11.

    Remove drive letter

  10. Click the OK button.

Once you complete the steps, the system will remove the drive letter on Windows 11.

Remove drive letter from Disk Management

To remove the drive letter from Disk Management, use these steps:

  1. Open Start.

  2. Search for Create and format disk partitions and click the top result to open the Disk Management tool.

  3. Right-click the volume and select the “Change Drive Letter and Paths” option.

    Change drive letter and path

  4. Select the drive letter and click the Remove button.

    Disk Management remove drive letter

  5. Click the OK button.

After completing the steps, the drive will no longer appear in File Explorer.

Remove drive letter from Command Prompt

To add a new drive letter from Command Prompt, use these steps:

  1. Open Start.

  2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the result, and select the Run as administrator option.

  3. Type the following command to launch diskpart and press Enter:

    diskpart
  4. Type the following command to list the volumes and press Enter:

    list volume
  5. Type the following command to select the volume (drive) to remove the letter and press Enter:

    select volume 4

    In the command, change “4” for the number corresponding to the storage to remove the letter.

  6. Type the following command to remove the drive letter on Windows 11 and press Enter:

    remove letter=E

    In the command, change “E” for the letter to remove.

    Command Prompt remove drive letter

Once you complete the steps, the diskpart tool will letter for the volume.

Remove drive letter from PowerShell

To remove a drive letter from PowerShell, use these steps:

  1. Open Start.

  2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the result, and select the Run as administrator option.

  3. Type the following command to identify the hard drive and press Enter:

    Get-Disk
  4. Type the following command to identify the partition to remove the drive letter and press Enter:

    Get-Disk 4 | Get-Partition

    In the command, change “4” with the disk number to remove the letter.

  5. Type the following command to remove the drive letter and press Enter:

    Remove-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber 4 -PartitionNumber 2 -Accesspath E:

    PowerShell remove drive letter

    In the command, change “4” with the disk number and “2” for the partition holding the drive letter. Also, change “E” for the drive letter to remove.

After completing the steps, PowerShell will remove the letter for the drive, making it inaccessible.

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.