Drive Letter

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What is a "Drive Letter" on Windows?

A drive letter is a letter assigned to a "drive" on Windows that uniquely identifies that drive in filepaths. For example, in the filepath C:\Windows, C is the drive letter. Because drive letters come before a colon (:) in filepaths, typically you'll spell them such, e.g. the "C: drive" (not the "C drive").

By default, Windows is installed in the C: drive. If a second drive is found, e.g. if a USB flash drive is plugged into the computer, it will get the D: letter, then E:, then F:, and so on.

A Windows 11's File Explorer window, showing a tab labelled "This PC." On the sidebar, "This PC" is selected. The main pane has a group labelled "Devices and drives" with one item labelled "Local Disk (C:)." An over than half filled blue bar. Under it: 247 GB free of 931 GB.
The "This PC" location on Windows 11 showing the C: drive.
Written by Noel Santos.

About the Author

I'm a self-taught Brazilian programmer graduated in IT from a FATEC. In a world of increasingly complex and essential computers, I decided to use my technical expertise in hardware, desktop applications, and web technologies to create an informative resource to make PC's easier to understand.

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