BIOS Update Reassigns Drive Letters

[Gritt]

Yesterday I updated the motherboard BIOS on a self-built computer built in October 2020.

I added a DVD drive to the computer about a month after building it. Windows assigned a drive letter other than D to this drive. Another drive was already assigned D and the new DVD took the drive letter E. I just thought I needed to explain this so the rest is clear.

After updating my BIOS, the drives had been reassigned letters. The DVD became D drive and the 2TB hard drive that was D became F drive. The original 2TB D drive had/has Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Desktop, and everything else assigned to This PC. Most importantly, almost disastrous, this was where all my Steam Games and saves were stored. All the information is still there.

My question is how do I get Windows to point to these files in their new drive letter. I might be able to figure something out but I’d rather fix the problem properly and not make the problem worse by me trying to figure it out. Thank You.

Here is an example of the error I see when attempting to open Documents:

[Gritt]

I just wanted to add, if I go to Properties on the Documents folder, for example, and try to change the Location to F:Users\m\Documents it produces an error because the Folder is no longer in drive D:\Users\m\Documents.

[exile360]

Greetings,

The easiest solution would likely be to change the drive letter of the DVD drive to something other than D: such as X:, then change the drive letter of your other drive back to D: so that your programs and system/user folders and links work again as they did previously.  Once that is done you can then change the DVD drive back to E: if you wish, or just keep it assigned to X: so that any new drives added to the system will take the lower drive letters.

The information in this Microsoft article should help.

Edited May 11, 2021 by exile360

[Gritt]

Thank You, I hope it's this easy and it works.

[exile360]

I hope so too, please post back and let us know how it went.  You may need to restart the system after changing the drive letter of the DVD drive (otherwise Windows may still indicate drive D: as being unavailable for assigning to your other drive), but I've personally had to do the same thing in the past with some of my drives for the same reason and I was always able to get it to work eventually.  That method is much easier than having to reinstall everything and change the location every shortcut and system link points to, so hopefully it does indeed resolve the issue.

[Gritt]

Again Thank You, it worked, the key was doing it in the order you explained, D to X and then F to D. 

[exile360]

Excellent, yes, that's the trick.  You have to first change the DVD drive that way the letter D: is freed up, otherwise Windows keeps it greyed out as being in use.

I'm glad that it worked, and if there is anything else we can help with please let us know.

Thanks