Windows 7: Renaming external drive

Retiredbill · 25 Dec 2010

I recently upgraded to Win 7, home premium, 64 bit from my old XP. I have the old C: drive in an external box. Somehow, it got the title of my thumb drive. I tried renaming my external box to backup and it won't change. I am the administrator and the only one to use the computer. I can download and install apps with no problem. I can also delete apps when needed. Any suggestions on hope I can do this?

Bongo · 25 Dec 2010

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1 of them should be able to change the name.
Jerry

Edit: for just the drive letter open Disk Management (click start button put Disk Management in search box & click on Create and Format hard disk partiton) right click on drive & click on Change Drive Letter
To change drive name use Partition Manager Software right click drive than click Label & change it and click on apply (I just tried it)

Brink · 25 Dec 2010

Hello Bill, and welcome to Seven Forums.

In addition, you might see if one of the options in the tutorial below may allow you to change the name of the drive.

Drive - Rename

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Retiredbill · 25 Dec 2010

Thank you very much Bongo and Shawn. I downloaded the partitioning app and it seems to work great. When I opened it, my external drive carries the name "backup" which is what I have tried to rename it. However Windows Explorer still calls it by the old name and doesn't allow me to change it. What can I do?

Bongo · 25 Dec 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by Retiredbill

Thank you very much Bongo and Shawn. I downloaded the partitioning app and it seems to work great. When I opened it, my external drive carries the name "backup" which is what I have tried to rename it. However Windows Explorer still calls it by the old name and doesn't allow me to change it. What can I do?

Try renaming it something different with the partition manager make sure to click on apply
I just renamed mine & explorer changed right away maybe logoff or restart?
Jerry

Retiredbill · 26 Dec 2010

I tried what you suggested and used the partition software to change the name to silver. I then restarted the computer and Windows Explorer still calls it the old original name. Such a simple task and such a difficult problem.

Bill

Bongo · 26 Dec 2010

Do you have anything on that drive you need? If not format it and see if that will do it. After that I am out of ideas maybe someone else will step in.
Jerry

Brink · 26 Dec 2010

Bill,

If you haven't already, you might try OPTION TWO in the link I posted above to see if you could change it in the registry.

If it doesn't, then I would recommend to format it as well.

Retiredbill · 28 Dec 2010

The external drive houses my old C: drive and I won't reformat it until I'm sure I have everything I need. For some reason, the external drive has the same name as a thumb drive I use. I don't know how this happened. I went thru the links suggested by Brink but couldn't find anything to help, I hope someone else has a suggestion.

DocBrown · 28 Dec 2010

Have you tried connecting it to a different computer, to see if it can be renamed that way?

Windows 7: Renaming external drive

Renaming external drive problems?