Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows

Thanks Shawn. I had a feeling it may entail something like that. Couple questions though:

What am I moving back to C:, and why? The desktop file? Others? Not sure how or where. I've seen desktop files under "default" and "user" for both C: and B: drives, so I'm not sure exactly from where my desktop is pulling it's info, but changes are reflected in the "users" "desktop" file of B: Could I save those files, then paste them all in the new "users" "desktop" file of the S: I rename it to?

Finally, might going to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders, then manually changing any registries seen (such as desktop) from B: to S: work? Do you think there may be other keys referencing B:, as I just happened across the above.

What if I re-install windows on the SSD? Would that allow me to re-define the HDD as S:?

I don't understand why Windows seems to adjust to the change in some areas, but not others.

Thanks Shawn for your time. I've give that a shot hopefully this week or next weekend and report back.

I wanted to report back that this problem is solved and how it was done.

Prior to changing the drive letter, I determined that my desktop contents were housed on my storage drive, within the USERS>[username]>DESKTOP file. I copied these contents from the storage drive to the corresponding folder on the C: drive.

Then, using Windows Disk Management, I changed the storage drive letter from the B: I had been using, to S: by right-clicking the drive in question and selecting "Change drive letter and paths" (There's more complete instructions on this forum for doing this (and it's fairly straightforward anyway), so I won't re-hash it here, other than to say don't use a drive letter Windows already uses, such as B:!)

At this point, all my desktop icons disappeared, except for the recycle bin. I navigated back to the USERS>[username]>DESKTOP file on the newly-labeled S: drive, and pasted the contents of the files I had transferred earlier to the USERS>[username]>DESKTOP file on the C: drive, back to the S: drive location.

Then I used REGEDIT to navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

In each directory I noticed several registries that did not update to the new S: drive. In other words, those entries still showed my old B: drive. Some of these I recall dealt with "desktop, "download," etc. I went into each registry that showed the old drive (for me, B: and updated them all to show S:, which was the letter to which I'd changed my storage drive.

Then I restarted my computer and voila! All normal functions (desktop, download file, etc.) were restored, and I could once again use the Windows search capability on my storage drive that previously didn't work when it was labeled as a B: drive.

It's been about a week and I've noticed no problems.

Maybe some of the experts here can shed more light on the necessity of changing registry entries in BOTH files. I chose to change the registries in both files simply because I saw no reason to update the drive letter in one file, but leave the old drive letter unchanged in the other file. I'm only curious now what other registry entries may still show the old B: drive....ideas?

Hope this helps someone! Thanks again, Shawn

Asus' preinstalled software kept returning the drive letters back to ones that I removed following the above instructions - including manually removing entries from the registry under MountedDevices. I uninstalled the Asus Data Security Manager and Asus Copy Protect software and then was able to do this right from the GUI disk management module of win7. (To be clear, since I uninstalled both software prior to retyring, I did not eliminate them one at a time but my suspicion is that Asus Copy Protect was the culprit -actually probably just doing its job. And no I did not try to disable them using their GUIs prior to renaming the disks as I did not have any use for these apps anyway).

Also, btw, MountedDevices entries may be under an additional node in the registry Wow???? (suspect when virtualiztion is used, I still need to satisfy my curiosity on this).

Hope this helps those with Asus PC's :)