Drive - Rename

How to Rename a Drive in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to rename a drive in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. For example, a hard disk drive, USB flash drive, CD/DVD drive, etc...

   Tip

If the drive name is missing or was changed and you did not do it with the methods below, then look for a hidden (not always hidden though) autorun.inf file (OPTION TWO below) when you open the drive letter in Computer, then right click on the autorun.inf file, and click on Delete. Next, approve the deletion.

   Warning

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do rename a drive.

CONTENTS:

• Option One: Rename a Drive in the "Computer" Window
• Option Two: Change a Drive Name using an "autorun.inf" File
• Option Three: Rename a Drive Through Registry Editor
• Option Four: Rename a Drive Through Disk Management
• Option Five: Rename a Drive using "Label" Command

EXAMPLE: Rename a Hard Disk Drive




EXAMPLE: Rename a DVD Drive
NOTE: Devices with Removable Storage, such as a DVD drive, can only be renamed by adding a label at the end of the drive description using OPTION THREE below. These devices do not have a Rename option in the context menu when you right click on them in Computer or Disk Management.

OPTION ONE

Rename a Drive in the "Computer" Window

NOTE: For Devices with Removable Storage, such as a DVD drive, that do not have a Rename option, you could use OPTION THREE below instead.
1. If you did OPTION TWO below previously, then you will need to either remove the label=new drive name entry from the autorun.inf file, or delete the autorun.inf file in the root of the drive that you want to change the name of.

2. Open the Computer window.

3. Select the drive you want to rename to highlight it, right click on it, and click/tap on Rename. (see screenshot below)

4. Type in a name you want for the drive, then press enter. (see screenshots below)




5. Click/tap on Continue. (see screenshot below)

6. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes (Windows 7/8) or Continue (Vista).

7. The selected drive is now renamed.

OPTION TWO

Change a Drive Name using an "autorun.inf" File

NOTE: While this option can be used for any drive, it is really useful for external drives like a USB flash drive.
1. Set your known file extensions to no longer be hidden.
NOTE: This way you will be able to rename the file extension in step 3 below.

2. Connect and/or open the drive that you want to change the name of.

3. In the root of the drive, right click or press and hold on an empty space, click/tap on New and Text Document, then rename this file autorun.inf and press Enter. (see screenshots below)

NOTE: If you already have an autorun.inf file in the root of this drive, then skip this step and proceed to step 4 or 5.




4. If this is a New autorun.inf File
A) Open the autorun.inf file, then type each line below followed by pressing enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Substitute new drive name (ex: My USB Drive) with the actual name you want to use for the drive.

[autorun]
label="[B][COLOR=red]new drive [/COLOR][COLOR=red]name[/COLOR][/B]"

B) Click on File (menu bar) and Save, then close the autorun.inf file. (see screenshot above)
5. If you already have a autorun.inf File
A) Open the autorun.inf file, then add or change the label= line below. (see screenshots below)
NOTE: Substitute new drive name (ex: My USB Drive) with the actual name you want to use for the drive.

[autorun]
[B]label="[COLOR=red]new drive name[/COLOR]"[/B]

B) Click on File (menu bar) and Save, then close the autorun.inf file. (see screenshots above)
7. If this is for an Internal or eSATA Dive
A) Restart the computer to apply.
8. If this is for an External Dive
A) Unplug and plug in the drive to apply.
9. Open the Computer window to see the changes.

   Note

To Restore the Default Name


You would just need to either option below and repeat steps 7 to 9.

• Delete the autorun.inf and .ico file.

OR

• Remove the label= line and save the changes if you have other lines (ex: icon=) you wish to continue using.

OPTION THREE

Rename a Drive Through Registry Editor

1. If you did OPTION TWO above previously, then you will need to either remove the label=new drive name entry from the autorun.inf file, or delete the autorun.inf file in the root of the drive that you want to change the name of.


2. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press enter.

3. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes (Windows 7/8) or Continue (Vista).

4. In regedit, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

5. In the left pane, right click on Explorer, and click/tap on New and Key. Type DriveIcons and press enter.
NOTE: If you already have the DriveIcons key under Explorer, then go to step 6. (see screenshot above and below)

6. In the left pane, right click on DriveIcons and click/tap on New and Key. Type the drive letter (ex: D ) that you want to change the icon for and press enter.
NOTE: If you already have the drive letter (ex: D ) key under DriveIcons, then go to step 7. (see screenshot above and below)

7. In the left pane, right click on the drive letter (ex: D ), and click/tap on New and Key. Type DefaultLabel and press enter.
NOTE: If you already have the DefaultLabel key under the drive letter (ex: D ), then go to step 8 or 9. (see screenshot above and below)

8. To Rename the Drive
A) In the right pane of DefaultLabel, double click/tap on (Default) to modify it. (see screenshot below step 7)

B) Type in the new name (HDD) or label (DVD) you want for the drive, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

C) The registry should now look similar to this. (see screenshot below)

D) Go to step 10.
9. To Restore the Default Drive Name
A) Right click on the drive letter (ex: D ) from step 5 above that you want to restore, and click/tap on Delete and Yes. (see screenshot below step 6)
10. Close regedit.

11. The changes should be immediate, but in some cases you may need to restart the computer to apply the changes.

OPTION FOUR

Rename a Drive Through Disk Management

1. If you did OPTION TWO above previously, then you will need to either remove the label=new drive name entry from the autorun.inf file, or delete the autorun.inf file in the root of the drive that you want to change the name of.

2. Do step 3, 4, or 5 below for what you would like to do.

3. In Vista and Windows 7, open the Start Menu, right click on the Computer button (dark right side), click on Manage, and go to step 6 below.

4. In Windows 8, open the Power Users Tasks menu, click/tap on Disk Management, and go to step 6 below.

5. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type either compmgmt.msc OR diskmgmt.msc, press Enter, and go to step 6 below.

6. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes (Windows 7/8) or Continue (Vista).

7. In the left pane of Computer Management, click/tap on Disk Management under Storage. (see screenshots below)




8. In the middle pane, right click on the drive letter that you want to rename, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)

9. Under the General tab, type in the new name that you would like, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

10. When finished, you can close the Computer Management or Disk Management window.

OPTION FIVE

Rename a Drive using "Label" Command

NOTE: For Devices with Removable Storage, such as a DVD drive, that do not have a Rename option, you will need to use OPTION THREE above instead.
1. If you did OPTION TWO above previously, then you will need to either remove the label=new drive name entry from the autorun.inf file, or delete the autorun.inf file in the root of the drive that you want to change the name of.

2. Open an elevated command prompt.

3. Do step 4 or 5 below for what you would like to do.

4. To Directly Change Drive Name
A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command below, press Enter, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)

label DriveLetter: Name

For example: label C: Windows

   Note

Substitute DriveLetter in the command with the actual drive letter you want to rename.

Substitute Name in the command with the name/label you want to rename the drive with. Leave blank if you do not want a name/label.

5. To See Current Drive Name and Change
A) In the elevated command prompt, type the command below, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
label DriveLetter:

For example: label C:

   Note

Substitute DriveLetter in the command with the actual drive letter you want to rename.

B) You will see the current name/label of the drive. Type in the name/label you want to rename the drive with, press Enter, and go to step 6 below.

   Note

If you do not want a name/label for the drive, then leave this blank, and press Enter.

6. When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.


That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Hide or Show Empty Drives in Windows 7 Computer Folder
• How to Show Windows 7 Computer Drive Letters Before or After Drive Name
• How to Change a Drive Icon in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Fix Missing Vista Hard Disk Partition Letter in Windows 7
• How to Add, Change, or Remove a Drive Letter in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Pin or Unpin a Drive to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Completely Block Autorun.inf Files in Windows
• How to Rename a Printer in Windows 7 and Windows 8

 

[Brink]

Updated to add OPTION ONE to change the drive name with a autorun.inf file.

 

[Britton30]

NOTE: For Devices with Removable Storage, such as a DVD drive, that do not have a Rename option, you will need to use OPTION TWO below instead.

Hello Shawn, the above is written under Option Two, should be Option three?

 

[Brink]

Oops. Thank you Gary. Fixed.

 

[TheDookie]

Thanks for this. Does the name have to be in "" like the text suggests? The screen-cap suggests otherwise...

 

[Brink]

Hello TheDookie, and welcome to Seven Forums.

No, the name doesn't have to be in quotes. It's just something that I like to add to make the code look neater. That's all.

 

[mirecek1965]

Thanks, registry method worked fine for me on Win 8 Pro x64.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Mirecek, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[oreo27]

Neat trick. Helped me out when trying to distinguish my new LiteOn iHAS124 drive. My old Asus drive is starting to fail so I got it. Anyone know if LiteOn is any good?

 

[Brink]

Hello oreo27,

I've had a few LiteOn drives, and I never had an issue with them.

 

[oreo27]

Hello oreo27,

I've had a few LiteOn drives, and I never had an issue with them.

Hi Shawn,

Sounds good. Hope this one lasts me the same number of years my ASUS did Cheers!

 

[Britton30]

Shawn, I used Option Three to rename my two optical drive but the previous name remains. Is this normal? the bits I added are underlined. My registry already had the key DriveIcons which was empty.

Neat trick. Helped me out when trying to distinguish my new LiteOn iHAS124 drive. My old Asus drive is starting to fail so I got it. Anyone know if LiteOn is any good?

I had two of the same drive, one was a bit noisy but both worked as they should.

 

[oreo27]

Shawn, I used Option Three to rename my two optical drive but the previous name remains. Is this normal? the bits I added are underlined. My registry already had the key DriveIcons which was empty.

View attachment 263850

Neat trick. Helped me out when trying to distinguish my new LiteOn iHAS124 drive. My old Asus drive is starting to fail so I got it. Anyone know if LiteOn is any good?

I had two of the same drive, one was a bit noisy but both worked as they should.

Yup, they should show exactly that as these are just labels. Sounds great. Two positive reviews for a drive that I just picked up without even checking. Lol

 

[Brink]

Shawn, I used Option Three to rename my two optical drive but the previous name remains. Is this normal? the bits I added are underlined. My registry already had the key DriveIcons which was empty.

View attachment 263850

Hello Gary,

Yeah, devices with removable storage, such as a DVD drive, can only be renamed by adding a label at the end of the drive description. The drive description will always be there for these type.

 

[Britton30]

Thanks for the info oreo27 and Shawn.

 

[oreo27]

Thanks for the info oreo27 and Shawn.

No worries. Glad I could be of help

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Gary. Glad we could help.

 

[Britton30]

Me too, since I decided to hang around a few days after your first help you gave me.

 

[jraju]

hI,
I tried your autorun.inf file method, but it does not capture the label . I tried also a icon of 34 pixels. The commands were only three . First line autorun with [], followed by label i choose, in the second line, and icon=choosen icon. I copied the same ico in the same place, that is usb drive and in that, when i plug out and replug, nothing happens. No change in the lable or icon.Where am i missing? Brink

 

[Brink]

Hello jraju,

Please go ahead an post the text in your autorun.ini file in a code box #.

Was your autorun.ini file and .ico file saved to the root directory of the USB, and not in a folder?