Solved Unable to Rename my WD External Hard DRive

[jo69]

I am trying to rename my WD Drive However not had much luck

Have tried 3 ways
1.By clicking Computer.
Right-click the drive or device you want to rename, and then click Rename.
Type a new name, and then press ENTER.
It lets me rename it but when I click Apply its gone.

2.Have also right clicked the drive then Properties and tried that way. But apply changes it again.

3.Just tried Disc Management. It has changed there! But still says the old name in computer!

 

[jo69]

Just found the solution in your great forums! And its worked.

http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/42243-cannot-rename-hard-disks.html
Open disk management under computer management console right click the affected drive and choose "Change drive letter and paths", now choose "Remove" drive letters.
then wait for 30 seconds and click refresh. and then click "Add" to regain the original drive letter. now, check your drives in my computer,, you will be able to rename the affected drives this time...

Next question, how do I change the icon to WD one ?

 

[jo69]

Drat re booted pc and its back to how it was before! That's 4 ways I have tried! Help!
In disc management it shows the new name
But in Windows Explorer there is no change at all.

 

[Brink]

Hello Jo,

You might see if one of the options in the tutorial below may work for you. Since this is an external drive, you might give OPTION TWO a try first.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/66118-drive-rename.html

 

[jo69]

After 2 days of frustration at things not working... thanks to you guys I can now rename my External Drive, Change its Icon and Add it to my Taskbar!

So very pleased
Thanks all.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Jo. I'm glad we could help.

 

[NathanBrazil07]

Hidden autorun.inf was the problem

As with other users my diskmgmt.msc showed the new name, but windows explorer refused to recognize it.

"Method 2" refers to creating an autorun.inf file with the desired name listed in it. In my case it turned out my drive already had a hidden autorun.inf file with a listed name and that was superseding all subsequent efforts to change it. Editing that file effected the desired change.

 

[Brink]

I'm glad you got it sorted Nathan, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[cornemuse]

Look here: [Autorun Keys]

Autorun.inf Entries | Microsoft Docs

Label & Icon.

example = my autorun.inf =

[autorun]
icon = big-cheese.ico
label=the Big Cheese

Whatever icon you choose, copy it to C:\ (root)

big-cheese.ico icon is a yellow round cheese (round disks in hdd!)

open new document in notepad, type in {whatever}, & rename as autorun.inf, , , ,