Search results
Dec 18, 2015 · In this Microsoft article, it says: "You can assign the letters C through Z to each drive on your computer. A and B are usually reserved for floppy disk drives, but if your computer does not have floppy disk drives, you can assign A and B to volumes."
- Hot Linked Questions
Stack Exchange Network. Stack Exchange network consists of...
- What Are The Windows G: Through Z: Drives Used For
No it did not slow the computer down, although I avoided...
- Hot Linked Questions
Oct 6, 2014 · I explain how to change drive letters and names, and why Paras’ situation may be confusing, but not serious. In the Windows world, drives can be identified by their names (such as...
- Lincoln Spector
Jul 20, 2019 · A modern way is to keep the OS and Apps on C to make it smaller for imaging purposes, User data folders on D where they are sync'd in real time to OneDrive or Google Drive Backup as well as periodically backed up to external.
Tech Videos. What Is OneDrive in Windows 10 and Should You Use It. By Mehvish. Published August 14, 2020. Every Windows 10 computer owner crosses paths with the OneDrive folder or icon on...
- The Question
- The Answers
- The Best Tech Newsletter Around
If you’re a geek of a certain vintage—we won’t start naming years—the answer to this question is patently obvious to you. For younger geeks, however, the A: and B: drive have always been mysteriously unaccounted for on their computers.
SuperUser reader Linker3000 poses the question:
In Windows you have adrive. Everything labeled beyond that is with the following letter.
So your second drive is, your DVD isand if you put in a USB stick it becomesand the following drive. And so on and so forth.
But then, what and where areand?
What and where, indeed? Thankfully we have some seasoned geeks to answer the query.
Image by AJ Batac.
Veteran geek Adam Davis offers an in-depth look at the missing drive letters:
The early CP/M and IBM PC style computers had no hard drive. You had one floppy drive, and that was it. Unless you spent another $1k or so on a second floppy drive, then your system was smokin'! If you only had one drive it was common to boot from one disk, put in the other disk with your programs and data, then run the program. Once the program finished, the computer would request that you reinsert the boot disk so you could use the command line again. Copying data from one disk to the other was a series of "Please insert source disk into drive A:... Please insert destination disk into drive A:... Please insert source disk into drive A:..."
By the time hard drives became cheap, the "expensive" computers typically had two floppy drives (one to boot and run common programs, one to save data and run specific programs). And so it was common for the motherboard hardware to support two floppy drives at fixed system addresses. Since it was built into the hardware, it was thought that building the same requirement into the OS was acceptable, and any hard drives added to the machine would start with disk C: and so forth.
During the transition from 5.25" disks (which were actually, physically floppy) to 3.5" disks (which were encased in a harder plastic shell) it was common to have both drives in one system, and again it was supported on the motherboard with hardware, and in the OS at fixed addresses. As very few systems ran out of drive letters, it was not thought to be important to consider making those drives reassignable in the OS until much later when drives were abstracted along with addresses due to the plug'n'play standard.
A lot of software was developed since that time, and unfortunately much of it expected to see long-term storage on the C: drive. This includes the BIOS software that boots the computer. You can still attach two floppy drives, boot into DOS 6.1, and use it as you would have in the early 90's, with floppy drives A and B.
By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.
Share Share Share Share Share
Copy
Email
Share
Share Share Share Share Share
Sep 29, 2021 · Windows 10 disk management is a crucial function that system admins should perform. To manage Windows disks, IT must know the difference between volumes and partitions.
Dec 4, 2023 · On Windows 10, you can use the DiskPart commands to clean and properly format a hard drive to fix data corruption and other issues to make the storage usable again.
