Windows 10 LTSC - SD drive name change does not stay after reboot

Question

I have Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC, 10.0.17763 N/A Build 17763. Its updated with OS patches till Nov 2020. I am trying to rename the external SD drive slot from D:\ to E:. I was able to successfully change the drive letter from Disk management. But once the system was rebooted the drive letter reverts back to D:.
I followed various links tried the below, but the issue is not resolved yet:

1. Changed to E drive using Disk Management and restarted.
2. Changed to E drive using command prompt - diskpart commands and restarted.
3. Uninstalled USB driver and restarted.
4. Changed to E drive using Disk Management, uninstalled USB driver and restarted.
5. Changed to E drive using command prompt - diskpart commands, also used clean command and restarted.
6. Uninstalled 3.0 USB controller, restarted.

I understand that it is a Microsoft issue, and many are facing it. But the root cause for this issue is not clear also would request if any of you can help me with some solution apart from the ones I tried :)

Answer 1

Hi,

Could you please tell me which drive name do you mean? F, or S:?

If it’s S:
I created a hard disk partition on my HD and assigned an available letter to it. The assigned drive letter didn't change after reboot. So I suppose it’s not a Microsoft issue. Perhaps the external SD drive has a default setting which overrides renaming. For example, if there’s a C drive on your PC, no matter which letter you assign to it the external SD drive will always be D drive.

You can create a D drive, then your external SD drive will be E Drive. It’s not a good solution but I think it would work.

If it’s F
Please let me know and I will discuss with my colleagues. It’s weird that it doesn’t stay.

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Answer 2

Hi,

Yes, as you mentioned, I made the DVD drive as D:\ and then tried changing the SD drive to E:. This time my SD drive stayed at E drive even after reboot.
Just to give you an overview of how my system initially looked:
C - Windows partition
F - DVD drive
G - internal SD drive
D - external SD drive --> Per our application requirement, this SD drive letter needs to be renamed to E. When i was trying to change this to E, I saw that the letter was reverting back to D drive after reboot.
Like you said, I had tried changing the DVD drive from F to D, and then tried changing the SD drive to E. This worked. The SD drive letter stayed at E even after reboot.

Now to your point - Perhaps the external SD drive has a default setting which overrides renaming. For example, if there’s a C drive on your PC, no matter which letter you assign to it the external SD drive will always be D drive.
We have another Windows 10 LTSB edition where this is not the case. I was successfully able to set the drives as you see in the image:
C - Windows partition
F - DVD drive
G - internal SD drive
E - external SD drive

If your point was true, then it shouldn't have stayed at E drive for the above case as well right?
Do we have any supporting document or link that will confirm this behavior? This might help me proceeding with the workaround of setting the DVD drive to D and then changing the external SD drive to E.
Thanks.

Answer 3

Hi,

I did try formatting and followed the link provided to change the drive letter, but the issue still exists. Also what we observed is, after multiple attempts of renaming the SD drive, at one point the system starts giving blue screen error. This behavior was observed in 3 systems that we tested.

As I said the difference between the other system where the drive letter E stayed and these systems where the drive letter was not staying are that these systems have Windows 10 LTSC with OS updates till the month of Dec 2020. The other system where E drive stayed is Windows 10 LTSB with old patches till 2019.

Thanks