A drive’s volume label can be changed at any time, but is usually set during the formatting of the drive.
Volume Label Restrictions
Certain restrictions apply when assigning volume labels, depending on which file system is on the drive—NTFS or FAT:
NTFS Drives
Maximum of 32 charactersNo tabs
FAT Drives
Maximum of 11 charactersNo * ? . , ; : / \ | + = < > [ ]No tabs
Spaces are allowed in the volume label no matter which of the two file systems is used. The only other important difference between volume labels in NTFS vs FAT file systems is that a label on an NTFS formatted drive will retain its case, while one on a FAT drive will be stored as uppercase no matter how it was entered. For example, a label entered as Music will be displayed as Music on NTFS drives but will be displayed as MUSIC on FAT drives.
Understanding Volume Label Changes
Changing the volume label is helpful to distinguish volumes from one another. For example, you might have one called Backup and another labeled Movies so it’s easy to quickly identify which volume is used for file backups and which one just has your movie collection. There are two ways to find the volume label in Windows, and three ways to change it. You can do so through File Explorer (by opening windows and menus) or with the command line via Command Prompt. You can also change it through the Windows Registry, but it’s not the quickest or easiest method.
How to Find the Volume Label
To find the volume label with Command Prompt requires a simple command called the vol command. The next best method is to look through the volumes listed in Disk Management. Next to each drive is a letter and name; the name is the volume label. See How to Open Disk Management if you need help getting there. Another method that works in most versions of Windows, is to open File Explorer yourself and read what name is displayed next to the drive. One quick way to do this is through the WIN+E keyboard combination—the shortcut to open File Explorer, This PC, Computer, or My Computer, depending on your version of Windows. As you can see, this lists the drives plugged into your computer. Like with Disk Management, the volume label is identified next to the drive letter.
How to Change the Volume Label
Renaming a volume is easy to do from both Command Prompt and through File Explorer or Disk Management. Open Disk Management and right-click the drive you want renamed. Choose Properties and then, in the General tab, erase what’s there and type what you’d prefer it to be. You can do the same thing in File Explorer: right-click whatever drive you want renamed, and then go into Properties to adjust it. Like viewing the label from Command Prompt, you can also change it, but the label command is used instead. With an elevated Command Prompt open, type the following to change the volume label: As you can see in this example, the volume label of the Z drive is changed to External. Adjust that command to be whatever works for your situation, changing the letter to your drive’s letter and the name to whatever you want it renamed to. If you’re changing it on the “main” hard drive that has Windows installed on it—for example, the C drive—you can run a command like this: To change a volume label from the registry, you have to make a few registry keys and modify a registry value. It’s pretty straightforward, but definitely not as quick to do as the above methods. Here’s what to do:
More About Volume Labels
The volume label is stored in the disk parameter block, which is part of the volume boot record. For example, as you’ll see in the image below, I made mine read F since that’s the name of my hard drive I want to change the volume label on. Viewing and changing one is also possible with a free partition software program, but it’s much easier with the methods described above because they don’t require that you download a third-party program.
How do you enter the current volume label for drive C? If you see a message stating “Enter current volume label for drive C” while making changes to your hard drive, find the correct label for the drive that you’re trying to modify by opening Command Prompt, typing vol c: > Enter. Enter the label information in the prompt. What is the volume label on a flash drive? The volume label is the name you assigned to the flash drive when it was first formatted. When plugged into a computer, the flash drive displays the volume label.
