A drive is a location (medium) that can store and read information that is not easily removed, like a disk or disc. All drives store files and programs used by your computer. For example, when you write a letter in a word processor, the program is loaded from the hard drive. When you save the document, it’s saved to the hard drive or other disk or drive. The picture is an example of different drives listed in Microsoft Windows My Computer.
In the picture, drive A: is the floppy drive, C: is the primary hard drive, D: and E: are partitions, and F: is the CD-ROM drive. The CD-ROM drive is usually the last drive letter. In most situations, the hard drive is the C: drive, and a CD-ROM or other disc drive is the D: drive.
Types of computer drives
Below are examples of different drives you could have in a computer or are accessible by the computer.
Some users may confuse a “drive” with a “driver.” These are separate terms. If you’re looking for help with installing or updating the software related to hardware, see our driver page.
Types of computer drives.
What is a fixed drive?
What is a portable drive and removable disk?
What drives does my computer have?
How to identify a drive.
How to read data on a drive?
Related information
Bernoulli drive (obsolete)
Disc drives: Blu-ray, CD-R, CD-ROM, CD-RW, and DVD.
Flash drive.
Floppy disk drive (obsolete)
Hard drive
Local drive
LS-120 (obsolete)
Network drive
RAM disk
SSD
SuperDisk (obsolete)
Tape drive
USB drive
Virtual drive
Zip drive (obsolete)
What is a fixed drive?
A fixed drive is any drive inside the computer that is not easily removable or portable. For example, most hard drives inside the computer are considered a fixed drive.
Today, most of the drives listed below are obsolete. The most common drives used with home computers are hard drives, SSDs (solid-state drives), disc drives, and USB drives.
What is a portable drive and removable disk?
A portable drive and removable disk is any drive or disk that can be transported between computers. The most common portable drives today are the USB card readers, USB jump drives, and USB external hard disk drives.
What drives does my computer have?
All computers are different. However, as technology has advanced and laptops have gotten thinner, most computers no longer use different drive types. Today, almost all computers will at least have one hard drive and may have a disc drive and card reader with no other drives. Also, all computers have USB, eSATA, and other technologies that allow external drives to connect to the computer. Desktop computers also support the ability to add additional drives inside the case.
If your computer has a card reader, the drive is always available but not accessible until you insert a card into the drive. Other portable drives, like USB flash drives and external hard drives, do not show until they are connected to the computer and are the last drive when detected.
- How to see all drives available on the computer.
How to identify a drive
Understanding how drives work on your computer is the first step in identifying the drives connected to your computer. Computers running a Microsoft operating system (e.g., MS-DOS and Windows) with a floppy drive have either A: or B: depending on the type of floppy drive. If your computer does not have a floppy drive (most computers today), the A: and B: drive will be missing.
Your primary hard drive is always be the C: drive. If it is partitioned, it may also have additional drive letters for each partition. However, the primary partition will be C:.
Next, if your computer has a disc drive, it defaults as the next available drive letter. The disc drive is often D: or E:, but may be a different drive letter if your computer has multiple drives and partitions.
Next, if your computer has a card reader, it may assign drive letters to each of the available card slots in the computer. These drives appear on your computer, but are inaccessible when you attempt to open the drive. For example, attempting to open one of these types of drives gives you an error to “Insert a disk into the drive.” After inserting a card, the drive assigned to that slot changes and has a different drive label to help identify the drive.
To open a disc drive on your computer, there must be a disc in the drive. Otherwise, you get an error.
Finally, all following drive letters are added as new drives are connected. For example, connecting an external USB drive or a USB thumb drive. These drives appear as the new drive is connected to the computer. For example, if the next available drive letter is I:, when connecting a USB thumb drive to the computer, the I: drive appears and is accessible.
How to read data on a drive?
In Microsoft Windows, macOS, and other GUIs (graphic user interfaces), you can read the data on a drive by opening the drive. In Windows and most other operating systems, you open the drive by double-clicking the drive, which in Windows is the C: drive. If the drive is connected, formatted, and has no errors, it displays its contents in the file explorer.
Why would a drive not open?
If the drive is visible but not accessible, the following is a list of reasons you may be unable to open the drive.
- New drive and has not yet been partitioned and formatted so that it can be read by the operating system.
- Drive has removable media that is not inserted. For example, a floppy drive without a floppy disk inserted or a disc drive without a disc inserted.
- External drive that is not connected.
- Network drive with no network connection.
- Drive is corrupt or has other problems.
CD terms, Current drive, Disk drive, Drive bay, Drive letter, Hard drive terms, Hardware terms, Hierarchical file system, Logical drive, Storage device, USB drive
Related information
- How to copy files from one drive to another drive.
- How to view the name or label of a drive.
- How to find how much hard drive space is available.
- How to install computer hardware.
- How to change a drive letter.
- How to change drives in MS-DOS and Windows command line.
