Some of us have a laptop, and some have a desktop. But one thing that is common in all Windows computer systems is that the system hard drive on which the operating system is installed is C.
The Microsoft Windows operating system always uses the default letter C for the primary hard drive, where all the programs are installed. If you have ever installed a new Windows operating system, you might have noticed that the default storage location for the Windows OS installation is the hard disk C. However, you can change the installation location.
Why is C the default Windows System Drive letter?
Have you ever thought about why Microsoft uses C as the default drive letter? Why do we never get a hard drive A or B on Windows by default? After all, A and B come before C!
To know the answer, we have to go to the past, when the hard drives were not invented. Today, we have plenty of storage space on our computer systems and laptops. This is because they come with built-in hard drives. But this was not the case with the earlier computers. The earlier computers did not have built-in storage space. Due to this, they used external storage media to store the program. These storage media were the Floppy Disks.
Computer owners used these Floppy Disks to store their data and to run their computer systems. Without the Floppy Disks, the earlier computer systems could not be run. Since Floppy Disk was the first hard drive to store the data and run the computer programs, it was named with the letter A and was introduced by IBM.
The Floppy Disk had only 1.44 MB storage capacity. With time, technology was upgraded, and users got two slots for Floppy Disks on their computer systems. That new Floppy Disk was named with the letter B.
With these Floppy Disks A and B, users got some more storage space on their computer systems. But still, the Floppy Disks were not able to store a huge amount of data. Also, they were insecure because they could be stolen or damaged as they were the external storage media.
Due to the limitations of Floppy Disks, Hard Drives were invented later on. The first hard drive offered an extensive storage space to the users as compared to the Floppy Disks. Since the first hard drive was invented after the two Floppy Disks A and B, it got its name C. We can summarize it as:
- A: First Floppy Disk.
- B: Second Floppy Disk.
- C: First Hard Drive.
One question may strike your mind, “Can I change the name of Hard Disk C to A or B?” Well, the answer to this question depends on your computer system. If you do not have reserved storage space for Floppy Disks, you can rename any hard drive from A to Z.
You can check this in the “Disk Management.” If your computer has a reserved space for A and B, it will not show these two letters to rename a hard disk.
Read: How to change a hard drive letter in windows 10.
We hope you found the article informative. Don’t forget to share your views in the comments section.