Question: On my custom-built computer, there is a chip-reader that will accept about 8 kinds of chips - you know, the ones you use in cameras. These all count as "drives" on my computer, and in the Drive Manager of the MMC console, (or you can get to it by right-clicking on "Computer" and selecting "Manage") I can set the drive letters for these devices.

However, when I plug in another flash drive, I get confused as to which drive it is - with all those other ones complicating the matter.

How can I *rename* my empty chip-reader drives? I've tried opening their "properties" in Windows Explorer - which lets me specify a name, but it won't accept anything I tell it (never had this issue in XP). When I click "Apply" in the properties dialogue, it says, 

> 
> The volume label is not valid. Please enter a valid volume label.
> 
> 
> 

But nothing I type there seems to be "valid".

So, I want to call the drives by their chip names, such as "xd drive", "sd drive", "M2 drive", etc. That way I can tell which one is which.

Answer: 
Ah, I figured it out.

***I opened computer in Windows Explorer and simply clicked, "rename".***

It worked like a charm.
It works with OR without a space, however you like. Pushing good ole' `F2` works too.

I feel kind of stupid for asking the question, now, but if it worked via properties like you'd think, there would have been no question.

You can't rename it through properties, for some reason! 

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aofWh.png)

You may have to [enable the setting in Windows Explorer](http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/6969-drives-hide-show-empty-drives-computer-folder.html).
The reason you get "The volume label is not valid. Please enter a valid volume label." is that volume labels can only be set on drives with actual media in them.

`Volume label` refers to a very specific piece of information which is stored in the partition table of a disk drive. Since a card reader with no card in it has no partition table, since a partition table requires an actual storage device, you are not able to set a volume label on a non-existing device.

In Windows, there are two types of disk drives: `Fixed media` and `Removable media`.

A fixed medium is one that is always available, and cannot be removed. A fixed medium "assumes" that there is always a valid storage medium associated with the drive letter. So if the medium is online and receiving power, it will appear as a drive letter, and have a valid volume label, valid partition table, list of partitions, and the data can be read and written.

A removable medium is one that "decouples" (separates) the concept of "Slot where a disk/card can go" and "Actual disk/card". Removable media **do have drive letters** even when no "Actual disk/card" is installed in the slot at the moment. The slot has a "media-less" drive letter associated with it, which gives you a familiar error message like "There is no disk in the drive..." if you try to access it while it is not available.

Since your card readers are removable media, you will have drive letters (unless you disable the hardware in Device Manager) for slots that have no media installed.

You also can't assign drive letters like "M2:" or "SD:" because of Windows' limitation on what drive letters can be (just A: through Z:). So you're pretty much stuck with just memorizing the drive letters. Suboptimal, but that's the way it is.

If you're lucky, you might be able to find an enhanced Explorer-like file browser that will list the device name next to each drive letter, but even that doesn't really help: most manufacturers don't give meaningful names to each of the possible slots, or if they do, it's something long and complicated like "Hitachi 800SD-25F SD Card Reader" (made up name but it's similarly long). This information comes from the USB protocol used to communicate with the card reader, and cannot be changed because it is part of the card reader's firmware.