So why is the hard drive named ‘C:’ when the first two letters of the alphabet start with A and B, or when there are many other letters in the alphabet other than C? Moreover, this naming is almost standardized for all computers using the Windows operating system or running MS-DOS.
Let’s explore the hard drive a bit together and then go on a journey of how it’s lettered ‘C:’.
Let’s first understand what the ‘C:’ drive basically does.
The C: drive is the drive on which the computer is run and contains the Windows operating system, that is, the main drive of the computer, which acts as the brain. When people talk about the computer’s hard drive and local disk assignment, they are actually talking about the C: drive. This so-called ‘C:’ drive has been around since the first days of computers with Windows operating systems.
So why is the hard drive called C: when there are many letters?
The lettering schemes of disk drives date back to the early days of MS-DOS. The letters A and B are reserved for the floppy disk drives that were actively used at that time, while the letter C is reserved for the main hard disk partition where the operating system and operating system-related files are located. Early versions of MS-DOS assigned each floppy drive a fixed letter without taking into account hard drives. If a computer had more than two floppy drives, the hard disk drive was called ‘D:’ or ‘E:’.
With DOS 5.0, the letter ‘C:’ was defined to the physical hard disk. Since DOS 5.0, no matter how large the number of floppy drives in the computer, the hard disk would no longer be referred to by any letter other than ‘C:’. With this lettering, the ‘C:’ drive, which took on the task of opening the operating system, was also given boot priority on the computer.
Other letters were also assigned to other drives.
Floppy disks used in the past are now rarely used. Although the letters ‘A:’ and ‘B:’ are reserved for floppy disks, we can say that ‘A:’ and ‘B:’ are waiting empty until floppy disks are inserted. Other letters such as ‘D:’, ‘E:’ and ‘F:’ are waiting to be assigned to drives such as other hard drives, flash drives, CDs and DVDs. In short, the case of lettering was based on identifying memory drives, and over time it began to be used to identify physical storage devices.
Have you seen computers using floppy disks? What do you think about naming the hard drive as C:?
Sources: Lifewire, Computer Hope, Technopedia
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