Drive mappings

Map Android filesystem paths to Windows drive letters inside a Winlator container.

Windows applications navigate the filesystem using drive letters (C:, D:, E:, and so on). Winlator maps these letters to real Android filesystem paths, giving applications controlled access to storage.

Built-in drives

Two drives are always present in every container and cannot be removed:

Drive	Maps to	Description
C:	<container root>/.wine/drive_c/	The Wine virtual Windows drive. Contains Windows/, Program Files/, user profiles, and the Windows registry.
Z:	/ (device root)	The entire Linux filesystem. Gives Wine (and Windows apps running inside it) read/write access to the full Android root path.

Drive Z: exposes the root filesystem to Windows applications. Be cautious when running untrusted software, as it could access or modify files outside the container.

Custom drives

You can add up to 8 custom drive letter mappings per container (MAX_DRIVE_LETTERS = 8). Drive letters start at D: and go up sequentially.

Default custom drives

A freshly created container includes the following drive mappings:

Drive	Default path	Purpose
D:	Android Downloads folder	Easy access to files you download on your device
E:	/data/data/com.winlator/storage	Winlator’s internal dedicated storage directory

The exact path for D: depends on your device’s external storage location, typically /storage/emulated/0/Download.

Managing drive mappings

Drive mappings are configured in the Drives tab when creating or editing a container.

Add a drive

1. Open the Drives tab

   In the container create or edit screen, tap the Drives tab.

2. Tap Add Drive

   Tap the Add Drive button. A new row appears with a drive letter selector and a path field.

3. Choose a drive letter

   Select a drive letter (D: through K:) from the dropdown. Letters already in use in other rows are not deduplicated automatically, so pick a unique one.

4. Set the path

   Type an Android filesystem path directly, or tap the folder icon to open the Android directory picker and browse to the location you want.

5. Save

   Tap the Create or Save button to write the updated drive configuration.

Edit a drive

Tap the path field in any drive row to edit it directly, or tap the folder icon to browse to a new location.

Remove a drive

Tap the X (remove) button on the right side of any drive row. The built-in C: and Z: drives do not appear in this list and cannot be removed.

Drive letter limits

Winlator enforces a maximum of 8 custom drive mappings per container. If you already have 8 entries, the Add Drive button becomes inactive. Remove an existing mapping to make room for a new one.

Use cases

Game files

Map a drive to a folder containing game ISOs, installers, or pre-extracted game data on your SD card or internal storage.

Save files

Point a drive at a cloud-synced folder so save games are automatically backed up and accessible across devices.

Mods

Mount a mods directory as a separate drive letter so you can swap mod packs without moving files into the container.

Shared storage

Share a single Android folder across multiple containers (different drive letters) to access common assets without duplicating data.

Path creation behavior

If the Android path you specify for a drive does not exist when the container starts, Wine will attempt to create it. This can result in unexpected directories being created on your device storage.

Always verify the path exists before adding a drive mapping, especially when pointing to external SD card locations, which may change mount paths depending on the device or Android version.

Drive mapping storage format

Drive mappings are stored as a single compact string in the container config. The format concatenates each LETTER:PATH pair with no separator between entries — the colon after each drive letter acts as the delimiter:

D:/storage/emulated/0/DownloadE:/data/data/com.winlator/storage

This string is parsed by iterating over colon positions to extract drive letter and path pairs. You do not need to edit this manually — use the Drives tab UI.