GetDriveType in C#? or find out if my drive is removable?

Question

I am using Environment.GetLogicalDrives(); to get a list of drives. I remember in c++ i could use GetDriveType to find if the device was CD, removable, flash, etc and i am thinking i want to put a filter in my app to only show CD and removable on default. What is the GetDriveType equivalent in C#? google only showed me hacks to use the c++ call.

Answer 1

Yes, the framework includes a DriveType enumeration used by the DriveInfo class. Have a look at the GetDrives() method on MSDN.

Answer 2

DriveInfo is the class you are looking for.

Answer 3

You can use the DriveInfo type to retrieve a list of the drives. You need to check the DriveType property (enum)

var drives = DriveInfo.GetDrives();
foreach (var drive in drives)
{
    if (drive.DriveType == DriveType.Removable)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(drive.Name);
    }
}

You can also use LINQ-to-Objects to query the drives:

var drives = from drive in DriveInfo.GetDrives()
             where drive.DriveType == DriveType.Removable
             select drive;

foreach(var drive in drives)
{
    Console.WriteLine(drive.Name);
}

Like the @TheCodeKing mentioned you can also use WMI to query drive information.

For example, you can query for USB sticks in the following manner:

ManagementObjectCollection drives = new ManagementObjectSearcher(
    "SELECT Caption, DeviceID FROM Win32_DiskDrive WHERE InterfaceType='USB'"
).Get();

Add a reference to the System.Management assembly if you are going to use WMI.

If you want to fill a ComboBox in a Windows Forms application with this data you need to bind the results to the ComboBox control.

For example:

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var drives = from drive in DriveInfo.GetDrives()
                 where drive.DriveType == DriveType.Removable
                 select drive;

    comboBox1.DataSource = drives.ToList();
}

To recapitulate:

1. Add a ComboBox control to the Windows Form (drag & drop it on the form from the Toolbox)
2. Query the removable drives.
3. Bind the results to the ComboBox.

Answer 4

You have use WMI for this, check this link for for information and examples.