Knowledge Base

How To List the Drives in a System Using the FileSystemObject

Article ID: 189667

Article Last Modified on 7/1/2004

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Learning Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition

This article was previously published under Q189667

SUMMARY

This article shows you how to list all the drives in a computer system using the FileSystemObject. The article shows how to create a sample project that lists all the drives in a system as well as the properties of each drive.

MORE INFORMATION

This article assumes you are familiar with using objects, collections, and object models in Visual Basic. The FileSystemObject allows you to perform a number tasks on the file system of a computer. This object is available to your project by making a reference to the Microsoft Script Runtime file scrrun.dll. This file ships with Windows 98 and the following products:

   Windows Script Host
   Windows NT Option Pack
   Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0
   Scripting 3.1 upgrade
   Visual Studio 6.0
   Visual Basic 6.0

After making a reference to the Script Runtime file, you create an instance of the FileSystemObject using the CreateObject method or by creating a variable as a new FileSystemObject. The object allows you to access each Drive object in the Drives collection. Each Drive has a number of properties that you can query to determine the drive type, the total space, the free space, and the file system.

The next section shows you how to create a sample project that displays all the drives in a system and the properties of each drive.

Step-by-Step Example

Start a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
Add a reference to the Microsoft Script Runtime by completing the following steps:
1. From the Project menu, click References to display the References dialog box.
2. Click Browse to open the Add Reference dialog box.
3. Select the file scrrun.dll and click OK to close the Add Reference dialog box. This file is installed in your system directory. Microsoft Scripting Runtime appears with a check in the Available Referenced list box of the References dialog box.
4. Click OK to close the References dialog box.
Add a CommandButton, ListBox, and Label to Form1.

Copy the following code to the Code window of Form1:

      Option Explicit
      Dim fso As New FileSystemObject
      Dim fsoDrives As Drives
      Dim fsoDrive As Drive

      Private Sub Form_Load()
         Label1.AutoSize = True
         Command1.Caption = "List All Drives"
         List1.Enabled = False
      End Sub

      Private Sub Command1_Click()
         Dim sDrive As String
         Dim sDriveType As String

         Set fsoDrives = fso.Drives

         List1.Enabled = True
         For Each fsoDrive In fsoDrives
            sDrive = "Drive " & fsoDrive.DriveLetter & ": "

            Select Case fsoDrive.DriveType
               Case 0: sDriveType = "Unknown"
               Case 1: sDriveType = "Removable Drive"
               Case 2: sDriveType = "Fixed Disk"
               Case 3: sDriveType = "Remote Disk"
               Case 4: sDriveType = "CDROM Drive"
               Case 5: sDriveType = "RAM Disk"
            End Select

            sDrive = sDrive & sDriveType
            List1.AddItem (sDrive)
         Next
         Set fsoDrives = Nothing
      End Sub

      Private Sub List1_Click()
         Dim sDriveSpec As String
         Dim sSelDrive As String

         sSelDrive = List1.List(List1.ListIndex)
         sSelDrive = Mid(sSelDrive, 7, 1)

         Set fsoDrive = fso.GetDrive(sSelDrive)

         With fsoDrive
            If .IsReady = True Then
               sDriveSpec = "Drive " & .DriveLetter & _
                           " Specifications" & vbLf
               sDriveSpec = sDriveSpec & "Free Space: " & _
                              .FreeSpace & " bytes" & vbLf
               sDriveSpec = sDriveSpec & "File System: " & _
                              .FileSystem & vbLf
               sDriveSpec = sDriveSpec & "Serial Number: " & _
                              .SerialNumber & vbLf
               sDriveSpec = sDriveSpec & "Total Size: " & _
                              .TotalSize & " bytes" & vbLf
               sDriveSpec = sDriveSpec & "Volume Name: " & _
                              .VolumeName
               Label1.Caption = sDriveSpec
            Else
               MsgBox ("Drive Not Ready")
            End If
         End With

         Set fsoDrive = Nothing
      End Sub

On the Run menu, select Start, or press the F5 key to start the program. Click the "List All Drives" button to display all the drives in your system in the ListBox. Click on a drive in the ListBox to display the properties of the drive.

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

186118 : How To Use FileSystemObject with Visual Basic

185601 : How To Recursively Search Directories Using FileSystemObject

Keywords: kbhowto kbctrl KB189667

Microsoft KB Archive/189667

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