Find logical drive ID in VB.NET

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Good Evening,

Does anyone know how to get the logical ID(Not Serial Number) of a logical drive? I need to find location number of the drive. Below is a diskpart printout and I am looking to find the number under "volume ###" column. I have searched and searched, and can not find out how to find it. Everything I find is about finding serial number, drive type, drive letter, and so on. Right now, I have been trying to do with string manipulation, and its not exact all the time. There are too many variables.

Let me explain and give a little more detail. I want to create a program that will deploy a Windows 7 image using WinPe 4.0 and Usb Flash Drives. I am trying to use Diskpart to delete existing partitions, but not the USB drive partitions. The diskpart printout below is what I was using to try and get the volume number to do a "Sel Vol" and the disk number, in order to get the partition to delete. But I thought there would be another way to do it rather than output the printout to a textbox and use string manipulations to look for it.

Code:

Volume ###    Ltr    Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
 ----------   ---    -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
 Volume 0       D                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
 Volume 1       E                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media

So I came across the WMI Classes and thought I might be able to get it from there using a function similiar to below to return the value and create a variable. But I have not been able to figure it out.

VB

Private Function GetDriveInfo(ByVal sVolumeName As String) As String
        Dim objMOC As Management.ManagementObjectCollection
        Dim objMOS As Management.ManagementObjectSearcher = New Management.ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_Volume")
        Dim objMO As Management.ManagementObject

        objMOC = objMOS.Get()

        For Each objMO In objMOC
            Dim objDriveLetter As String = objMO("DeviceID")
            Dim objVolumeLabel = objMO("Name")
            MsgBox(objDriveLetter & vbCrLf & objVolumeLabel)
            If UCase(objVolumeLabel) = UCase(sVolumeName) Then
                Return objDriveLetter.ToString
            Else : Return Nothing

            End If
            'Dim objOUT As String = String.Format("{0} - {1}", objVolumeName, objID)
            ' MsgBox(objOUT)
        Next
        Return Nothing
    End Function

Here is what I am currently using to find and delete partitions, but it is not efficient.

VB

Private Sub DelExistingPartitions()
        If Me.InvokeRequired Then
            Me.Invoke(New DelegateDelExistingPartitions(AddressOf DelExistingPartitions))
        Else
            Dim tmp As String
            Dim myprocess As New Process
            Dim StartInfo As New System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
            StartInfo.FileName = sSystem32 & "\diskpart.exe"
            StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = True
            StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = True
            StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = True
            StartInfo.UseShellExecute = False
            myprocess.StartInfo = StartInfo
            myprocess.Start()
            Dim SR As System.IO.StreamReader = myprocess.StandardOutput
            Dim SW As System.IO.StreamWriter = myprocess.StandardInput
            SW.WriteLine("list vol")
            SW.WriteLine("exit")

            Do While myprocess.HasExited = False
                tmp = SR.ReadLine & vbCrLf
                If tmp <> "" Then
                    Me.txtResults.AppendText(tmp)
                End If
            Loop
            
            For Each line In txtResults.Lines
                If line = "" Then
                ElseIf line.Contains("Microsoft DiskPart version") Then
                ElseIf line.Contains("Copyright (C)") Then
                ElseIf line.Contains("On computer:") Then
                ElseIf line.Contains("DISKPART>") Then
                ElseIf line.Contains("Volume ###") Then
                ElseIf line.Contains("----------") Then
                ElseIf line.Contains(UCase("DVD-ROM")) Then
                ElseIf line.Contains(UCase("FAT32")) Then
                ElseIf line.Contains(UCase("IMAGES")) Then
                ElseIf line.Contains(UCase("X:\Diskpart")) Then
                Else
                    Dim sIndexOfId = line.IndexOf("e")
                    Dim sVolumeID As String = line.Substring(sIndexOfId + 2, 1)
                    sExistingPartition = sVolumeID
                    'MsgBox(sExistingPartition)
                    SW.WriteLine("select vol " & sExistingPartition)
                    SW.WriteLine("Delete vol override")
                    ' SW.WriteLine("exit")
                End If
            Next
            SW.Close()
            SR.Close()
        End If
    End Sub

If you need anything further, please let me know.

Posted 2-Apr-13 16:24pm

iismoove

Updated 3-Apr-13 7:00am

v2

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Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 2-Apr-13 23:26pm

Win32 logical disk has the property "DeviceID". Is it the one you need? Another one is PNPDeviceID.
—SA

iismoove 2-Apr-13 23:34pm

I have tried both. I use the DeviceID to get the drive letter. The PNPDeviceID comes up blank.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 2-Apr-13 23:57pm

Correct. I just experimented with the code and found it's wrong. And Logical disk is also a wrong class. You need another one: Win32_Volume (quite logically).
You got the result of my search. Please see my answer; you got all you need.
—SA

iismoove 3-Apr-13 0:12am

Great! I will try it out. Thanks!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Apr-13 0:53am

Don't forget to accept the answer formally (even if you need something a bit different), as I explained the Method...
(Green button.)
—SA

4 solutions

Solution 2

One way to find the system volume is this:

First, use the method Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/14tx8hby.aspx[^],
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.specialfolder.aspx[^].

As you can see, two of the enumeration members are System and Windows, so you can find a volume letter where the system is, and compare it with the results you got using the WMI object Win32_Volume, as shown in Solution 1. This way, you can find the corresponding volume and its properties.

However, it does not guarantee that the boot volume is the same. Boot is a pretty complex process. It starts from the boot order of physical drives specified in BIOS or UEFI (successor of BIOS), and on a physical drive is further defined by Master Boot Record, and then it can be a multu-boot system with different ways to proceed with the OS loading, and so on.

I found the information on how to find out boot information from WMI: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9337354/access-the-windows-7-boot-configuration-data-using-c-sharp[^].

I did not try it yet, so please try. I would be interested in your feedback.

—SA

Posted 3-Apr-13 19:01pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

iismoove 4-Apr-13 9:51am

I will give it a try and let you know. It may not be until later today, but I will give it a whirl.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Apr-13 9:57am

Great.
—SA

iismoove 4-Apr-13 10:06am

Are you always on here? LOL. It seems like no matter when I post, you post right back.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Apr-13 10:11am

Just a coincidence... :-)
—SA

Solution 3

First I declared the follwing variables:

VB

Public sTotalVolumes As Integer = 0
    Public iRemovable As Integer = 0
    Public sLocalDisks As Integer = 0
    Public iDvd As Integer = 0
    Public sLastDvdVolumeNumber As Integer = 0
    Public sFirstLocalDiskVolumeNumber As Integer = 0

Then I got the machine's volumes' information:

VB

Private Sub GetVolumeInfo()
        Dim objMOC As Management.ManagementObjectCollection
        Dim objMOS As Management.ManagementObjectSearcher = New Management.ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_Volume")
        Dim objMO As Management.ManagementObject

        objMOC = objMOS.Get()
        sTotalVolumes = CInt(objMOC.Count)

        For Each objMO In objMOC
            Dim sDriveName As String = objMO("Name")
            Dim sDriveType As Integer = CInt(objMO("DriveType"))
            ' MsgBox(sDriveName & vbNewLine & sDriveType)
            If sDriveType = 5 Then
                iDvd = iDvd + 1
            ElseIf sDriveType = 2 Then
                iRemovable = iRemovable + 1
            ElseIf sDriveType = 3 Then
                sLocalDisks = sLocalDisks + 1
            End If
        Next
     End Sub

Then last I used this Sub to delete the existing partitions:

VB

Private Sub DelExistingPartitions()
        If Me.InvokeRequired Then
            Me.Invoke(New DelegateDelExistingPartitions(AddressOf DelExistingPartitions))
        Else
            GetVolumeInfo()
            Dim tmp As String
            Dim p As New Process
            p.StartInfo.FileName = sSystem32 & "\diskpart.exe"
            p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = False
            p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = True
            p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = True
            p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = True
            p.Start()
            Dim SR As System.IO.StreamReader = p.StandardOutput
            Dim SW As System.IO.StreamWriter = p.StandardInput

            'Insert Commands Here
            'SW.WriteLine("list vol")
            sFirstLocalDiskVolumeNumber = iDvd - 1

            For i As Integer = 1 To sLocalDisks - 1 Step 1
                sFirstLocalDiskVolumeNumber = sFirstLocalDiskVolumeNumber + 1
                'MsgBox(sFirstLocalDiskVolumeNumber)
                SW.WriteLine("sel vol " & sFirstLocalDiskVolumeNumber)
                SW.WriteLine("Delete vol override")
            Next
            SW.WriteLine("exit")
            Do While p.HasExited = False
                tmp = SR.ReadLine()
                If tmp <> "" Then
                    Me.txtResults.AppendText(tmp & vbCrLf)
                End If
            Loop
            SR.Close()
            SW.Close()
            p.Dispose()
        End If
    End Sub

Posted 10-Apr-13 14:24pm

iismoove

Solution 4

'This will produce disk information as used in diskpart, disk number, partition 'number and drive letters. visit malvastyle.com for more (i wrote an application 'that uses diskpart that will be free for download on the site in a day or 2.

'Get Disk Number
Dim query
Dim objWMI
Dim diskDrives
Dim diskDrive
Dim partitions
Dim partition ' will contain the drive & partition numbers
Dim logicalDisks
Dim logicalDisk ' will contain the drive letter
Dim stroutput As New StringBuilder

objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\cimv2")
diskDrives = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_DiskDrive") ' First get out the physical drives
For Each diskDrive In diskDrives
query = "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskDrive.DeviceID='" + diskDrive.DeviceID + "'} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition" ' link the physical drives to the partitions
partitions = objWMI.ExecQuery(query)
For Each partition In partitions
query = "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskPartition.DeviceID='" + partition.DeviceID + "'} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition" ' link the partitions to the logical disks
logicalDisks = objWMI.ExecQuery(query)
For Each logicalDisk In logicalDisks
stroutput.Append(logicalDisk.DeviceID & " - " & partition.Caption)
' Wscript.Echo(logicalDisk.DeviceID & " - " & partition.Caption)
Next
Next
Next
MessageBox.Show(stroutput.ToString)

Posted 30-Nov-14 0:45am

malvastyle

Updated 30-Nov-14 0:48am

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-02T17:47:00

Solution 1

You can do it using WMI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Management_Instrumentation[^].

First of all, you need to figure out where to get the documentation. For Win32_LogicalDisk, please see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa394173%28v=vs.85%29.aspx[^].

As you can see, there is no such thing as "logical ID". Besides, when I run the code, I cannot see "*volume*" ID which you probably want (please see the code below). No, wrong way. Further search shows that you can use Win32_Volume, not "logical ID":
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa394515%28v=vs.85%29.aspx[^].

Using this information via .NET WMI (Management) is more tricky. You don't have the fully-mapped API for all properties and methods. Instead, everything should be found by the queries using type names and property (in your case) names which you can find from the documentation referenced above. Besides, there is a reflective type of API which allows your to list all the properties and methods.

Take a look at my code sample:

C#

using System;
using System.Management;

//...

            ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_Volume");
            ManagementObjectCollection collection = searcher.Get();
            foreach (ManagementObject item in collection)
                System.Console.WriteLine(
                    "Name: {0}, Device ID: {1}",
                     item["Name"], item["DeviceID"]);

Please see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.aspx[^],
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.managementobjectcollection.aspx[^],
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.managementobject.aspx[^].

If you need to find out something else, learn all the concrete WMI queries, classes and their members. This CodeProject article provides comprehensive help in search for them:
CIMTool for Windows Management Instrumentation - Part 3[^].

This is a really powerful interactive tool.

Another way to learn WMI and quickly prototype queries is Microsoft PowerShell:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powershell[^],
http://www.microsoft.com/powershell[^].

—SA

Posted 2-Apr-13 17:47pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Updated 2-Apr-13 18:57pm

v6

Comments

iismoove 3-Apr-13 10:19am

The DeviceID in Win32_Volume does not give the volume numbers that is used in diskpart. It gives more of a long GUID like number. I have looked through so many of the WMI classes and cannot seem to find it. Any ideas?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Apr-13 12:42pm

Maybe, this is just because you did not explain what exactly did you expect and because I don't know all the detail; I just search those features in WMI.

Could you give me a couple of exact examples of the strings you expected?

Or you could also try to find it by yourself. There are several different ManagementObject "classes" (from the point of view of ManagementObjects, there are some kind of meta-type known by names, such as "Win32_Volume" or "Win32_LogicalDisk", but there are more) related to the file system.
You can also use Espen's system to explore...

—SA

iismoove 3-Apr-13 13:01pm

I updated my question with a little more details.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Apr-13 13:12pm

OK, thank you, how about the example of the string you are still missing?
—SA

iismoove 3-Apr-13 13:44pm

I just want to get that number after where it says "Volume" in my top Diskpart printout. ex. 0, 1.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Apr-13 13:57pm

What would be the example of the string representing a property value: "Volume 0" or just "0"?
What is the proper technical term for this property? What does it do, semantically? Indexes all logical volumes or what?
—SA

iismoove 3-Apr-13 14:00pm

I don't know. I thought it was the "logical volume ID". In Disk Management, if you go to the properties of the partition, it is listed as "location", but I cannot find anything else on it, other than diskpart using it and it being in Disk Management. Also, I just want the "0" or "1", without the "Volume"

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Apr-13 14:07pm

OK, I'll take a look, but I don't have time to do it right away. Did you try Espen's application? You can dig out a lot using it...
—SA

iismoove 3-Apr-13 14:12pm

Great, whatever you can help with would be greatly appreciated, because I just know where else to look. I have taken a look at Espen's application. I will definitely use in the future. Thank you.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Apr-13 18:29pm

OK, I got a better idea: using PowerShell, I've made and executed some scripts, semi-interactively, to view through all properties of all disk/partition/volume-related WMI objects with at least one sample of their values, and came to a (preliminary?) conclusion, that none of them will get the values of "0", "1"...
Come to thing about, there are no specific reasons to have such numeric indices as object properties. I think they don't exist. (There is something similar, for example, partitions have properties "Name" with values like "Disk #0, Partition #0"); all other numeric values represented drive type, etc. (actually, enumeration values).

So, I think that your information that such properties exist are wrong. Maybe you simply need to list the volumes; and the index of each in the list would be what you need. (Unfortunately, you did not share the purpose of this activity, which would be a good idea.) Again, there is no a reason for file system related object to have such property. How to explain it. Imaging you store the array of such object. You won't add to the class of those object a property which is supposed to be equal to the index in the array, would you? :-)

I can share my method: In PowerShell (new v.3 is so good!), use
$list = Get-WmiObject -list
to get a list of all available classes, which are actually some meta-objects, known by names, which will be in the list.

For each name $name, issue
Get-WmiObject -query "Select * From $name"

It will output all object with all properties and values

You can do it and see by yourself.

Good luck,
—SA

iismoove 3-Apr-13 20:36pm

Yea, I dont think its going to happen that way. So here is my intent with this project: I want to create a app that starts upon WinPE 4.0 booting. It basically will have 2 buttons and and a textbox. Each button will be for deploying either a laptop or desktop Windows 7 image, and the textbox will be for redirecting the output of diskpart. Do you know another way that I could identify which volumes are the local drive volumes(system reserve and windows) and delete them?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 3-Apr-13 22:44pm

Oh, I'm afraid we've wasted some time in wrong direction. First of all, you original question about "0", "1" is misleading. As I can see, there is no such thing, but, more importantly, if it existed, it would not help you at all. Do you think #0 would be system or "reserve" or something? Hardly. (By the way, nothing guarantees that OS is installed on "C:", did you know that? moreover, one of the systems I use now does not have "C:" at all; which is a result of hardware upgrade (!)).

Do you want to find the volume where the Windows is installed? There are ways to do it, of course. But I don't know what do you mean by "reserve". Do you mean the system distribution (system restore) partition? But this is just a partition, which is not formally a "legal" volume. OS sees it as a partition.

—SA

iismoove 4-Apr-13 0:03am

Ok. I'll try to figure it out on my own, but thanks for your help.

I know that not all OS's are on C:\.( Which is why I wasn’t just looking for the Drive Letters, because letters have no bearing on whether it’s a system volume, DVD Drive, or Removable media, etc...)

I don't think the question is that misleading. I wanted to know how to get the number under the "Volume ###" label in my DISKPART printout, which is “Volume 0” and “Volume 1”, which would make the numbers I was looking for “0” and “1” and how else besides DISKPART these volume numbers could be found. Because I figured, which I guess is wrong, was that DISKPART had to get those numbers from somewhere in the system configuration. I guess DISKPART is just making those numbers up for its own use. To use DISKPART, you have to use those numbers in order to select the volume you want to delete, format, or resize. I thought maybe someone else had used it and would be able to help. Have you ever used DISKPART?

By "System Reserve" I meant the 100MB partition that Windows 7 uses to boot and store restore settings, which usually doesn't have name, but is still a volume. In the disk manager it calls it “System Reserved”.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Apr-13 0:40am

Well, not that misleading, OK, maybe a useful experience to dig into it, anyway. Maybe, I did not express it correctly. I mean, it's a good idea to start a question with explanation of your ultimate goals, before you ask about the technical means you think would be needed to reach those goals. In this case, an expert will consider if it makes sense at all, and, even if you take some wrong assumptions about those technical means, you still have to chance to get advice on alternatives, etc. Do you see my point?

Now, I don't understand it all again. Initially, you asked about the property values like "volume*", and I found the IDs like "*volume*" instead, which is the closest. Then, you asked about "0", "1"..., and I found that there is no such thing. And now you are asking about "volume*" again.
DISKPART shows "volume 0", "volume 1", etc. Is this what you wanted to see? I compared Win32_Volume objects with DISKPART LIST VOLUME. They are the same, only order is different. If think the order should not be taken into account...

—SA

iismoove 4-Apr-13 10:04am

I see what you are saying. It was my fault. I should have explained what I was trying to do. At the time I asked the question, I didn't think it was relevant to explain what I was trying to accomplish other than trying to find the volume number (or whatever it is). I will try to keep that in mind for future, and explain in a little more detail about the scope first, then my issue.

The only reason I use the terms “Volume” and “0” and such, is because I just want to try and explain where the number is in my DISKPART snippet that I am looking for. It’s for reference ONLY. DISKPART numbers each Disk/Partition on your machine. I want to know how DISKPART gets those numbers. Because I want to make those numbers a variable to run DISKPART in a program to delete those Disks/Partitions.

Now with your compare, you are right, the order does not matter. But, how do then find out which disk/partition/volume matches?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Apr-13 10:18am

I tried to answer, but I don't have a clear picture myself; it will need some research. I'm just suggesting some basic methods of such research. You can compare the results of WMI queries and other information with Windows API with information you can get from other sources like partition managers, etc. All those partitions, boot records, etc. have many kinds and options which I need to sort out when I have to work with them, which happens rarely, only at the moment of heavy system reconfiguration/upgrade, especially in multi-boot situations...
—SA

iismoove 4-Apr-13 10:23am

I'll figure it out eventually, but for now, I will just use the string manipulation until I find a better solution. I will take a look and try your second solution and let you know.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 4-Apr-13 1:06am

Please see Solution 2.
—SA

iismoove 10-Apr-13 20:25pm

Ok, I figured it out and I just wanted to let you know how I did it and get your input. I posted my solution to it.
1. I found out DISKPART puts the drives on the machine in the following order: dvd/cd-rom, local disks, then removable drives.
2. I got the total number of drives on the machine(which matches DISKPART), and split them between the 3 types.
3. I took the total drives and subtracted out the dvd/cd-rom drives and added 1 to get the first local disk “Volume” number.
4. I looped through “DelExistingPartitions” function as many times as there are local disks, adding 1 to the “Volume” number each time.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 10-Apr-13 21:10pm

Thank you for the feedback.

A word of warning though: this sequence, as I understand you correctly, if found experimentally. #2 to #4 are out of doubt; I already see all those items myself by now. But I don't think anything really guarantees you the sequence described in #1.

Good luck, call again.
—SA