How To List the Drives in a System Using the FileSystemObject

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

1. Start a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
2. 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.
3. Add a CommandButton, ListBox, and Label to Form1.
4. 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
   
   					

5. 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.