How can I get a list of removable drives plugged in the computer?

Question

I would like to get a list of the removable drivers that are plugged in to the computer.

I think it can be done by using some registry, but I don't know how exactly.

If there is another way I would like to hear about it.

Note: It's important that I will be able to separate the removable drives from the fixed drives.

Solution 1

The algorithm is straightforward:

• Call [MS.Docs]: GetGetLogicalDriveStringsW function, which will return a string containing all the existing rootdirs (e.g. C:\\) separated by NUL (\x00) chars

  • Iterate over the rootdirs and get each one's type using [MS.Docs]: GetDriveTypeW function

  • Filter the removable drives (having the type DRIVE_REMOVABLE)

This is how it looks in Python (using PyWin32 wrappers). Add any of win32con.DRIVE_* constants to drive_types tuple to get different drive types combinations:

code00.py:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys

import win32con as wcon
from win32api import GetLogicalDriveStrings
from win32file import GetDriveType


def get_drives_list(drive_types=(wcon.DRIVE_REMOVABLE,)):
    drives_str = GetLogicalDriveStrings()
    drives = (item for item in drives_str.split("\x00") if item)
    return [item[:2] for item in drives if not drive_types or GetDriveType(item) in drive_types]


def main(*argv):
    drive_filters_examples = (
        (None, "All"),
        ((wcon.DRIVE_REMOVABLE,), "Removable"),
        ((wcon.DRIVE_FIXED, wcon.DRIVE_CDROM), "Fixed and CDROM"),
    )
    for drive_types_tuple, display_text in drive_filters_examples:
        drives = get_drives_list(drive_types=drive_types_tuple)
        print("{:s} drives:".format(display_text))
        for drive in drives:
            print("{:s}  ".format(drive), end="")
        print("\n")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("Python {:s} {:03d}bit on {:s}\n".format(" ".join(elem.strip() for elem in sys.version.split("\n")),
                                                   64 if sys.maxsize > 0x100000000 else 32, sys.platform))
    rc = main(*sys.argv[1:])
    print("\nDone.")
    sys.exit(rc)

Output:

[cfati@CFATI-5510-0:e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q041465580]> "e:\Work\Dev\VEnvs\py_pc064_03.09_test0\Scripts\python.exe" ./code00.py
Python 3.9.9 (tags/v3.9.9:ccb0e6a, Nov 15 2021, 18:08:50) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)] 064bit on win32

All drives:
C:  D:  E:  F:  G:  H:  I:  L:  M:  N:

Removable drives:
H:  I:

Fixed and CDROM drives:
C:  D:  E:  F:  G:  L:  M:  N:


Done.

As a side note, in my environment (at this point):

• D: is a partition on an external (USB) HDD

• H:, I: are partitions on a bootable USB stick (UEFI)

• The rest are partitions on the (internal) SSD and / or HDD disks

Solution 2

I just had a similar question myself. Isolating @CristiFati's answer to only removable drives, I knocked together this quick (very simple) function for any new visitors to this question:

Basically, just call the function and it will return a list of all removable drives to the caller.

import win32api
import win32con
import win32file

def get_removable_drives():
    drives = [i for i in win32api.GetLogicalDriveStrings().split('\x00') if i]
    rdrives = [d for d in drives if win32file.GetDriveType(d) == win32con.DRIVE_REMOVABLE]
    return rdrives

For example: A call to get_removable_drives() will output:

['E:\\']

Comments

[Jim]

How can i read files inside the DRIVE_REMOVABLE's drive? Thanks

[CristiFati]

@Jim The file system does all the underlying work for you, so you read the file just as it was residing on one of the fixed drives (by specifying its path). For example C:\some_file_on_the_fixed_drive.txt is a file on a fixed drive (assuming C: is your SYSTEM drive), while if you insert an USB stick, Win automatically mounts it to let's say F:, you would refer to a file on the removable drive as F:\some_file_on_the_removable_drive.txt.

[Jim]

Thanks for help, USB stick works fine, but when im using Android phone for test, and it popup a dialog says THERE IS NO DISK IN THE DRIVE. PLEASE INSERT A DISK INTO DRIVE H:, maybe i need to leand about how to use ADB Shell... Thanks Again <3

[CristiFati]

@Jim: Sorry for the delay, I missed your comment. The phone is not seen as a removable drive, because it doesn't expose that interface. I'm not sure if you could install a 3rd party software on phone and/or PC to achieve that functionality.

[Omid Ataollahi]

provide information about the dependencies and how to install them.

[576i]

This is not working for larger, USB connected, terabyte sizes external drives - which are reported as fixed.

[CristiFati]

@576i: That's probably due to a misinterpretation of DRIVE_REMOVABLE / DRIVE_FIXED meaning. Looking at the table from the 2nd URL, it turns out it's correct.

[CristiFati]

@OmidAtaollahi: Question is tagged with PyWin32, so that's the only dependency. python -m pip install pywin32. Check stackoverflow.com/questions/58631512/pywin32-and-python-3-8-‌​0/… for some interesting insights.