How can I get the name of a drive in python

Question

I have a list of valid drive letters, and I want to present a choice to the end user. I'd like to show them the names of the drives. Here's some code that should show me the name of drive F:\:

import ctypes

kernel32 = ctypes.windll.kernel32
buf = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(1024)

kernel32.GetVolumeNameForVolumeMountPointW(
    ctypes.c_wchar_p("F:\\"),
    buf,
    ctypes.sizeof(buf)
)

print buf.value

However, this outputs \\?\Volume{a8b6b3df-1a63-11e1-9f6f-0007e9ebdfbf}\. How can I get the string that windows shows in explorer (eg, KINGSTON, for a certain flash drive I own)?

---

EDIT:

Still not working:

volumeNameBuffer = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(1024)
fileSystemNameBuffer = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(1024)

kernel32.GetVolumeInformationW(
    ctypes.c_wchar_p("C:\\"),
    volumeNameBuffer,
    ctypes.sizeof(volumeNameBuffer),
    fileSystemNameBuffer,
    ctypes.sizeof(fileSystemNameBuffer)
)

This gives me this error:

WindowsError: exception: access violation reading 0x3A353FA0

Solution 1

Try the GetVolumeInformation function instead. It returns the volume label directly.

Solution 2

Why don't you use win32api.GetVolumeInformation?

import win32api
win32api.GetVolumeInformation("C:\\")

outputs

('WINDOWS', 1992293715, 255, 65470719, 'NTFS')

Solution 3

Using the above fragment, I filled in the missing(optional, null) arguments as a quick helper:

import ctypes
kernel32 = ctypes.windll.kernel32
volumeNameBuffer = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(1024)
fileSystemNameBuffer = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(1024)
serial_number = None
max_component_length = None
file_system_flags = None

rc = kernel32.GetVolumeInformationW(
    ctypes.c_wchar_p("F:\\"),
    volumeNameBuffer,
    ctypes.sizeof(volumeNameBuffer),
    serial_number,
    max_component_length,
    file_system_flags,
    fileSystemNameBuffer,
    ctypes.sizeof(fileSystemNameBuffer)
)

print volumeNameBuffer.value
print fileSystemNameBuffer.value

This should be copy-and-paste-able.

Solution 4

You can execute windows shell cmd and parse the output.

in Python 3.x:

import subprocess 
def getDriveName(driveletter):
    return subprocess.check_output(["cmd","/c vol "+driveletter]).decode().split("\r\n")[0].split(" ").pop()

print (getDriveName("d:"))

in Python 2.7:

import subprocess 
def getDriveName(driveletter):
    return subprocess.check_output(["cmd","/c vol "+driveletter]).split("\r\n")[0].split(" ").pop()

print getDriveName("d:")

Solution 5

You can below code to get your drive name if you find useful

import win32api
import win32con
import win32file

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

drive_list = get_removable_drives()

for i in drive_list:
    print(win32api.GetVolumeInformation(i)[0]+'('+i+')')

View more solutions

Comments

[Greg Hewgill]

There are three other parameters you haven't passed: lpVolumeSerialNumber, lpMaximumComponentLength, and lpFileSystemFlags. The "optional" designation in the documentation doesn't mean that you can simply leave them out, but that you can pass NULL as a pointer to that information if you're not interested in the value.

[Eric]

@GregHewgill: Awesome. Thanks!