Reference number: CH000854
How can I see all drives available on my computer?
Question:How can I see all drives available on my computer?
Answer:Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP users
The above Microsoft Windows users can easily identify what drives Windows has detected by opening My Computer. To the right is an example image of what My Computer may look like. As can be seen from this example three different types of drives are listed.
The first drive: 3 1/2 Floppy (A:) is the floppy disk drive. If a floppy diskette is in the computer double-clicking this drive will open and display the contents of this drive.
Next, the Local Disk (C:), New Volume (D:), and New Volume (E:) are all hard disk drives installed on this computer. Often most computers will only have a C: drive. The hard disk drive is the primary location of where all files are stored.
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Finally, the Compact Disc (F:) is the optical disk drive installed in the computer. This could be the computer CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, etc. drive. If a disc is in the drive the contents of that disc will be opened if you double-click the drive icon.
Microsoft Windows 3.x users
Windows 3.0, 3.1, and 3.11 users can open drives through the Windows File Manager. Within the File Manager click the drive icons shown above the folder and files. By default the C drive will be open, if you wish to move to the floppy disk drive click the A drive icon, or click the D or the CD-ROM drive icon if you wish to open the CD drive.
MS-DOS users
Unfortunately there is no easy way to list all available drives on the computer through the MS-DOS prompt with one command. Below are different recommendations on viewing drives
Change drive letter
Simply changing the drive to an alternate drive letter will allow you to determine if a drive is available and ready if no error message is received.
Additional information about changing drive letters in MS-DOS can be found on document CH000515.
Fdisk
If you're running a version of MS-DOS / Windows that supports fdisk, running the fdisk command will allow you to view how the hard disk drive(s) are setup and configured on the computer.
See our fdisk command page for additional information about this command.
vol
Running the vol command on a drive will display the drives label and serial number if available. This command will allow you to quickly see what drives are detected.
Additional information:
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