How to enumerate disk volume names?

Question

How can i enumerate a list of all logical volumes on a disk? I want the name of the volume that is suitable for opening with CreateFile.

What have you tried?

I've used the FindFirstVolume/FindNextVolume API to enumerate a list of volumes. It returns a list of names such as:

• \\?\Volume{0b777018-3313-11e2-8ccd-806e6f6e6963}\
• \\?\Volume{0b777019-3313-11e2-8ccd-806e6f6e6963}\
• \\?\Volume{758a2cf2-cf3a-11e4-8dce-c86000d0b92a}\
• \\?\Volume{4f81d34b-34f4-11e2-9f6e-c86000d0b92a}\

But none of those volume names are valid volume names. That is, none of those names can be passed to CreateFile to open the volume:

0x00000003 (The system cannot find the path specified)

The question might be how do i convert the thing returned by FindFirstVolume into a volume name?

But the real question is how do i enumerate volumes in the first place?

Why not just use \\.\C:?

I wasn't asking how to hard-code a volume name; i was asking how to enumerate volume names.

Besides, not every volume has a drive letter, e.g.:

• \\?\Volume{0b777019-3313-11e2-8ccd-806e6f6e6963}\ ==> \\.\C:
• \\?\Volume{758a2cf2-cf3a-11e4-8dce-c86000d0b92a}\ ==> \\.\D:
• \\?\Volume{0b777018-3313-11e2-8ccd-806e6f6e6963}\ ==> the system reserved volume with no drive letter
• \\?\Volume{4f81d34b-34f4-11e2-9f6e-c86000d0b92a}\ ==> a CD ROM that is mounted in a folder

I swear there is an API to enumerate volumes.

GetLogicalDriveStrings

The problem with GetLogicalDriveStrings function is that it only returns logical drives:

• C:\
• D:\

and not volumes. In my case it misses two volumes:

• System Reserved
• D:\CDROM

that FindFirstVolume does correctly return.

Bonus Reading

• MSDN: Enumerating Volumes
• How to explicitly lock a mounted file system?

Answer 1

The answer to your question is hidden inside Naming a Volume. When using a volume GUID path, the rules are slightly different:

All volume and mounted folder functions that take a volume GUID path as an input parameter require the trailing backslash. [...] but this is not the case with the CreateFile function. You can open a volume by calling CreateFile and omit the trailing backslash from the volume name you specify. CreateFile processes a volume GUID path with an appended backslash as the root directory of the volume.

The solution is easy: Strip the trailing backslash from a volume GUID path to open the volume using CreateFile.

In other words, while volume management functions such as:

• GetVolumeInformation
• GetVolumePathNamesForVolumeName

do take the full volume name returned by FindFirstVolume/FindNextVolume, CreateFile requires the returned trailing backslash removed:

• \\?\Volume{0b777018-3313-11e2-8ccd-806e6f6e6963}
• \\?\Volume{0b777019-3313-11e2-8ccd-806e6f6e6963}
• \\?\Volume{758a2cf2-cf3a-11e4-8dce-c86000d0b92a}
• \\?\Volume{4f81d34b-34f4-11e2-9f6e-c86000d0b92a}