GetDriveType function

Determines whether a disk drive is a removable, fixed, CD-ROM, RAM disk, or network drive.

To determine whether a drive is a USB-type drive, call SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty and specify the SPDRP_REMOVAL_POLICY property.

Syntax


UINT WINAPI GetDriveType(
  _In_opt_ LPCTSTR lpRootPathName
);

lpRootPathName [in, optional]

The root directory for the drive.

A trailing backslash is required. If this parameter is NULL, the function uses the root of the current directory.

The return value specifies the type of drive, which can be one of the following values.

Return code/value	Description
DRIVE_UNKNOWN 0	The drive type cannot be determined.
DRIVE_NO_ROOT_DIR 1	The root path is invalid; for example, there is no volume mounted at the specified path.
DRIVE_REMOVABLE 2	The drive has removable media; for example, a floppy drive, thumb drive, or flash card reader.
DRIVE_FIXED 3	The drive has fixed media; for example, a hard disk drive or flash drive.
DRIVE_REMOTE 4	The drive is a remote (network) drive.
DRIVE_CDROM 5	The drive is a CD-ROM drive.
DRIVE_RAMDISK 6	The drive is a RAM disk.

In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, this function is supported by the following technologies.

Technology	Supported
Server Message Block (SMB) 3.0 protocol	No
SMB 3.0 Transparent Failover (TFO)	No
SMB 3.0 with Scale-out File Shares (SO)	No
Cluster Shared Volume File System (CsvFS)	Yes
Resilient File System (ReFS)	Yes

SMB does not support volume management functions.

Minimum supported client	Windows XP [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps only]
Header	FileAPI.h (include Windows.h); WinBase.h on Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP (include Windows.h)
Library	Kernel32.lib
DLL	Kernel32.dll
Unicode and ANSI names	GetDriveTypeW (Unicode) and GetDriveTypeA (ANSI)