Get the drive letter of USB drive in PowerShell

Question

I've seen articles in C# and some other languages that explain how to achieve what I'm looking for but I don't know how to convert them.

• The following link explains how to get the answer:
  How can I get the drive letter of an USB device?
  Win32_DiskDrive-> Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition -> Win32_DiskPartition -> Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition -> Win32_LogicalDisk

• The answer by GEOCHET explains also explains how to achieve the answer but again, not in PowerShell: How to find USB drive letter?

Asquint

Answer 1

Try:

gwmi win32_diskdrive | ?{$_.interfacetype -eq "USB"} | %{gwmi -Query "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskDrive.DeviceID=`"$($_.DeviceID.replace('\','\\'))`"} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition"} |  %{gwmi -Query "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskPartition.DeviceID=`"$($_.DeviceID)`"} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition"} | %{$_.deviceid}

Tested with one and more than one USB device plugged-in.

Kirkham

Thanks, just incase anyone wants the non-alias version: Get-WmiObject Win32_diskdrive | Where-Object {$_.interfacetype -eq "USB"} | ForEach-Object {Get-WmiObject -Query "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskDrive.DeviceID="$($_.DeviceID.replace('\','\\'))"} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition"} | ForEach-Object {Get-WmiObject -Query "ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskPartition.DeviceID="$($_.DeviceID)"} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition"} | ForEach-Object {$_.deviceid} – Asquint

Thanks for the time in writing the answer :-) – Asquint

If the shell you're running in is cmd.exe, as it is in some shell execution subroutines of older languages, you need to escape the quotes and run like so: powershell -noprofile "gwmi win32_diskdrive | ?{$_.interfacetype -eq \"USB\"} | %{gwmi -Query \"ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskDrive.DeviceID=\"$($_.DeviceID.replace('\','\\'))\"} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition\"} | %{gwmi -Query \"ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskPartition.DeviceID=\"$($_.DeviceID)\"} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition\"} | %{$_.deviceid}" – Hinrichs

Answer 2

I know the subject has been dropped for a while, but since it's something I come back to pretty often, I thought I'd update things a bit.

If using Windows 7 and above, a much simpler solution would be:

Get-WmiObject Win32_Volume -Filter "DriveType='2'"

And if you want to avoid magic numbers:

Get-WmiObject Win32_Volume -Filter ("DriveType={0}" -f [int][System.IO.DriveType]::Removable)

References:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/vdswmi/win32-volume
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.drivetype

Schaffer

Note that Windows does not necessarily mount all USB volumes as DriveType 2 (Removable Disk) in Win32_Volume. USB hard drives that get mounted with disk write caching enabled will mount as DriveType 3 (Local Disk) which is what any standard controller attached volume will show up as. – Lecialecithin

Answer 3

get-volume | where drivetype -eq removable | foreach driveletter

volume | ? drivetype -eq removable | % driveletter

Honeydew

Now it should be the best answer. – Humus

These answers were the simplest of the lot. Thanks for this! – Linalinacre

Answer 4

Beginning with PowerShell v3.0, Microsoft introduce the Get-Cim* commands which make this easier than the ugliness of the Get-WmiObject ASSOCIATORS query method:

Get-CimInstance -Class Win32_DiskDrive -Filter 'InterfaceType = "USB"' -KeyOnly | 
    Get-CimAssociatedInstance -ResultClassName Win32_DiskPartition -KeyOnly |
    Get-CimAssociatedInstance -ResultClassName Win32_LogicalDisk |
    Format-List *

Or:

Get-CimInstance -Class Win32_DiskDrive -Filter 'InterfaceType = "USB"' -KeyOnly |
    Get-CimAssociatedInstance -Association Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition -KeyOnly |
    Get-CimAssociatedInstance -Association Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition |
    Format-List *

The above commands are equivalent.

Lecialecithin

Answer 5

$FlashDrives = (get-volume | Where-Object drivetype -eq removable).DriveLetter


foreach($elment in $FlashDrives)
{ 
    if($null -eq $elment)
    {
    
    }
    else
    {
       $FlashDriveLetter = $elment + ":\"
       Write-Host $FlashDriveLetter
    }
}

$HardDiskDrives = (get-volume | Sort-Object -Property DriveLetter | Where-Object drivetype -eq Fixed).DriveLetter

foreach($elment in $HardDiskDrives)
{ 
    if($null -eq $elment)
    {
    
    }
    else
    {
       $HardDiskDriveLetter = $elment + ":\"
       Write-Host $HardDiskDriveLetter
    }
}

Ipswich

Answer 6

This gets a single USB drive letter and stores it in the variable $DRIVE. Works in Powershell 7.3.4 where Get-WmiObject doesn't and where the USB drive shows up as Fixed as it does with Get-Volume.

$DRIVE = (Get-CimInstance -Class Win32_DiskDrive -Filter 'InterfaceType = "USB"' -KeyOnly | Get-CimAssociatedInstance -ResultClassName Win32_DiskPartition -KeyOnly | Get-CimAssociatedInstance -ResultClassName Win32_LogicalDisk).DeviceID

Pardue