Identify USB drive uniquely

Question

Hi,

I need to identify all connected usb drives uniquely. when a usb drive (pen drive or external usb hard disk) is connected, i intend to identify it uniquely and store it somewhere. Next time when this same drive is plugged again, i intend to use the stored identification info to identify the drive.

any pointers in this regard would be grately appreciated.

thanks,
d2

Answer 1

You can use WMI to do this.

Here are some articles to get you started:

http://www.geekpedia.com/tutorial233_Getting-Disk-Drive-Information-using-WMI-and-Csharp.html

http://bytes.com/forum/thread234006.html

http://69.10.233.10/KB/system/DriveDetector.aspx

If you don't want to use WMI, an alternative would perhaps be to catch the WM_DEVICECHANGE message.

---

/Ruben RJJournal

Answer 2

 

using System;

using System.Management;

using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WMISample

{

public class MyWMIQuery

{

public static void Main()

{

try

{

ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =

new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2",

"SELECT * FROM Win32_USBHub");

foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())

{

Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");

Console.WriteLine("Win32_USBHub instance");

Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");

Console.WriteLine("Availability: {0}", queryObj["Availability"]);

Console.WriteLine("Caption: {0}", queryObj["Caption"]);

Console.WriteLine("CurrentConfigValue: {0}", queryObj["CurrentConfigValue"]);

Console.WriteLine("NumberOfPorts: {0}", queryObj["NumberOfPorts"]);

Console.WriteLine("NumberOfConfigs: {0}", queryObj["NumberOfConfigs"]);

Console.WriteLine("CurrentConfigValue: {0}", queryObj["CurrentConfigValue"]);

Console.WriteLine("Status: {0}", queryObj["Status"]);

Console.WriteLine("StatusInfo: {0}", queryObj["StatusInfo"]);

if(queryObj["CurrentAlternateSettings"] == null)

Console.WriteLine("CurrentAlternateSettings: {0}", queryObj["CurrentAlternateSettings"]);

else

{

Byte[] arrCurrentAlternateSettings = (Byte[])(queryObj["CurrentAlternateSettings"]);

foreach (Byte arrValue in arrCurrentAlternateSettings)

{

Console.WriteLine("CurrentAlternateSettings: {0}", arrValue);

}

}

Console.WriteLine("USBVersion: {0}", queryObj["USBVersion"]);

Console.WriteLine("PNPDeviceID: {0}", queryObj["PNPDeviceID"]);

}

}

catch (ManagementException e)

{

MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while querying for WMI data: " + e.Message);

}

}

}

}

---

AlexB

Answer 3

 

using System;

using System.Management;

using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WMISample

{

public class MyWMIQuery

{

public static void Main()

{

try

{

ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =

new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2",

"SELECT * FROM Win32_USBController");

foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())

{

Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");

Console.WriteLine("Win32_USBController instance");

Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");

Console.WriteLine("Availability: {0}", queryObj["Availability"]);

Console.WriteLine("Caption: {0}", queryObj["Caption"]);

Console.WriteLine("ConfigManagerUserConfig: {0}", queryObj["ConfigManagerUserConfig"]);

Console.WriteLine("DeviceID: {0}", queryObj["DeviceID"]);

Console.WriteLine("Manufacturer: {0}", queryObj["Manufacturer"])

Console.WriteLine("PNPDeviceID: {0}", queryObj["PNPDeviceID"]);

Console.WriteLine("ProtocolSupported: {0}", queryObj["ProtocolSupported"]);

Console.WriteLine("Status: {0}", queryObj["Status"]);

Console.WriteLine("StatusInfo: {0}", queryObj["StatusInfo"]);

Console.WriteLine("TimeOfLastReset: {0}", queryObj["TimeOfLastReset"]);

}

}

catch (ManagementException e)

{

MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while querying for WMI data: " + e.Message);

}

}

}

}

---

AlexB

Answer 4

 

using System;

using System.Management;

using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WMISample

{

public class MyWMIQuery

{

public static void Main()

{

try

{

ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =

new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2",

"SELECT * FROM Win32_USBControllerDevice");

foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())

{

Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");

Console.WriteLine("Win32_USBControllerDevice instance");

Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");

Console.WriteLine("AccessState: {0}", queryObj["AccessState"]);

Console.WriteLine("Antecedent: {0}", queryObj["Antecedent"]);

Console.WriteLine("Dependent: {0}", queryObj["Dependent"]);

Console.WriteLine("NegotiatedDataWidth: {0}", queryObj["NegotiatedDataWidth"]);

Console.WriteLine("NegotiatedSpeed: {0}", queryObj["NegotiatedSpeed"]);

Console.WriteLine("NumberOfHardResets: {0}", queryObj["NumberOfHardResets"]);

Console.WriteLine("NumberOfSoftResets: {0}", queryObj["NumberOfSoftResets"]);

}

}

catch (ManagementException e)

{

MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while querying for WMI data: " + e.Message);

}

}

}

}

---

AlexB