Detecting if unformatted drive K: exist?

[Matt Adams]

Assume the following situation:

I have a new, sometimes connected (external USB) hard disc with a new partition K:
on it. BUT this partition is currently NOT formatted (e.g. with NTFS).

How do I detect from command line (program) if
this hard disc resp. partition is currently connected or not ?

Notice: If the partition would be formatted the
solution is simple:

if exist "K:\" Echo K: is existing

But with an unformatted but existing partition the command above does NOT work.

So again: Is there a detection command line program
which gives me a reliable "yes" (errorlevel=1) or no
on this question?

Maybe I need one of these ResourceKit programs from MS or from other software sources

Matt

 

[Guest]

If the drive is working it should appear here:

Disk Management - enter diskmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box

You can partition and format it from there.

Eric,
PC Buyer Beware!
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/

 

[Bob I]

A drive can't have a letter until it is formatted.

 

[Colon Terminus]

You'll get answers pertinent to your question if you repost your query in
microsoft.public.win2000.cmdprompt.admin, but here's something to work with.

If you simply change to the K drive in your command Win2K will generate a
different error message when the drive is present and not formatted than if
the drive doesn't exist. You might try issuing the command K: in your .cmd
or .bat file and piping the result to the Find command.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Assume the following situation:

I have a new, sometimes connected (external USB) hard disc with a new partition K:
on it. BUT this partition is currently NOT formatted (e.g. with NTFS).

How do I detect from command line (program) if
this hard disc resp. partition is currently connected or not ?

Notice: If the partition would be formatted the
solution is simple:

if exist "K:\" Echo K: is existing

But with an unformatted but existing partition the command above does NOT work.

So again: Is there a detection command line program
which gives me a reliable "yes" (errorlevel=1) or no
on this question?

Maybe I need one of these ResourceKit programs from MS or from other software sources

Matt

I haven't tried this (because I don't happen to have any unformatted
disks lying about) but I suspect that mountvol.exe could be
your answer.