how to access a drive without a letter?

[Talal Itani]

I am writing code that accesses an MP3 player plugged to a USB port. The
MP3 player is not showing up as a drive letter. With explorer, I see the
drive, with it's name, but no drive letter is assigned. How do I access
such a drive? Thank you very much.

T.I.

 

[Ben Voigt [C++ MVP]]

I am writing code that accesses an MP3 player plugged to a USB port. The
MP3 player is not showing up as a drive letter. With explorer, I see the
drive, with it's name, but no drive letter is assigned. How do I access
such a drive? Thank you very much.

Using whatever software the vendor provided. If there is a programming
interface, good. It sounds like an explorer namespace extension is being
used, which makes direct file access impossible. Does the drive appear in
Computer Management > Disk Administrator?

 

[Talal Itani]

Using whatever software the vendor provided. If there is a programming
interface, good. It sounds like an explorer namespace extension is being
used, which makes direct file access impossible. Does the drive appear in
Computer Management > Disk Administrator?

The drive does not appear in Computer Management > Disk Administrator. And
I did not have to install any software, XP recognized the device without any
software.

 

[Ben Voigt [C++ MVP]]

The drive does not appear in Computer Management > Disk Administrator.
And I did not have to install any software, XP recognized the device
without any software.

That just means the software was bundled in the Windows CD-ROM, not that
there is no software.

Apparently the device doesn't implement the USB mass storage protocol, so
there's no drive letter given. You are pretty much at the mercy of whoever
wrote the driver for the MP3 player, they can provide as many or as few ways
to access the device as they choose.