How to discover USB storage devices and writable CD/DVD drives (C#)

Question

How can I discover any USB storage devices and/or CD/DVD writers available at a given time (using C# .Net2.0).

I would like to present users with a choice of devices onto which a file can be stored for physically removal - i.e. not the hard drive.

Answer 1

this is VB.NET code to check for any removable drives or CDRom drives attached to the computer:

Me.lstDrives.Items.Clear()
For Each item As DriveInfo In My.Computer.FileSystem.Drives
    If item.DriveType = DriveType.Removable Or item.DriveType = DriveType.CDRom Then
        Me.lstDrives.Items.Add(item.Name)
    End If
Next

it won't be that hard to modify this code into a c# equivalent, and more driveType's are available.
From MSDN:

• Unknown: The type of drive is unknown.
• NoRootDirectory: The drive does not have a root directory.
• Removable: The drive is a removable storage device, such as a floppy disk drive or a USB flash drive.
• Fixed: The drive is a fixed disk.
• Network: The drive is a network drive.
• CDRom: The drive is an optical disc device, such as a CD or DVD-ROM.
• Ram: The drive is a RAM disk.

Answer 2

using System.IO;

DriveInfo[] allDrives = DriveInfo.GetDrives();
foreach (DriveInfo d in allDrives)
{
  if (d.IsReady && d.DriveType == DriveType.Removable)
  {
    // This is the drive you want...
  }
}

The DriveInfo class documentation is here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.driveinfo.aspx

Answer 3

in c# you can get the same by using the System.IO.DriveInfo class

using System.IO;

public static class GetDrives
{
    public static IEnumerable<DriveInfo> GetCDDVDAndRemovableDevices()
    {
        return DriveInfo.GetDrives().
            Where(d => d.DriveType == DriveType.Removable
            && d.DriveType == DriveType.CDRom);
    }

}