Visual Basic Disk/Drive API Routines
Determining Free Disk Space on a Fat32 (or NTFS) Drive
     
Posted:   Thursday January 22, 1998
Updated:   Monday December 26, 2011
     
Applies to:   VB4-32, VB5, VB6
Developed with:   VB5, Windows 95
OS restrictions:   Win95 OSR2, Win98, NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP
Author:   VBnet - Randy Birch
     

Related:  

GetDiskFreeSpace: Free Disk Space on Windows 95 (or Small Partitions)
       
 Prerequisites
Windows OSR2, Windows 98, Windows NT or Windows 2000, Windows XP.

The routine presented here will return the correct free and used disk sizes on volumes over 2 gigabytes as supported by the FAT32 partitions implemented in Windows95 OEM Service Pack 2, aka OSR2, and in Windows 98 where the Fat32 drive conversion has been made, or on NTFS partitions on NT4, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

OSR2 was initially provided only to OEMs who pre-installed the Windows 95 platform on manufactured machines, and was initially not generally available as a release version to the public. Windows 95 OSR2 was eventually released as a public upgrade with Win95b.  But regardless how the OS was installed, application developers need to account for those users who run OSR2 where the drive/space methods using GetDiskFreeSpace will return incorrect values.  The GetDiskFreeSpaceEx API shown here correctly returns the file sizes on drives or volumes over 2 gigabytes, the previous GetDiskFreeSpace limit.

Construct a form like the one shown with two command buttons (Command1 and Command2) and a combo box (Combo1).

 BAS Module Code
Place the following code into the general declarations area of a bas module:

Option Explicit
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Copyright ©1996-2011 VBnet/Randy Birch, All Rights Reserved.
' Some pages may also contain other copyrights by the author.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Distribution: You can freely use this code in your own
'               applications, but you may not reproduce 
'               or publish this code on any web site,
'               online service, or distribute as source 
'               on any media without express permission.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Declare Function GetLogicalDriveStrings Lib "kernel32" _
   Alias "GetLogicalDriveStringsA" _
   (ByVal nBufferLength As Long, _
    ByVal lpBuffer As String) As Long

Declare Function GetDiskFreeSpaceEx Lib "kernel32" _
   Alias "GetDiskFreeSpaceExA" _
   (ByVal lpRootPathName As String, _
   lpFreeBytesAvailableToCaller As Currency, _
   lpTotalNumberOfBytes As Currency, _
   lpTotalNumberOfFreeBytes As Currency) As Long/font>
 Form Code
Add the following code to the form containing a combo (Combo1), and two command buttons (Command1 & Command2):

Option Explicit

Private Sub Command2_Click()

   Unload Me

End Sub


Private Sub Command1_Click()

  Dim BytesFreeToCalller As Currency
  Dim TotalBytes As Currency
  Dim TotalFreeBytes As Currency
  Dim TotalBytesUsed As Currency
  Dim RootPathName As String
  
 'the drive to find
  RootPathName = Combo1.List(Combo1.ListIndex)
  
 'get the drive's disk parameters
  Call GetDiskFreeSpaceEx(RootPathName, _
                                 BytesFreeToCalller, _
                                 TotalBytes, _
                                 TotalFreeBytes)
  
 'show the results, multiplying the returned
 'value by 10000 to adjust for the 4 decimal
 'places that the currency data type returns.
  Cls
  Print
  Print " Total Number Of Bytes:", _
        Format$(TotalBytes * 10000, "###,###,###,##0") & " bytes"

  Print " Total Free Bytes:", _
        Format$(TotalFreeBytes * 10000, "###,###,###,##0") & " bytes"
        
  Print " Free Bytes Available:", _
        Format$(BytesFreeToCalller * 10000, "###,###,###,##0") & " bytes"
        
  Print " Total Space Used :", _
        Format$((TotalBytes - TotalFreeBytes) * 10000, "###,###,###,##0") & " bytes"

End Sub


Private Sub Form_Load()

  Me.Move (Screen.Width - Me.Width) \ 2, (Screen.Height - Me.Height) \ 2
  LoadAvailableDrives Combo1
  Combo1.ListIndex = 1
  
End Sub


Private Sub LoadAvailableDrives(cmbo As ComboBox)

  Dim lpBuffer As String

 'get list of available drives
  lpBuffer = GetDriveString()

 'Separate the drive strings
 'and add to the combo. StripNulls
 'will continually shorten the
 'string. Loop until a single
 'remaining terminating null is
 'encountered.
  Do Until lpBuffer = Chr(0)
  
   'strip off one drive item
   'and add to the combo
    cmbo.AddItem StripNulls(lpBuffer)
    
  Loop
  
End Sub


Private Function GetDriveString() As String

  'returns string of available
  'drives each separated by a null
   Dim sBuffer As String
   
  'possible 26 drives, three characters each, plus trailing null
   sBuffer = Space$(26 * 4)
  
  If GetLogicalDriveStrings(Len(sBuffer), sBuffer) Then

     'do not trim off trailing null!
      GetDriveString = Trim$(sBuffer)
      
   End If

End Function


Private Function StripNulls(startstr As String) As String

 'Take a string separated by chr$(0)
 'and split off 1 item, shortening the
 'string so next item is ready for removal.
  Dim pos As Long

  pos = InStr(startstr$, Chr$(0))
  
  If pos Then
      
      StripNulls = Mid$(startstr, 1, pos - 1)
      startstr = Mid$(startstr, pos + 1, Len(startstr))
      Exit Function
    
  End If

End Function
 Comments
Run the project, select a drive and hit the button. The drive stats matching that shown in the same drives property sheet will be displayed. This code also provides the correct results on a standard FAT16 drive, assuming the operating system supports the call, as well as on NTFS partitions.

 
 

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