How to list all files on all hard drives with output in MS-DOS batch?

Question

How can I list all files (including system and hidden) on all hard drives (not removable drives)?

I think in something like a:

dir -a -h *.* /s > file.txt

but this is for the specific drive where I'm.

How can I do something like that but with C:, D:, etc, but I don't know the DOS's name of the drivers, and i need a .bat to do this (an automatic listing). Implementer can't also know the names of drivers.

Answer 1

There is a program that can detect CD drives (FINDCD.EXE) that comes on some boot disks (including the Windows 98 Emergency Boot Disk) which you can use in a batch file to skip them:

@echo off
findcd.exe
if (%1)==() goto start

:dirit
if not exist %1:\*.* goto done
if (%1)==(%CDROM%) goto done
dir /a/s/o %1:\*.* >> c:\Files.txt
goto done

:start
for %i in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) do call %0 %i
goto done

:done

I just threw this together off the top of my head (with no testing since I am currently in Windows), but it should do the trick for the most part. Note that floppy drives are always assigned a drive letter starting with A while hard-drives always start at C, so this skips A and B.

There is also a program that can detect RAM drives (FINDRAMD.EXE) which you can use to detect and skip RAM drives if you have those, but that requires more work (and a separate batch file). Look at SETRAMD.BAT which is usually included for an example.

Answer 2

If you are only using DOS then here is a way to detect the type of drives attached:

http://www.dostips.com/DtCodeSnippets.php#Snippets.DrivesAndTypes

This doesn't work from Windows 7 Command Prompt so I have been unable to expand it further but it shouldn't be too difficult to add a loop to test for fixed disks and perform the dir.

Answer 3

You're very lucky. I still had my old DS.BTM script (a cut down and modernized version of a SYSINF.BAT that I picked up many years ago) on one machine, from which this is an excerpt. This requires JP Software's 4DOS, which is now freeware. As you can see, it picks up the LASTDISK value from DOS, and explicitly avoids removable and network drives.

@echo off
loadbtm on
do d = %@ascii[A] to %@ascii[%_lastdisk]

   iff %@ready[%@char[%d]:] EQ 1 then

       iff %@removable[%@char[%d]:] NE 1 .AND. %@remote[%@char[%d]:] NE 1 then

           dir /s /a: %@char[%d]:\

       endiff

   endiff

enddo

The people who have mistaken DOS for Windows in other answers will be pleased to know that this 4DOS script — taken from a twenty year old SYSINF.BAT script for 4DOS which I updated to newer versions of 4DOS and then ported to 4OS2 — still works, just the same as on 4DOS, with JP Software's TCC/LE on Windows NT 6.1.

Answer 4

so here is a command line method. Just use %% instead of % in a batch

for %d in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) do (ifexist %d: (dir -a -h %d:\*.* /s > %d.txt))

Answer 5

This can do the trick to check removable drivers without medias! http://www.ericphelps.com/batch/samples/adrive.bat.txt. It's a not documented function!

Answer 6

My answer requires administrator rights. But in a BAT file run this:

echo list volume | diskpart

or if you want only the hard drives run this:

echo list volume | diskpart | Find /I "Partition"

In my script I needed a list of removable media so I could update all of my thumb drives at once. The nice thing about this is each drive is updated at the same time concurrently.

@echo off  
setlocal  

ECHO Searching for removable media. . .  

for /f "usebackq tokens=3 delims= " %%a in (`ECHO List Volume ^| DISKPART ^| FIND /I "Removable"`) do call :Launch %%a  

GOTO:EOF  

:Launch  
  set USB=%1:  
  ECHO Checking drive %USB%   
  IF NOT EXIST %USB%\MDT.bat ECHO Drive %USB% NOT MDT drive && GOTO:EOF  
  ECHO Found thumb drive starting Synch...  
  start %~dp1\Local_MDT_to_USB.bat %USB%  
GOTO:EOF