Re: use a drives guid instead of its letter - where is the drive root ?

"R.Wieser" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Vanguard,
> 
>> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file
>> Naming Conventions (3rd bullet)
>> Fully Qualified vs. Relative Paths ("A UNC name ...")
> 
> Thank you.  The above one sure looks like it supports your stance in that a 
> volume GUID used like I showed conforms to the UNC specs.
> 
> Now we can continue with my "if its an UNC than why doesn't it behave like 
> one ?" remark/question - like also in the subjectline / initial post 
> ofcourse.

Comes back to the UNC pointing to the shared resource on a host, like a
folder, not to the drive itself.  In fact, you can also anchor File
Explorer to a folder on a drive as the "root", like:

explorer.exe /root,c:\temp

However, with File Explorer, it reads the file system, so it can find
the root of the drive rather than the root specified for the object
(folder).  When using a UNC, you are also specifying the root object as
the shared resource (folder).  While we Windows users have used "root"
to mean the root folder of a drive, "root" also means whatever anchor
you specify.  You can also specify the root object of a mount point as a
folder.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/assign-a-mount-point-folder-path-to-a-drive

I haven't used this, but I suspect you cannot move back of the mount
point, either, just like with a UNC.  The mount point is the root
specified, like a folder object.

Perhaps the underlying issue you're trying to resolve is the drive
letter assignment for a USB drive can change.  One time you plug it in,
and it's drive F:, but another time it's G:, because something plugged
in already had F: assigned to it.  While I've not used it, I've seen the
following recommended in trying to manage USB drive letter assignments
where you can try to keep the same drive letter to the same USB drive:

https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html

Seems a bit cumbersome, but some folks want or need fixed USB drive
letters.  When I needed to find a USB drive regardless of its drive
letter, I did the for-loop script method in a batch file of looking for
the fingerprint file.  No having to install more software to compensate
for variable USB drive letters, but I do have to manage the fingerprint
files on multiple USB drives.  You could also use unique volume IDs,
too, on which to scan, or a combo of volume ID and fingerprint file.
For scripts, I use a fingerprint file to identify the targeted USB
drive.  I mostly use unique volume IDs for my own recognition of which
drive (internal or removable) is for what use, but I do make the volIDs
unique.