How to detect a USB drive has been plugged in?

Question

I want to build a program that detects if a usb (or two or more) are plugged in (and copy all contents to any folder on a hard disk)

Any ideas? I have this,

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

But it is not the easy way (that I believe). I want something easy.

I have another idea (if (folder exist) then copy) something -- but there may be a problem with that, and I want a good solution.

There may also be a tool called SerialPort; can I use it? If so, how do I use it?

Answer 1

It is easy to check for removable devices. However, there's no guarantee that it is a USB device:

var drives = DriveInfo.GetDrives()
    .Where(drive => drive.IsReady && drive.DriveType == DriveType.Removable);

This will return a list of all removable devices that are currently accessible. More information:

• The DriveInfo class (msdn documentation)
• The DriveType enumeration (msdn documentation)

Answer 2

Here is a code that works for me, which is a part from the website above combined with my early trials: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/DriveDetector.aspx

This basically makes your form listen to windows messages, filters for usb drives and (cd-dvds), grabs the lparam structure of the message and extracts the drive letter.

protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
    {

        if (m.Msg == WM_DEVICECHANGE)
        {
            DEV_BROADCAST_VOLUME vol = (DEV_BROADCAST_VOLUME)Marshal.PtrToStructure(m.LParam, typeof(DEV_BROADCAST_VOLUME));
            if ((m.WParam.ToInt32() == DBT_DEVICEARRIVAL) &&  (vol.dbcv_devicetype == DBT_DEVTYPVOLUME) )
            {
                MessageBox.Show(DriveMaskToLetter(vol.dbcv_unitmask).ToString());
            }
            if ((m.WParam.ToInt32() == DBT_DEVICEREMOVALCOMPLETE) && (vol.dbcv_devicetype == DBT_DEVTYPVOLUME))
            {
                MessageBox.Show("usb out");
            }
        }
        base.WndProc(ref m);
    }

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] //Same layout in mem
    public struct DEV_BROADCAST_VOLUME
    {
        public int dbcv_size;
        public int dbcv_devicetype;
        public int dbcv_reserved;
        public int dbcv_unitmask;
    }

    private static char DriveMaskToLetter(int mask)
    {
        char letter;
        string drives = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"; //1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C
        int cnt = 0;
        int pom = mask / 2;
        while (pom != 0)    // while there is any bit set in the mask shift it right        
        {        
            pom = pom / 2;
            cnt++;
        }
        if (cnt < drives.Length)
            letter = drives[cnt];
        else
            letter = '?';
        return letter;
    }

Do not forget to add this:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

and the following constants:

    const int WM_DEVICECHANGE = 0x0219; //see msdn site
    const int DBT_DEVICEARRIVAL = 0x8000;
    const int DBT_DEVICEREMOVALCOMPLETE = 0x8004;
    const int DBT_DEVTYPVOLUME = 0x00000002;  

Answer 3

Microsoft API Code Pack. ShellObjectWatcher class.