Question

How can I convert a path like

\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows

into its corresponding virtual path? (like c:\Windows in this case)

Answer 1

Personally I prefer the native way:

function GetHDDDevicesWithDOSPath:TStringlist;
var
  i: integer;
  root: string;
  device: string;
  buffer: string;
begin
  setlength(buffer, 1000);
  result:=TStringlist.create;
  for i := Ord('c') to Ord('z') do
  begin
    root := Char(i) + ':';
    if (QueryDosDevice(PChar(root), pchar(buffer), 1000) <> 0) then
    begin
      device := pchar(buffer);
      result.add(format('%s = %s\',[device, root ]));
    end;
  end;
end;

NB: This code sample is taken from: http://www.delphipraxis.net/165249-auflistung-devices.html

This will return a map between logical drive and path. In my case:

\Device\HarddiskVolume2 = c:\
\Device\HarddiskVolume3 = d:\
\Device\IsoCdRom0 = e:\
\Device\CdRom0 = f:\
\Device\hgfs\;Z:0000000000084af9\vmware-host\Shared Folders = z:\

You have to replace “\device\harddisk” part in your path with coresponding drive letter.

Please, note drive letters are user dependent.
Some useful links:

• Defining an MS-DOS Device Name
• Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces
• coverting physical drive to logical drive how to?