Question

I find a lot of VB6 examples out there, and a few C# examples, but no concrete solution in VB.NET. Simply put, I need to get the next available drive letter in as few lines of code as possible. Anyone have a good example?

Answer 1

Try something like this:

Public Function FindNextAvailableDriveLetter() As String
' build a string collection representing the alphabet
Dim alphabet As New StringCollection()

Dim lowerBound As Integer = Convert.ToInt16("a"C)
Dim upperBound As Integer = Convert.ToInt16("z"C)
For i As Integer = lowerBound To upperBound - 1
    Dim driveLetter As Char = ChrW(i)
    alphabet.Add(driveLetter.ToString())
Next

' get all current drives
Dim drives As DriveInfo() = DriveInfo.GetDrives()
For Each drive As DriveInfo In drives
    alphabet.Remove(drive.Name.Substring(0, 1).ToLower())
Next

If alphabet.Count > 0 Then
    Return alphabet(0)
Else
    Throw New ApplicationException("No drives available.")
End If
End Function

Source: CodeKeep