How to know the contents of COMPUTER (windows 7) using Python?

Question

I wanted to find out a simpler version to check if there is any USB device plugged in so I tried to iterate over the contents of COMPUTER. However i could not find the path for [My] Computer, so i just tried out the following:

import os
contents = os.listdir("Computer")

But the program threw an error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Python33/usb.py", line 3, in <module>
folder = os.listdir("Computer")
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 3] The system cannot find the path specified: 
'Computer\\*.*'

Can anyone tell me how can i resolve this problem?

You may want to take a look at this post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8110310/simple-way-to-query-connected-usb-devices-info-in-python — AChampion, Mar 31 '15 at 05:57
[My ]Computer isn't actually a directory, it's a convenience that explorer shows for listing relevant devices. — AChampion, Mar 31 '15 at 05:58

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 31 '15 at 06:46

import os
import string

letters = list(string.ascii_lowercase) #Just a list of all the lowercase letters

def list_subtract(list1, list2): #Function to return all entries in list1 subtracted by the entries in list2
        list_difference = []
        for x in list1:
                if x not in list2:
                        list_difference.append(x)
        return list_difference

def devices():
        not_drives = []
        for x in letters:
                try:
                        drive = os.listdir('%(test_drive)s:' % {'test_drive' : x}) #It tries os.listdir() for all 26 drive letters
                except (FileNotFoundError, PermissionError): #If it recieves a FileNotFoundError (Drive doesn't exist) or a PermissionError (Drive is busy)
                        not_drives.append(x) #Puts that drive letter in a list of all drive letters that don't correspond to a drive
        return list_subtract(letters, not_drives) #returns all letters - letters that aren't drives

print(devices())

My program uses the try statement, meaning it will execute the os.listdir(), and if it returns one of thee two errors I specified in the except clause, it will append the drive letter that caused that error to a list, then return the list. I didn't test it much, so if there are any other errors that you receive during testing, you may want to add those to the except. There is probably a more efficient way to do this, but it works, right? Good enough for me.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 19 '15 at 08:21

0

import string
import os

drive_letters = []
allchars = string.ascii_lowercase
for x in allchars:
    if os.path.exists(x + ":"):
        drive_letters.append(x)

answered May 19 '15 at 08:21

AkaiShuichi

144
1
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How to know the contents of COMPUTER (windows 7) using Python?

2 Answers2