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Get file system information using fsutil

We can find file system information from windows command line using fsutil command. fsutil has different command line switches and among these fsinfo is the one we need to use to query file system information. Let’s see with examples how we can use ‘fsutil fsinfo‘ command.

List Drives

C:\>fsutil fsinfo drives
Drives: C:\ D:\ H:\

Find Drive Type

Using Fsutil command we can find if a drive is a local drive or mapped drive. The command is given below.

fsutil fsinfo drivetype drive_letter

Examples:

C:\>fsutil fsinfo drivetype D:
D: - Fixed Drive

C:\>fsutil fsinfo drivetype Z:
Z: - Remote/Network Drive

C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools>

Find File system of a drive

fsutil fsinfo volumeinfo drive_letter

Example:

H:\>fsutil fsinfo volumeinfo c:
Volume Name :
Volume Serial Number : 0x4c31bcb3
Max Component Length : 255
File System Name : NTFS
Supports Case-sensitive filenames
Preserves Case of filenames
Supports Unicode in filenames
Preserves & Enforces ACL's
Supports file-based Compression
Supports Disk Quotas
Supports Sparse files
Supports Reparse Points
Supports Object Identifiers
Supports Encrypted File System
Supports Named Streams

In the above example C: is local drive.  When I run this command on a network drive for which offline files is enabled, it shows the following information.

H:\>fsutil fsinfo volumeinfo h:
Volume Name : Offline
Volume Serial Number : 0x0
Max Component Length : 255
File System Name : *NT5CSC
Preserves Case of filenames
Supports Unicode in filenames

Get File system information for a NTFS drive

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo drive_letter

Dirve letter has to be a local NTFS drive. Otherwise you will get the error “The FSUTIL utility requires a local NTFS volume.”

This command shows the details like Version, Number of Sectors, Total Clusters, Free Clusters, Total Reserved, Bytes Per Sector, Bytes Per Cluster, Bytes Per FileRecord Segment, Clusters Per FileRecord Segment etc.

Get File System statistics:

fsutil fsinfo statistics drive_letter

This command shows details like Number of file reads, file writes, disk reads, disk writes, meta data reads, meta data writes etc.

2 comments… add one
  • christena

    Thank you! I have not seen the ntfsinfo parameter before and it was giving me a headache.

  • William WALLACE

    Very interesting but does not help me with a query identifying existing cluster size on a FAT drive. What is the command line for this?

    Substituting fat (or any variation) for ntfs in ntfsinfo gives an error. My OS is Windows 7 Pro and I’d appreciate any advice. The FAT32 drive/s in question is/re 32GB or larger and FAT format is necessary for PVR.

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