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Need help with writing drive property

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  Need help with writing drive property GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-21 16:54 -0400
    Re: Need help with writing drive property "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2011-05-21 19:10 -0400
      Re: Need help with writing drive property GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-21 19:35 -0400
        Re: Need help with writing drive property "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2011-05-21 23:27 -0400
          Re: Need help with writing drive property GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 00:49 -0400
            Re: Need help with writing drive property GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 00:58 -0400
          Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 02:07 -0400
            Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2011-05-22 09:02 -0400
              Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 14:29 -0400
                Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2011-05-22 17:01 -0400
                  Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 18:28 -0400
                  Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 18:29 -0400
                    Re: [OT] Bolding text. Dee Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2011-05-23 10:54 +0100
                      Re: [OT] Bolding text. "Jim Mack" <no-uce-ube@mdxi.com> - 2011-05-23 09:33 -0400
                        Re: [OT] Bolding text. Helmut_Meukel <Helmut_Meukel@bn-hof.invalid> - 2011-05-23 17:48 +0200
                          Re: [OT] Bolding text. Helmut_Meukel <Helmut_Meukel@bn-hof.invalid> - 2011-05-23 18:00 +0200
                            Re: [OT] Bolding text. Dee Earley <dee.earley@icode.co.uk> - 2011-05-24 10:44 +0100
                    Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2011-05-23 08:51 -0400
                    Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-23 10:48 -0400
            Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2011-05-22 09:23 -0400
              Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 14:36 -0400
              Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 14:49 -0400
              Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 16:26 -0400
                Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2011-05-22 18:29 -0400
                  Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 18:33 -0400
                Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2011-05-22 18:36 -0400
                  Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 18:49 -0400
                    Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2011-05-22 20:48 -0400
                      Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-22 21:30 -0400
    Re: Need help with writing drive property "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2011-05-21 19:42 -0400
      Re: Need help with writing drive property GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-21 20:14 -0400
    Re: Need help with writing drive property - Final Approach GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2011-05-23 13:20 -0400

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#167 — Need help with writing drive property

I'm looking for a VB solution to put a value into a logical drive's 
StatusInfo property. I've tried using FSO but can't seem to be able to 
make it work due to not having any info for proper syntax to write. 
(Never did this before; just read only)

What I'm trying to do is place a temporary 'tag' on a specific drive so 
I can query the value via WMI Win32_DiskDrive.

Any help/direction would be most appreciated.

-- 
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

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#168

 According to the help, the StatusInfo property
of Win32_DiskDrive is read-only. I don't see any
properties that are R/W other than setting a
volume name. Why not just save a file to the
root folder?

| I'm looking for a VB solution to put a value into a logical drive's
| StatusInfo property. I've tried using FSO but can't seem to be able to
| make it work due to not having any info for proper syntax to write.
| (Never did this before; just read only)
|
| What I'm trying to do is place a temporary 'tag' on a specific drive so
| I can query the value via WMI Win32_DiskDrive.
|
| Any help/direction would be most appreciated.
|
| -- 
| Garry
|
| Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
| ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc
|
| 

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#169

Mayayana wrote :
> According to the help, the StatusInfo property
> of Win32_DiskDrive is read-only. I don't see any
> properties that are R/W other than setting a
> volume name. Why not just save a file to the
> root folder?

Thanks Mayayana! I'm not saving files and so your obvious suggestion 
doesn't apply.

I was looking for a way to let users choose a removeable drive to 
install an app that requires portable licensing to work with the USB 
device. I already have a working solution for USB memstiks (Removeable 
Disk) but now I need to add USB external drives (Local Fixed Disk).

What I've come up with so far is to list all drives via Win32_DiskDrive 
with InterfaceType "USB". Problem now is to get the selected drive's 
Drive letter. Any suggestions?

-- 
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

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#172

  This is really a VBS question, not a VB question.
I suppose you can use WMI from VB if you want to,
but you'll be dependent on the WMI service running.
(And WMI itself requires that the DCOM Server Process
Launcher service be running. I usually disable all that
on "civilian" PCs because DCOM -- and WMI -- are just
useless risks outside of corporate intranets. The only
software usage of WMI that I'm aware of is "quick and
dirty" system info. applets.)

Here's a VBS sample that should identify everything
you need about the available partitions.

Dim WMI, Col, Ob, DriveList
Set WMI = GetObject("WinMgmts:")
Set Col = WMI.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk")
  For Each Ob in Col
    DriveList = DriveList & Ob.DeviceID & " - " & Ob.VolumeName & " Type: " 
& Ob.DriveType & vbCrLf
   Next
Set Col = Nothing
Set WMI = Nothing
MsgBox DriveList

  I don't know why they call it a "LogicalDisk". It's a logical
drive or partition. Win32_DiskDrive is returning physical
disks. You might be able to separate the USB drives that
way, but you get a disk/hardware object rather than a partition
object, so there's no drive letter. With Win32_LogicalDisk you
get the drive letter and volume name, so that people can
recognize which drive they want. The DriveType will return 3
for hard disk partitions, 5 for optical, and 2 for removable.
So you should be able to just filter out the drives of
DriveType 2.

 (  I could have sworn I remembered you saying you were
going to get yourself a copy of the WMI help file. :)

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#173

Mayayana expressed precisely :
>   This is really a VBS question, not a VB question.
> I suppose you can use WMI from VB if you want to,
> but you'll be dependent on the WMI service running.
> (And WMI itself requires that the DCOM Server Process
> Launcher service be running. I usually disable all that
> on "civilian" PCs because DCOM -- and WMI -- are just
> useless risks outside of corporate intranets. The only
> software usage of WMI that I'm aware of is "quick and
> dirty" system info. applets.)
>
> Here's a VBS sample that should identify everything
> you need about the available partitions.
>
> Dim WMI, Col, Ob, DriveList
> Set WMI = GetObject("WinMgmts:")
> Set Col = WMI.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk")
>   For Each Ob in Col
>     DriveList = DriveList & Ob.DeviceID & " - " & Ob.VolumeName & " Type: " 
> & Ob.DriveType & vbCrLf
>    Next
> Set Col = Nothing
> Set WMI = Nothing
> MsgBox DriveList
>
>   I don't know why they call it a "LogicalDisk". It's a logical
> drive or partition. Win32_DiskDrive is returning physical
> disks. You might be able to separate the USB drives that
> way, but you get a disk/hardware object rather than a partition
> object, so there's no drive letter. With Win32_LogicalDisk you
> get the drive letter and volume name, so that people can
> recognize which drive they want. The DriveType will return 3
> for hard disk partitions, 5 for optical, and 2 for removable.
> So you should be able to just filter out the drives of
> DriveType 2.

I'm already doing this. Problem that's arisen is USB external drives 
are DriveType 3 (Local Fixed Disk) while USB memstiks are DriveType 2 
(Removable Disk). So filtering on these in "LogicalDisk" doesn't relate 
to the hardware found in "DiskDrive". The only thing I've seen from 
"DiskDrive" that appears anywhere in Windows UI is "DiskDrive.Name 
[Model]". This is the same info that shows up in the properties 
dialog>Hardware tab AllDrives list. So I was hoping there's an API that 
will return a drive letter for a specified drive name.
>
>  (  I could have sworn I remembered you saying you were
> going to get yourself a copy of the WMI help file. :)

Yes, I did say I was going to do that. However, I already know what 
you've shared here and so I'm not looking for WMI help.

-- 
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

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#174

> ..The only thing I've seen from "DiskDrive" that appears 
> anywhere in Windows UI is "DiskDrive.Name [Model]"...

Typo...

The above should read:

  ..anywhere in Windows UI is "DiskDrive.Caption [Model]"

where Caption or Model contains the same value.

-- 
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

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#175 — Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution

I've determined that WMI Win32_DiskDrive provides the Index for each 
drive. Also, I can filter it on InterfaceType "USB".

The Index appears to be the drive's position in the Drives enumerated 
by "DiskDrive" according to the order the drives were 'plugged in'. 
This indexing appears to not include "CD-ROM" drives.

I need to test this on several machines but it seems feasible to use 
FSO to iterate its Drives collection and filter for DriveType "1,2" and 
put the DriveLetter into an array. Then build the target drives path by 
getting the drive letter from the array using "DiskDrive.Index".

Does anyone foresee any pitfalls in the solution?

-- 
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

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#176 — Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution

"GS" <gs@somewhere.net> wrote in message news:ira8ut$6u3$1@dont-email.me...
> I've determined that WMI Win32_DiskDrive provides the Index for each 
> drive. Also, I can filter it on InterfaceType "USB".
>
> The Index appears to be the drive's position in the Drives enumerated by 
> "DiskDrive" according to the order the drives were 'plugged in'. This 
> indexing appears to not include "CD-ROM" drives.
>
> I need to test this on several machines but it seems feasible to use FSO 
> to iterate its Drives collection and filter for DriveType "1,2" and put 
> the DriveLetter into an array. Then build the target drives path by 
> getting the drive letter from the array using "DiskDrive.Index".
>
> Does anyone foresee any pitfalls in the solution?


Besides using FSO?  Consider using GetLogicalDrives or 
GetLogicalDriveStrings and GetDriveType Win32 API functions.  You might also 
be able to use DeviceIoControl or some other API function rather than WMI. 
As Mayanana said, WMI is a service and there is always a risk that it's been 
disabled or otherwise not running.

You might want to explain in more detail what you're really doing all this 
for.  So far, you've only said "I was looking for a way to let users choose 
a removeable drive to install an app that requires portable licensing to 
work with the USB device". I have no idea what that means and I'd guess 
nobody else does either. There might very well be an entirely different, and 
better, approach to doing whatever it is.

-- 
Mike
 

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#178 — Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution

MikeD was thinking very hard :
>
> "GS" <gs@somewhere.net> wrote in message news:ira8ut$6u3$1@dont-email.me...
>> I've determined that WMI Win32_DiskDrive provides the Index for each drive. 
>> Also, I can filter it on InterfaceType "USB".
>>
>> The Index appears to be the drive's position in the Drives enumerated by 
>> "DiskDrive" according to the order the drives were 'plugged in'. This 
>> indexing appears to not include "CD-ROM" drives.
>>
>> I need to test this on several machines but it seems feasible to use FSO to 
>> iterate its Drives collection and filter for DriveType "1,2" and put the 
>> DriveLetter into an array. Then build the target drives path by getting the 
>> drive letter from the array using "DiskDrive.Index".
>>
>> Does anyone foresee any pitfalls in the solution?
>
>
> Besides using FSO?  Consider using GetLogicalDrives or GetLogicalDriveStrings 
> and GetDriveType Win32 API functions.  You might also be able to use 
> DeviceIoControl or some other API function rather than WMI. As Mayanana said, 
> WMI is a service and there is always a risk that it's been disabled or 
> otherwise not running.

Thanks, Mike. Yes, I was looking for an API alternative here. I agree 
with Mayayana about using WMI service and so is why I started this 
post.

I'll look at the APIs you suggested and see if they will meet my needs.

>
> You might want to explain in more detail what you're really doing all this 
> for.  So far, you've only said "I was looking for a way to let users choose a 
> removeable drive to install an app that requires portable licensing to work 
> with the USB device". I have no idea what that means and I'd guess nobody 
> else does either. There might very well be an entirely different, and better, 
> approach to doing whatever it is.

Some of my apps can be 'portable' in that they can be 
installed/licensed to a USB memstik or USB external drive. It's a 
hardware locked licensing scheme I use and so I need to get USB Device 
info from the target drive. Going this route is at the user's option 
and so they must select the USB drive they wish to use. (My licensing 
scheme allows for 2 'seats' by default<g>)

-- 
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

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#182 — Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution

"GS" <gs@somewhere.net> wrote in message news:irbkgl$23g$1@dont-email.me...
> Some of my apps can be 'portable' in that they can be installed/licensed 
> to a USB memstik or USB external drive. It's a hardware locked licensing 
> scheme I use and so I need to get USB Device info from the target drive. 
> Going this route is at the user's option and so they must select the USB 
> drive they wish to use. (My licensing scheme allows for 2 'seats' by 
> default<g>)
>

So tell me (us) if I have this correct:

*Basically*, your app exists on removable media and the licensing (which I'm 
assuming means your app is at least less functional if not licensed) needs 
to be "valid" regardless of what computer that specific removeable media is 
attached to.

Is that close? If so, that's really kind of a bizarre licensing scheme. And 
if that's close, I do actually have some rough ideas. But obviously don't 
know if they'd suit your needs. Before presenting them, I'd like 
confirmation that I'm understanding your situation (because otherwise, 
they're moot ideas).

-- 
Mike
 

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#183 — Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution

MikeD used his keyboard to write :
>
> "GS" <gs@somewhere.net> wrote in message news:irbkgl$23g$1@dont-email.me...
>> Some of my apps can be 'portable' in that they can be installed/licensed to 
>> a USB memstik or USB external drive. It's a hardware locked licensing 
>> scheme I use and so I need to get USB Device info from the target drive. 
>> Going this route is at the user's option and so they must select the USB 
>> drive they wish to use. (My licensing scheme allows for 2 'seats' by 
>> default<g>)
>>
>
> So tell me (us) if I have this correct:
>
> *Basically*, your app exists on removable media and the licensing (which I'm 
> assuming means your app is at least less functional if not licensed) needs to 
> be "valid" regardless of what computer that specific removeable media is 
> attached to.
>
> Is that close? If so, that's really kind of a bizarre licensing scheme. And 
> if that's close, I do actually have some rough ideas. But obviously don't 
> know if they'd suit your needs. Before presenting them, I'd like confirmation 
> that I'm understanding your situation (because otherwise, they're moot 
> ideas).

That's pretty close, Mike. The licensing scheme only prevents the app 
from running on any other removable drive. So in effect, it simulates a 
'roam license' without the need for live activation every time it's 
used. If you think of the USB drive as a hardware 'dongle' then include 
that the app is on it, then you've got the picture.

What I need is to service this scenario...

My app provides the option for users to create a 'roam license' only if 
their app is already installed and licensed to a PC.

  This obviates the need for a 'trial' version in a 'roam' profile
  since the PC installed as a trial and, if licensed, user doesn't
  need another trial of the same app.
  (Thus the default 2-seats allowed with a valid license)
  (Multi-seat licensing is also supported)

The app prompts the user to 'plug in' the target USB drive, and click 
OK after it's connected.

The user is then presented with a dialog listing all valid candidate 
USB drives where the user selects the one they want to use.

The app then prepares a folder on the target USB drive and copies all 
app files to there, along with a set of encrypted 'license' files.

When the folder is set up and ready to use, the user is prompted to 
register the new install to activate the license. This opens my 
UserGuide to the reg.htm for the subject app, where they fill out the 
reg info and 'Submit'. This, in turn, sends me an email with all the 
reg/license info. I process that into a new license string and compile 
a LicenseKey_<SeatID>.EXE to email back to the user with instruction to 
save it to the app folder on the target drive and run it there.

The app won't run on the USB drive until its license is 'activated'.

The user can initially install the app to a USB drive attached to their 
PC and license it to that PC. It will run as long as it's being used on 
that PC. Moving the USB drive to another PC causes startup to abort as 
it can't validate the license because it doesn't have a 'roam license' 
profile. As a result, it tries to validate against the host PC's 
validation info and fails.

The info I need to collect to make this 'roam' thing work for both 
drive types 2,3 is...

  PnPDeviceID, Drive Index, Total Size, Drive Letter

I'd be happy to entertain any suggestions you might have!

-- 
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

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#184 — Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution

BTW
How were you able to boldface in your post?

-- 
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

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#191 — Re: [OT] Bolding text.

On 22/05/2011 23:29, GS wrote:
> BTW
> How were you able to boldface in your post?

Some clients treat *asterisks* as bold markers.
Some also honour _underscores_ for underlining.

-- 
Dee Earley (dee.earley@icode.co.uk)
i-Catcher Development Team
http://www.icode.co.uk/icatcher/

iCode Systems

(Replies direct to my email address will be ignored.
Please reply to the group.)

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#193 — Re: [OT] Bolding text.

Dee Earley wrote:
> On 22/05/2011 23:29, GS wrote:
>> BTW
>> How were you able to boldface in your post?
> 
> Some clients treat *asterisks* as bold markers.
> Some also honour _underscores_ for underlining.

And those often also respect /slashes/ for /italics/

-- 
        Jim

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#195 — Re: [OT] Bolding text.

Jim Mack formulierte Montag :
> Dee Earley wrote:
>> On 22/05/2011 23:29, GS wrote:
>>> BTW
>>> How were you able to boldface in your post?
>> 
>> Some clients treat *asterisks* as bold markers.
>> Some also honour _underscores_ for underlining.
>
> And those often also respect /slashes/ for /italics/

Problems may arise if if the bold, underscored or italic text is
abbreviated as in /lat./ vs. /latin/.

Helmut.

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#196 — Re: [OT] Bolding text.

Helmut_Meukel tried this :
> Jim Mack formulierte Montag :
>> Dee Earley wrote:
>>> On 22/05/2011 23:29, GS wrote:
>>>> BTW
>>>> How were you able to boldface in your post?
>>> 
>>> Some clients treat *asterisks* as bold markers.
>>> Some also honour _underscores_ for underlining.
>> 
>> And those often also respect /slashes/ for /italics/
>
> Problems may arise if if the bold, underscored or italic text is
> abbreviated as in /lat./ vs. /latin/.
>

My newsreader didn't interpret the slash after the dot of lat. as
end of italics and diplayed it instead; and then - because it displayed
still italics - displayed the slash before latin, too.
(I use MesNews). How did other Newsreaders?

Helmut.

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#198 — Re: [OT] Bolding text.

On 23/05/2011 17:00, Helmut_Meukel wrote:
> Helmut_Meukel tried this :
>> Jim Mack formulierte Montag :
>>> Dee Earley wrote:
>>>> On 22/05/2011 23:29, GS wrote:
>>>>> BTW
>>>>> How were you able to boldface in your post?
>>>>
>>>> Some clients treat *asterisks* as bold markers.
>>>> Some also honour _underscores_ for underlining.
>>>
>>> And those often also respect /slashes/ for /italics/
>>
>> Problems may arise if if the bold, underscored or italic text is
>> abbreviated as in /lat./ vs. /latin/.
>>
>
> My newsreader didn't interpret the slash after the dot of lat. as
> end of italics and diplayed it instead; and then - because it displayed
> still italics - displayed the slash before latin, too.
> (I use MesNews). How did other Newsreaders?

Thunderbird (3.1.10) handled it fine.

-- 
Dee Earley (dee.earley@icode.co.uk)
i-Catcher Development Team
http://www.icode.co.uk/icatcher/

iCode Systems

(Replies direct to my email address will be ignored.
Please reply to the group.)

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#192 — Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution

"GS" <gs@somewhere.net> wrote in message news:irc2ic$n7$1@dont-email.me...
> BTW
> How were you able to boldface in your post?

I didn't know I had. I see it, and posted it as, plain text.

-- 
Mike
 

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#194 — Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution

GS formulated the question :
> BTW
> How were you able to boldface in your post?

Okay, thanks to all!

-- 
Garry

Free usenet access at http://www.eternal-september.org
ClassicVB Users Regroup! comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

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#177 — Re: Need help with writing drive property: Possible solution

I found the answer, but it's very ugly:

http://www.vistax64.com/powershell/125429-associating-wmi-disk-classes.html

  It turns out that you need to connect the disk IDs to
the logical partitions with Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition
using "ASSOCIATORS OF"

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