PowerShell Check Disk Space – Win32_LogicalDisk

PowerShell Scripts – Check Disk with Win32_LogicalDisk

Our mission is to investigate and interrogate a computer’s logical disk.  Goals include discovering the size of each volume, and how much free space is available.  We also have pure PowerShell goals, for example, to examine the ‘Select’ statement, and to control the display with -groupby, |sort and -auto.

Topics for Get-WmiObject Win32_LogicalDisk

• Trusty Twosome (Get-Help and Get-Member)
• Example 1:  To Display Logical Disk Information
• Example 2:  Display Disk Size and FreeSpace
• Example 3:  PowerShell Innovations
• Example 4:  Win32_DiskPartition

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Trusty Twosome (Get-Help and Get-Member)

Each new PowerShell command that you discover will benefit from being interrogated by what I call the ‘Trusty Twosome’.  I guarantee that if you research with Get-Help and Get-Member then you will reveal new scripting possibilities for Get-WmiObject Win32_LogicalDisk.  Let us start with Get-Help.

Preparation with PowerShell’s Get-Help

Before we use PowerShell’s Win32_LogicalDisk, let us investigate the master cmdlet Get-WmiObject.  In particular, we need to understand the syntax of parameters such as -Class and -ComputerName.  Incidentally, you can use the alias gwmi instead of Get-WmiObject.

Note 1: If you prefer to see examples append -full, thus: help Get-WmiObject -full

How to Research Get-Wmi Object Disk Classes

Note 2: The above script is setup so that you can easily edit $Type, for example, "Win32_Disk".  See more on the $_ .name variable.

Example 1: To Display Logical Disk Information

Those with a VBScript background may be more familiar with query and select.  This achieves the same result by using just the -query parameter combined with an SQL-Like select statement.

Research Properties with Get-Member

Note 3: If you enjoy aliases then try: gwmi Win32_logicaldisk| gm.

Note 4: If you are fond of filters: gwmi Win32_logicaldisk| gm -Membertype property.

Get-Member (gm) reveals a whole host of properties that you don’t normally see in the Disk Manager.

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Example 2 – Display Disk Size and FreeSpace

Following the above research, we now have extra information about the properties of Win32_logicaldisk, consequently we create a PowerShell script which collects disk space statistics.

Note  Out-GridView: PowerShell v 2.0 introduces a new cmdlet to control data display.  See more on how to pipe the results into out-GridView.

Example 2a – Display Disk Size and FreeSpace

Warning!  Confession!  One day I was just playing and made this more script which achieves the same as the above, however it does prepare us for a more complicated script below.

In the example below, I introduce a variable called $Item to control the output.  If you would like to refine the output to your specification, then research with Get-Member.  The parameter -auto helps to ‘tighten’ the data display.

Example 2b – Controlling the Decimals

This script is a digression which introduces ‘Expression’ to calculate freespace.  It also employs the -f format to control the decimal places (N0) and the percentage (P0).

Note 5: These scripts use localhost, you could change, or else remove this parameter.  See also Get-PSDrive method.

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Example 3: PowerShell Innovations

 i) The following example provides structure to the data thanks to the -groupby command in the last line.

ii) However, this example’s neatest technical achievement is:
Select $([string]::Join(‘,’, $Item)).  This means we can use one variable, $Item, to control both the properties for the select statement, and the output of Format-Table.

iii) It also introduces the idea of interrogating other machines on the network, for this it uses the -computerName, incidentally, -computer works just as well.  Naturally, the first thing to alter in the script below is:
-computer YourMachine.

Example 3b: Where Command Added

The new feature of the example below is the ‘Where MediaType’ filter.  By now I hope that you have started adjusting the script according to your needs.

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Example 4: Win32_DiskPartition

The first purpose of this script is to remind you that WMI can access at least 500 win32 objects, of which 20 contain the word ‘Disk’.  The second purpose is to show what information is revealed by a specific object namely: Win32_DiskPartion.

Learning Points

Note 6: Remember Get-Member.  Here is a classic situation to employ Get-Member to discover what other properties are available for fine-tuning $Item.  This is the command to explore:

Note 7: The basis of this script was kindly supplied by Jimmy May.  Please send me your ideas for scripts.  See more on disk problems.

Summary of PowerShell with Win32_LogicalDisk

The central feature of this page is the WMI command Get-WmiObject Win32_LogicalDisk.  From that base we modify the script to select properties such as, FreeSpace and disk size.  Along the journey we sharpen our skills to filter with ‘Where’, and also to collate the data with -groupby.  The result is a neat PowerShell script which collects disk space information.

See More Microsoft PowerShell WMI Examples:

• Home   • PowerShell Get-WmiObject   • Win32_ComputerSystem   • Free WMI Monitor

• WMI Class  • [WMI] Type  • Win32_printer   • Win32_product   • SystemRestore   • WMI Services

• WMI Disk   • DNS   • Memory  • PowerShell -Filter   • Check Server UpTime   • ConvertToDateTime

Please email me if you have a script examples. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.