Vol (command)

vol

The Windows XP vol command
Developer(s)	DR, Microsoft, IBM, Toshiba, ReactOS Contributors
Initial release	March 1983; 41 years ago (1983-03)
Operating system	MS-DOS, PC DOS, MSX-DOS, FlexOS, SISNE plus, OS/2, eComStation, ArcaOS, DR DOS, ROM-DOS, 4690 OS, PTS-DOS, Windows, FreeDOS, ReactOS
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Command

In some operating systems, vol is a command within the command-line interpreters (shells) such as COMMAND.COM and cmd.exe. It is used to display the volume label and volume serial number of a logical drive, such as a hard disk partition or a floppy disk, if they exist.^[1]

Implementations

The ReactOS vol command

The command is available in various versions of DOS,^[2] DR FlexOS,^[3] IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS,^[4] IBM OS/2,^[5] Microsoft Windows,^[6] and ReactOS.^[7]

On MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 2 and later.^[8] Paragon Technology Systems PTS-DOS 2000 Pro also includes a vol implementation.^[9]

The Windows dir command also displays the volume label and serial number (if it has one) as part of the directory listing.

The command is also available in the EFI shell.^[10]

Syntax

vol [Drive:]

Arguments:

• Drive: This command-line argument specifies the drive letter of the disk for which to display the volume label and serial number.

Note:

• On Windows, the volume serial number is displayed only for disks formatted with MS-DOS version 4.0 or later.
• OS/2 allows the user to specify more than one drive. The vol command displays the volume labels consecutively.

Examples

IBM OS/2

[C:\]vol C:

The volume label in drive C is OS/2.
The Volume Serial Number is 0815:1611.

Microsoft Windows

C:\Users\root>vol C:
Volume in drive C is Windows
Volume Serial Number is 080F-100B

In the example above, if drive C: has no volume label, "has no label" is shown instead of "is Windows".

Supported file systems

• FAT12
• FAT16
• FAT32
• exFAT
• NTFS

See also

• Label (command) — Used to create, change and delete the disk volume label.
• List of DOS commands

References

1. MS-DOS and Windows command line vol command
2. Jamsa, Kris A. (1993), DOS: The Complete Reference, Osborne McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0078819040.
3. "FlexOS™ User's Guide" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-09-25.
4. "Unknown".^{[permanent dead link]}
5. "JaTomes Help - OS/2 Commands". Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
6. Microsoft TechNet Vol article
7. "Reactos/Reactos". GitHub. 4 November 2021.
8. Wolverton, Van (2003). Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 0-7356-1812-7.
9. "PTS-DOS 2000 Pro User Manual" (PDF). Buggingen, Germany: Paragon Technology GmbH. 1999. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-05-12. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
10. "EFI Shells and Scripting". Intel. Retrieved 2013-09-25.

Further reading

• Cooper, Jim (2001). Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition. Que Publishing. ISBN 978-0789725738.
• Tim O'Reilly; Troy Mott; Walter Glenn (1999). Windows 98 in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference. O'Reilly. ISBN 978-1565924864.
• John Paul Mueller (2007). Windows Administration at the Command Line for Windows Vista, Windows 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0470165799.

External links

• vol | Microsoft Docs