Mounting Points
A mounting point is a name that can be used to access a volume. When the filesystem driver mounts a volume, it must make that volume accessible by creating a mounting point for it.
Windows:
Mounting points are global (visible in all user sessions).
Types of Mounting Points
There are a handful of different mounting point types, each of which exposes volumes in a slightly different manner:
- Drive letter mounting points
- UNC path mounting points
- Folder mounting points
Each type of mounting point is discussed in more detail below.
Drive Letter Mounting Points
Drive letter mounting points are one of the more commonly-used mounting point types thanks to users' familiarity with them. To create a drive letter mounting point, pass a string composed of a single character in the A-Z range followed by a colon (e.g., Z:) for the mount method's MountPoint parameter.
UNC Path Mounting Points
UNC path mounting points make a volume available via a specific name, and unlike other mounting points types, they are not displayed anywhere in Windows Explorer; the UNC path must already be known.
UNC path mounting points consist of the \\.\ prefix, followed by a name (e.g., \\.\VirtualDrive1). The class methods expect just the name (i.e., the UNC path with the \\.\ prefix omitted). So to add a new UNC path mounting point like, e.g., \\.\VirtualDrive1, call the mount method and pass VirtualDrive1 for the MountPoint parameter.
Folder Mounting Points
A folder mounting point makes a volume accessible through a folder located on another (pre-existing) NTFS volume. Folder mounting points are always visible to all users in the system, and their creation requires administrative privileges.
To create a folder mounting point using the mount method, pass the target folder's absolute path for the MountPoint parameter (e.g., C:\MountedDrives\MyMountingPoint). The target folder must already exist, must reside on an NTFS volume, and must be empty; otherwise, the call will fail.
Linux:
A virtual drive / filesystem is mounted to a directory, which must exist at the time of mounting and be empty; otherwise, the call will fail.