Vol Command Availability

The vol command is available from within the Command Prompt in all Windows operating systems including Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and older versions of Windows.  The vol command is also a DOS command available in MS-DOS. However, the availability of certain command switches and other command syntax differs from operating system to operating system.

Vol Command Syntax

The vol command syntax in Windows takes the following form: vol [drive:] [/?]

drive: The letter of the drive that you want to view the volume label and volume serial number for. /? The help switch with the vol command to show detailed help about the command. Executing vol /? is the same as using the help command to execute help vol.

Vol Command Examples

Here are some examples that show how you might use this command:

Volume Details of a Different Drive

In this example, the command is used to display the volume label and volume serial number for the e drive. The result displayed on the screen will look something like this: The volume label in this example is reported as Seagate and the volume serial number as E096-4125. Those results will differ when you run the vol command on your computer.

Volume Details of the Current Drive

Using the vol command without specifying a drive, like in this example and screenshot above, returns the volume label and volume serial number of the current drive. In this example, the C drive has the volume label of Windows, and the volume serial number is 06D4-EEBD:

The volume label of a drive is necessary information for a few commands, including the format command and the convert command. The dir command also shows the volume label and volume serial number of a drive before displaying the drive’s contents.