java

You need to call the specific keys in the registry files.
That is the only place that this data is stored.

There is a program that does this task, I don't know if it is using JAVA though.
Belarc Advisor www.belarc.com

After running the program, you get a web page that details the system.

I recommend that you look through the JAVA archives at www.builder.com.com
I believe thay had an article on extracting data from the registry.

Chas

the number of partitions you get with the method:

File roots[] = File.listRoots();
so you will have the file objects for c:, d:, e: and so on.

the operating system you can get from system properties:

String os = System.getProperty("os.name");

it will return the value such as "windows 2000".

cheers

Number 2 is a good answer. Basically the answer is you can't get the partitions. But you can probably get away with it by:

1) Getting the OS as described previously.
2) If windows, then use listRoots.
3) If anything else then load /etc/fstab, parse it and use this.

Most alternative OSes follow a UNIX like structure, especially the popular ones. The biggest OSes I can think of that might not would be:

EPOC, Palm, OS9, OS/2

OS9 you can ignore as the listRoots() method is Java 1.2. OS/2 I would imagine you can ignore, ditto for EPOC. Palm can probably be ignored as well.