Import-Csv Cannot Find Drive, A Drive with the Name '"C' Does not Exist

Drive with the Name ‘”C’ Does not Exist

When starting write a PowerShell script. We want to prompt to enter a user list (.csv) using the Read-Host cmdlet. We add the file path by right clicking the file and choose copy as path and pasting into the below command. Looks like this: “C:\users.csv”.

This makes life easier as we can drag, drop or copy/paste rather than full typing the path.

PS C:\> $users = Read-Host "What is the file path of the csv file"
What is the file path of the csv file: "C:\users.csv"

PS C:\> Import-Csv -Path $users

Then we import using Import-Csv cmdlet. However, when we do that, it is saying below error:

Import-Csv : Cannot find drive. A drive with the name ‘”C’ does not exist.
At line:1 char:1
+ Import-Csv -Path $users
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (“C:String) [Import-Csv], DriveNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DriveNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ImportCsvCommand

The problem is that PowerShell keeps throwing errors, saying it can’t find the drive “X:. This seems to be being caused by the quotes around the path. PowerShell treating the quote as part of the path rather than just a quote.

PS C:\> $users
"C:\users.csv"

If we add the path without quotes, it will work just fine. Here is how it is captured:

PS C:\> $users = Read-Host "What is the file path of the csv file"
What is the file path of the csv file: C:\users.csv
PS C:\> Import-Csv -Path $users

OldUPN                                  NewUPN
------                                  ------
[email protected]    [email protected]
[email protected]    [email protected]
[email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]   [email protected]

Read-Host treats the variable type a string, so you are adding the quotes as part of your entry to Read-Host will lead the issue. To fix it, you can replace the quotations in your path so that Import-Csv sees it without quotes. See below example .

$users = Read-Host "What is the file path of the csv file"
$users = $users.trim('"')
Import-Csv -Path $users.trim('"')

PS C:\> $users = Read-Host "What is the file path of the csv file"
What is the file path of the csv file: "C:\users.csv"

PS C:\> $users = $users.trim('"')

PS C:\> $users
C:\users.csv

PS C:\> Import-Csv -Path $users

OldUPN                                  NewUPN
------                                  ------
[email protected]    [email protected]
[email protected]    [email protected]
[email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]   [email protected]

# Shorten your script
# Import-Csv -Path $users.trim('"')

Alternatively, you can use the below method to remove the double quotes from the user’s input strings.

$users = Read-Host "What is the file path of the csv file"
$users = $users.Replace('"', '')
Import-Csv -Path $users

PS C:\> $users = Read-Host "What is the file path of the csv file"
What is the file path of the csv file: "C:\users.csv"
PS C:\> $users = $users.Replace('"', '')
PS C:\> Import-Csv -Path $users

OldUPN                                  NewUPN
------                                  ------
[email protected]    [email protected]
[email protected]    [email protected]
[email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]   [email protected]

Conclusion

When running a PowerShell script requires user input:

Educate users enter input without the double quotes.
Or you can edit your codes to remove the doube quotes, then you don’t need to care about user imput with or without double quotes.

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