From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,29e0b02504ecfa9c X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-04-29 08:12:35 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-out.nuthinbutnews.com!propagator-sterling!news-in.nuthinbutnews.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!spamfinder.gnilink.net!nwrddc01.gnilink.net.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "Frank J. Lhota" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <3CCAC0DB.32090922@otelco.net> <3CCCAAB7.1AA28434@otelco.net> Subject: Re: Reading raw disks (Windows) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4807.1700 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4807.1700 Message-ID: Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 15:12:34 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 141.157.176.41 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verizon.net X-Trace: nwrddc01.gnilink.net 1020093154 141.157.176.41 (Mon, 29 Apr 2002 11:12:34 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 11:12:34 EDT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:23219 Date: 2002-04-29T15:12:34+00:00 List-Id: It's possible, but you're in an area where MS failed miserably in the area of portability. Under WinNT/2000/XP, you can get a handle to the raw disk by calling CreateFile() with a file name of the form \\.\PHYSICALDRIVEx where x is the physical disk number (disk numbers start at 0). To get a handle to the raw data for a disk partition, use \\.\Z: where Z is the drive letter for the partition. Can we get a handle to this data in Win 95/Win 98? Yes, but a different (and officially undocumented) naming convention is used. I've got to go through a stack of old issues of Dr. Dobbs Journal to find the Win 95 way of doing this.