How do I access a raw sector of disk in XP with a c program?

Question

I want to know that how to access a sector of the hard disk in Windows XP with a C program?

Answer 1

You will need to open the raw disk device, ideally with the Windows API rather than any part of the standard C file I/O library. You would then use the Windows API to read and write (but only if you are careful) the raw sectors. To get write access, the disk must usually not be mounted. To do this at all, you need privileges granted to Administrators.

Start at the MSDN documentation for CreateFile(), and pay careful attention to the section titled "Physical Disks and Volumes". The pages on Naming a File and DOS device names may also be interesting.