How to read raw block from an USB storage device with Delphi?

Question

I'm dealing with an USB storage device that contains a proprietary file system. So, I need to read these device's 512 bytes blocks to implement a viewer for this filesystem.

How should I go about this? Is there some material on it using Delphi?

Answer 1

I hate components so here is some code

 var 
    RawMBR : array [0..511] of byte;
    btsIO  : DWORD;
 begin
  hDevice := CreateFile('\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1', GENERIC_READ,
      FILE_SHARE_READ or FILE_SHARE_WRITE, nil, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, 0);
    if hDevice <> INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE then
    begin
      SetFilePointer(hDevice,512 * 0,nil,FILE_BEGIN); // replace 0 with sector that you wish to read
      ReadFile(hDevice, RawMBR[0], 512, btsIO, nil);
      CloseHandle(hDevice);
    end;
  end;

Answer 2

Did you try RawDiskAccess component, source for Delphi 7 here