Chopping BIG Files

  • Thread starter Thread starter SpookyET
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SpookyET

Are there any Microsoft people with intimate knowledge of NTFS/FAT32 in
here?
I'm wondering if it is possible to literally chop a big file into smaller
files, instead of copying data from the big file into smaller files and
delete the big file. If it is possible, does the Windows C API have an
I/O function for that, or do you have to create some really low level code
interfacing with the hard drive directly?
 
I've had to chop files hundreds of times and I've never once tried to
edit the MFT directly. It is certainly possible that you could mess with
the HD through some device IO calls and achieve what you are looking
for, but it would be pretty dangerous. This is similar to something like
Partition Magic, except they work on partions dynamically and not files.

Look up the DDK on MSDN. The DDK will have all of the API headers
and tools that you would need to write an application like what you are
talking about. Whether it can be done from user mode (likely not) would
be the big question. You'll probably need some sort of device driver of
your own or a service that is capable of talking with the kernel level device
IO API's.

PS > This isn't a C# question ;-)
 
Interesting question (even if it isn't C#). What you're wanting to do, as I
understand it, is take a directory that has a big file in it, generate more
directory entries that point to consecutive portions of the original file,
and delete the entry that points to the whole file. Right?

This would have been an interesting hack on a diskette back in the 1980s.
I'd be wary of messing up the filesystem when doing it on a hard disk in a
big operating system. But who knows? It probably can be done.
 
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