Read specific sector on hard drive using C language on windows

Question

i have tried this code it works when i read a sector from an USB flash drive but it does'nt work with any partiton on hard drive , so i want to know if it's the same thing when you try to read from usb or from hard drive

int ReadSector(int numSector,BYTE* buf){

int retCode = 0;
BYTE sector[512];
DWORD bytesRead;
HANDLE device = NULL;

device = CreateFile("\\\\.\\H:",    // Drive to open
                    GENERIC_READ,           // Access mode
                    FILE_SHARE_READ,        // Share Mode
                    NULL,                   // Security Descriptor
                    OPEN_EXISTING,          // How to create
                    0,                      // File attributes
                    NULL);                  // Handle to template

if(device != NULL)
{
    SetFilePointer (device, numSector*512, NULL, FILE_BEGIN) ;

    if (!ReadFile(device, sector, 512, &bytesRead, NULL))
    {
        printf("Error in reading disk\n");
    }
    else
    {
        // Copy boot sector into buffer and set retCode
        memcpy(buf,sector, 512);
        retCode=1;
    }

    CloseHandle(device);
    // Close the handle
}

return retCode;}

Answer 1

The problem is the sharing mode. You have specified FILE_SHARE_READ which means that nobody else is allowed to write to the device, but the partition is already mounted read/write so it isn't possible to give you that sharing mode. If you use FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE it will work. (Well, provided the disk sector size is 512 bytes, and provided the process is running with administrator privilege.)

You're also checking for failure incorrectly; CreateFile returns INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE on failure rather than NULL.

I tested this code successfully:

#include <windows.h>

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
    int retCode = 0;
    BYTE sector[512];
    DWORD bytesRead;
    HANDLE device = NULL;
    int numSector = 5;

    device = CreateFile(L"\\\\.\\C:",    // Drive to open
                        GENERIC_READ,           // Access mode
                        FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE,        // Share Mode
                        NULL,                   // Security Descriptor
                        OPEN_EXISTING,          // How to create
                        0,                      // File attributes
                        NULL);                  // Handle to template

    if(device == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
    {
        printf("CreateFile: %u\n", GetLastError());
        return 1;
    }

    SetFilePointer (device, numSector*512, NULL, FILE_BEGIN) ;

    if (!ReadFile(device, sector, 512, &bytesRead, NULL))
    {
        printf("ReadFile: %u\n", GetLastError());
    }
    else
    {
        printf("Success!\n");
    }

    return 0;
}