FlushFileBuffers as good as CloseHandle then CreateFile at saving data to disk?

Question

For a file on disk, is the Win32 function FlushFileBuffers as reliable and certain as closing the file using CloseHandle then re-opening the file using CreateFile?

Are there circumstances where CloseHandle then CreateFile are better because they save the data correctly to disk when FlushFileBuffers does not?

Answer 1

It is better, CloseHandle() doesn't flush the file system cache write buffers. Beware of the cost, it can take a long time to get the data to the disk. The FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING option for CreateFile allows you to avoid flushing. But it is very expensive and difficult to get right due to the limitations on the written data.