I need to get the list of all the files on a drive. I am using a recursive solution. But it is taking a lot of time. I was wondering that, is it possible to get the names and location of all the files on a NTFS drive from it's Master File Table? I think it will be very fast. Any suggestions?
When you get a list of all the files on an NTFS-formatted drive using a recursive solution, you are getting them from the MFT. There should be little disk IO outside of the MFT when simply retrieving a list of filenames and directories.
Before going down the path of determining the format of the MFT (which is available from a variety of places on the Internet) and writing code to read it directly, you should probably profile your code and determine that you aren't already CPU or IO bound.