Creating a Backup Application - Win32 Programmer's Reference

Custom Search

Creating a Backup Application

To perform any input or output on a tape, a backup application must first obtain a handle of the tape device. The following code sample shows how to use the CreateFile function to open a tape device.

HANDLE hTape; /* handle to tape device */

hTape = CreateFile(

"\\\\.\\TAPE0", /* name of tape device to open */

GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE, /* read-write access */

0, /* not used */

OPEN_EXISTING, /* required for tape devices */

0, /* not used */

NULL); /* not used */

To back up a directory tree to a tape, an application must use the FindFirstFile and FindNextFile functions to traverse the directory tree. Each time a file is found, the application should get the file's attributes by using the GetFileAttributes function. If there are hard links, the application should determine the number of links and save the file's unique identifier in a table for future comparisons. The first time a file is found, the application should use CreateFile to open the file and the BackupRead function to begin the backup. Then it can use the WriteFile function repeatedly to transfer all the information in the buffer filled by BackupRead to the tape. The second time a file is found (checked against the table of file identifiers when there are hard links), the application can simply write the general file information to the tape, followed by a stream whose identifier is BACKUP_LINK.

When restoring files from tape to disk, an application must use the CreateFile, BackupWrite, and ReadFile functions. For each file on the tape, the application should use CreateFile to create a new file on disk and BackupWrite to begin restoring the file. Then it should use ReadFile repeatedly until all the information for the file has been read from the tape into the buffer filled by BackupWrite. If one of the streams in the BackupWrite buffer has a BACKUP_LINK stream identifier, the application must establish a hard link. If the data needed to establish the link does not exist, BackupWrite fails. The application can use a preexisting catalog to locate and restore the original data, or it can notify the user that the file data to be restored is in a different location.

Last news from Greatis Software

    Nostalgia .Net     .Net is powerful, but not all-powerful, so sometimes we need to use Win32 API for our .Net applications. It's simple enough with Platform Invoke if you have Win32 skill, but we do not always have time to dig the ancient documentation, declare the special types that are compatible with Win32, find the values of the Win32's constants and so on. Nostalgia .Net offers several simple-to-use classes, and components that will allow you to forget about the headache of Win32 and just use the power of Win32 in your application the same way as you use the native. Net classes. More »

Recommended software for developers

    Ultimate Pack     Component pack for Delphi and C++ Builder that contains runtime form designer, runtime object inspector, print suite and much more for the very special price. More »

    Form Designer .Net     Unique runtime form design solution that allows to edit any form in .Net WinForms application at runtime with full source codes for only 300 euro! More »

    Print Suite .Net     Print Suite .Net is a set of components for easy printing texts, images and grids from your WinForms applications. Full C# source codes are available More »

    Gradient Controls .Net     Gradient Controls .Net offers controls with gradient background feature. Labels, panels and so on... Full C# source codes are available More »

    Greatis iGrid     iGrid plots drawing grid right over your desktop, so you can use it everywhere, with any drawing application without any special plugins for different graphic editors. More »

All the contacts and projects

Dmitry Vasiliev (just.dmitry)

More Online Helps

Win32 Programmer's Reference
Win32 Multimedia Programmer's Reference
OLE Programmer's Reference
Microsoft Windows Pen API Programmer's Reference
Microsoft Windows Sockets 2 Reference
Microsoft Windows Telephony API (TAPI) Programmer's Reference
Unix Manual Pages

greatis just4fun network