Generate a list of all files of a drive

[josephernest]

1. Is the technique detailed here just a reading of the USN journal? Or does it use something else? such as $mft master file table?

2. Without using your .dll + another program (such as autohotkey), would it be possible, @ChrisS85, to give a self-contained single file that just lists all the files of the drive C:\ ?
   I have ~1 million files and I would like how it goes in terms of indexing speed, compared to the well known software Everything.

[ChrisS85]

1. Yes, this code is using the USN journal. I applied various tricks I could think of to improve the searching performance. There are probably better methods out there, I haven't done much research regarding existing methods.

2. It's certainly possible, but it's been a few years since I wrote this code so I'm not very familiar with it anymore. For an example usage application, check the AutoHotkey test script in the release directory. It should be possible to extract the required functions for use in a separate C++ application.

[josephernest]

Hi @ChrisS85 I see your code is using MFT (Master File Table) to initialize (PopulateIndex()) the database. What is the USN journal useful for, then?

Does the USN journal help to update the database (example: new files are written / files deleted / files moved) after the initial PopulateIndex()? If so, where happens the database update?

Or is the database never updated (i.e. database doesn't change if new files are created)?

Thanks a lot in advance.