Reading file content from the MFT at runtime

Question

I have to read the MFT file of a running Windows (XP or higher) and through it to reach the HD sectors that held the contents ($DATA) of a specific file that exists on the machine.

The problem is that between the time of reading the MFT until the fetching of the relevant sectors and reading them, the file system structure can vary and the locations may not be relevant anymore.

Is there a way to "freeze" the system for a certain time? Perhaps guarantee that there will not be changes for this file? Lock a specific file in order to make it not moving between sectors? (Including due to optimizations and changes in indirect)

Of course I would prefer not to copy the entire hard disk and to work statically since it's a slow operation that would disallow normal use of the system at this time. Needless to say, I don't want to use the API functions of the OS or to write a driver.

Answer 1

If the file location in the system varies, it will be accordingly reflected in the MFT. So instead of trying to stop any activity for the file you can simply compare the MFT info before and after reading the file. Unless you are de-fragmenting or deleting contents of the file the file storage structure will not change. Additions to files do not affect the consistency of data that you read. So if this is your scenario, you can just go ahead with the above method.

Answer 2

I'd simply open the file, requesting read/write access, with read share mode. If you succeed to open the file, you're guaranteed that data will not change until you close the handle. See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh449422%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

If you want to achieve that on files that are already opened and locked by different processes, that's entirely different story and I believe you have to write own filter driver.