Access to a file which is being used by another process in C#

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4.00/5 (2 votes)

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Hello!

So there is a .gdb file, which is being used by an application. I would like to read from it while it is being used. But of course I can't. I tried copying it, and then accessing, but with File.Copy it threw an exception "File is being used by another process" again. But by simply copying this file in windows (ctrl+c) and pasting (ctrl+v) it worked. So what's the difference between File.Copy and the normal ctrl+c ctrl+v method?
And how could I implement this? I have read about Shadow Copy, but I didn't find any C# code.

Posted 22-Apr-11 0:40am

velvet7

Updated 22-Apr-11 0:41am

v2

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3 solutions

Solution 3

If the file is opened with an exclusive lock (meaning it was not shared for read), then you will not be able to use any of the regular APIs to open the file. There may be lower level solutions that can read directly off the disk, but I don't think any of them are practical solutions from C#.

Posted 22-Apr-11 2:21am

Nish Nishant

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Olivier Levrey 22-Apr-11 10:01am

Voted 5.

Nish Nishant 22-Apr-11 10:02am

Thank you, Olivier.

velvet7 22-Apr-11 12:47pm

But then how is it possible that I can copy with ctrl+c, but I can't with File.Copy? What is the difference between this two thing? I thought they are the same.

Solution 2

Try this, This is similar type of question which was asked on CP.
IOException: The Process can not access the file filename[^]
Thought this might be helpful

Posted 22-Apr-11 0:49am

nit_singh

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velvet7 · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-22T22:01:00

All right, I found a solution:

FileStream inf = new FileStream("path1", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite);
            FileStream outf = new FileStream("path2", FileMode.Create);
            int a;
            while ((a = inf.ReadByte()) != -1)
            {
                outf.WriteByte((byte)a);
            }
            inf.Close();
            inf.Dispose();
            outf.Close();
            outf.Dispose();