Search files in NTFS

Question

We have a fairly large disk array with approximately 2-3 million XML files. The drive is formatted using NTFS, and we would like to search for a file system using wildcards. So something like * SomePartOfTheFilename * would be a typical search query.

We use .Net and find that using DirectoryInfo looks slow.

DirectoryInfo directoryInfo = new DirectoryInfo(directory);

List<FileInfo> fileInfos = directoryInfo.GetFiles(searchString, SearchOption.AllDirectories).ToList();

Using loops and recursion is also very slow.

Is there a lower level API that we can use to directly look for the NTFS index?

Using dir * SomePartOfTheFilename * / s from the command line is almost instantaneous. Is there anything that can be used?

Answer 1

, , , :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee805985%28VS.85%29.aspx

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/Indexing_Service_HOW-TO.aspx

NTFS .

Answer 2

MFT (. NTFS Wiki). , . MFT, , API Windows , , , ( , , c:\$Mft).