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In programming how do you go about reading raw data off of disks. Note: not with a hex-editor, I know how to do that. I basically want to make my own tool.

For example; I want to be able to read the raw data off of a flash drive or some other disk so I can find deleted data. Is it as simple as opening a file and reading a stream? Can someone point me in the right direction?

Obviously I would want the data to appear in hex so that I can scan for file signatures (http://www.garykessler.net/library/file_sigs.html)

C and Python are the ones I am really curious about. Will the standard libraries allow you to open a disk and read data from it directly?

Linux and Windows are two OS's I use.

Thanks

nobody
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    What O/S? What language? – Michael Todd Jun 29 '11 at 03:39
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    Some operating systems (e.g. Unix'ish ones, including Linux) tend to expose many resources as "just files". If you're in say, Windows, however, it is a completely different story. –  Jun 29 '11 at 03:49
  • I realize that in linux (/dev/sda, etc) but in windows how would that work? Would it just be easier to boot into linux to read raw data? – nobody Jun 29 '11 at 04:01

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