Low Level Hard Disk Access

DOS

• BIOS Int 13h (need BIOS Extensions for disks above 8GB)

Windows 9x

• DOS programs: like DOS, but must use volume lock/unlock for write access
• Win16 programs: must call BIOS Int 13h via DPMI
• Win32 programs: 32bit to 16bit thunking to a Win16 DLL

Windows NT

• DOS programs: not allowed
• Win16 programs: not allowed
• Win32 programs: CreateFile(), ReadFile(), WriteFile()

Linux/UNIX

• open(), read(), write()