Error partitioning and formatting USB flash drive in C++ - c++

Question

I'm stuck attempting to re-partition and format a USB flash drive using C++, any help would be great!
The goal is to re-partition any arbitrary flash drive with a single partition taking the entire space and formatted FAT32 (later options NTFS and EXFAT). This will be done in batch, hopefully with 50+ devices at once, so drive letter access is not an option. I'm able to create a partition, but when I try IOCTL_DISK_SET_PARTITION_INFO_EX to set the format type, it is failing with 0x32, ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED. But it's not clear what exactly is not supported. I can manually partition the device using utilities such as diskpart, so I know the partition and file system types are supported by the device. Can anyone help? My full source code is below, it's failing on the DeviceIoControl() call with IOCTL_DISK_SET_PARTITION_INFO_EX.
#include "stdafx.h"
#include <random>
#include <Windows.h>
#include <atlstr.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <assert.h>
using namespace std;
#define THROW_CSTRING(a, b) { CString csE; csE.Format(a, b); throw csE; }
#define RANDOM_DWORD {DWORD(rand()) | DWORD(rand() << 8) | DWORD(rand() << 16) | DWORD(rand() << 24)}
int main()
{
DRIVE_LAYOUT_INFORMATION_EX* pdg = NULL;
HANDLE hDevice = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
try
{
hDevice = CreateFile(L"\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive2",
GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE,
0, // Only we can access
NULL, // Default security
OPEN_EXISTING, // For hardware, open existing
0, // File attributes
NULL); //Do not copy attributes
if (hDevice == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
THROW_CSTRING(L"ERROR: CreateFile() failed: 0x%x", GetLastError());
}
CREATE_DISK dsk;
memset(&dsk, 0, sizeof(dsk));
CREATE_DISK_MBR dskmbr = { 0 };
dskmbr.Signature = 1;
dsk.PartitionStyle = PARTITION_STYLE_MBR;
dsk.Mbr = dskmbr;
// DRIVE_LAYOUT_INFORMAITON_EX has an array of partition info at the end, need enough for 4 partitions minimum
int iDriveLayoutBytesRequired = sizeof(DRIVE_LAYOUT_INFORMATION_EX) + sizeof(PARTITION_INFORMATION_EX) * 3;
pdg = (DRIVE_LAYOUT_INFORMATION_EX*)new BYTE[iDriveLayoutBytesRequired];
memset(pdg, 0, iDriveLayoutBytesRequired);
DRIVE_LAYOUT_INFORMATION_MBR mbrlayout = { 0 };
mbrlayout.Signature = RANDOM_DWORD;
pdg->PartitionStyle = PARTITION_STYLE_MBR;
pdg->Mbr = mbrlayout;
pdg->PartitionCount = 1;
DWORD dwBytesReturned = 0;
if (!DeviceIoControl(hDevice, IOCTL_DISK_CREATE_DISK, &dsk, sizeof(dsk), NULL, 0, &dwBytesReturned, NULL))
{
THROW_CSTRING(L"ERROR: IOCTL_DISK_CREATE_DISK failed: 0x%x", GetLastError());
}
// Get the drive dimensions, then use that info to create a new partition
// Drive length
GET_LENGTH_INFORMATION sLenInfo = { 0 };
if (!DeviceIoControl(hDevice, IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO, NULL, 0, &sLenInfo, sizeof(sLenInfo), &dwBytesReturned, NULL))
{
THROW_CSTRING(L"ERROR: IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO failed: 0x%x", GetLastError());
}
assert(sizeof(sLenInfo.Length.QuadPart) == sizeof(__int64));
__int64 iDiskLengthBytes = sLenInfo.Length.QuadPart;
pdg->PartitionStyle = PARTITION_STYLE_MBR;
pdg->PartitionCount = 4;
pdg->Mbr.Signature = 1;
pdg->PartitionEntry[0].PartitionStyle = PARTITION_STYLE_MBR;
pdg->PartitionEntry[0].StartingOffset.QuadPart = 0;
pdg->PartitionEntry[0].PartitionLength.QuadPart = iDiskLengthBytes;
pdg->PartitionEntry[0].PartitionNumber = 1;
pdg->PartitionEntry[0].RewritePartition = TRUE;
//pdg->PartitionEntry[0].Mbr.PartitionType = PARTITION_IFS; // NTFS
pdg->PartitionEntry[0].Mbr.PartitionType = PARTITION_FAT32;
pdg->PartitionEntry[0].Mbr.BootIndicator = TRUE;
pdg->PartitionEntry[0].Mbr.RecognizedPartition = 1;
pdg->PartitionEntry[0].Mbr.HiddenSectors = 0;
// Partition device
if (!DeviceIoControl(hDevice, IOCTL_DISK_SET_DRIVE_LAYOUT_EX, pdg, iDriveLayoutBytesRequired, NULL, 0, &dwBytesReturned, NULL))
{
THROW_CSTRING(L"ERROR: IOCTL_DISK_SEt_DRIVE_LAYOUT_EX failed: 0x%x", GetLastError());
}
// Tell the driver to flush its cache
if (!DeviceIoControl(hDevice, IOCTL_DISK_UPDATE_PROPERTIES, NULL, 0, NULL, 0, &dwBytesReturned, NULL))
{
THROW_CSTRING(L"ERROR: IOCTL_DISK_UPDATE_PROPERTIES failed: 0x%x", GetLastError());
}
SET_PARTITION_INFORMATION_EX dskinfo;
memset(&dskinfo, 0, sizeof(dskinfo));
dskinfo.PartitionStyle = PARTITION_STYLE_MBR;
dskinfo.Mbr.PartitionType = PARTITION_FAT32;
if (!DeviceIoControl(hDevice, IOCTL_DISK_SET_PARTITION_INFO_EX, &dskinfo, sizeof(dskinfo), NULL, 0, &dwBytesReturned, NULL))
{
THROW_CSTRING(L"ERROR: IOCTL_DISK_SET_PARTITION_INFO_EX failed: 0x%x", GetLastError());
}
}
catch (CString csErr)
{
// Error lookup: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w indows/desktop/ms681382(v=vs.85).aspx
// 0x7a - ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER
// 0x57 - ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER
// 0x32 - ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED
// 0x18 - ERROR_BAD_LENGTH
// 0x05 - ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED
wcout << csErr.GetString();
}
CloseHandle(hDevice);
delete pdg;
return 0;
}

Answer 1

I have a solution, but it's a bit convoluted. I'm using DeviceIoControl() as above to partition the disk. Then I use VDS and the IID_IVdsVolumeMF interface to create the file system, but getting there is a bit of work. The goal is to partition and format all flash drives (USB sticks) on the system. VDS will perform the format via the IID_IVdsVolumeMF interface, BUT it will not tell you (at least I haven't figured out how) which devices are removable. But WMI will tell you which devices are removable, but doesn't have a format function. So...
First use WMI to get a list of all removable volume paths on the system, for example:
CoCreateInstance(CLSID_WbemLocator, 0, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IWbemLocator, (LPVOID *)&pLoc)
pLoc->ConnectServer(CComBSTR(L"ROOT\\CIMV2"), nullptr, nullptr, nullptr, 0, nullptr, nullptr, pWbemSvc)
CoSetProxyBlanket(
*pWbemSvc, // Indicates the proxy to set
RPC_C_AUTHN_WINNT, // RPC_C_AUTHN_xxx
RPC_C_AUTHZ_NONE, // RPC_C_AUTHZ_xxx
NULL, // Server principal name
RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_CALL, // RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_xxx
RPC_C_IMP_LEVEL_IMPERSONATE, // RPC_C_IMP_LEVEL_xxx
NULL, // client identity
EOAC_NONE // proxy capabilities
pWbemSvc->ExecQuery(CComBSTR(L"WQL"), CComBSTR(L"SELECT * FROM Win32_Volume WHERE DriveType=2"), WBEM_FLAG_FORWARD_ONLY | WBEM_FLAG_RETURN_IMMEDIATELY, NULL, &pEnumerator)
Gives you paths such as:
L"\\\\?\\Volume{3899cb7b-7c3f-11e6-bf82-005056c00008}\\"
Then use VDS to get a list of all VDS volumes on the machine. Basically you load VDS, then get all software providers. This source is missing parts for brevity, but I think I left enough to explain what's happening:
pSvc->QueryProviders(VDS_QUERY_SOFTWARE_PROVIDERS, &pEnumProviders)
Now iterate through the list of providers getting the packs from each provider:
pEnumProviders->Next(1, &pUnk, &cFetched)
pProv = pUnk;
pProv->QueryPacks(&pEnumpacks)
vPacks.push_back(pEnumpacks);
Now iterate through the packs and get all of the volumes in each pack:
iterator iPacks = vPacks.begin();
(*iPacks)->Next(1, &pUnk, &cFetched)
pPack = pUnk;
pPack->QueryVolumes(&pEnumvolumes)
pvpEnumvolumes->push_back(pEnumvolumes)
Now you have a list of paths to removable devices, and you have a list of all volumes on the system. Time to compare them and figure out which volumes are removable.
iVolEnum = pvpEnumOfVDSVolumes->begin()
(*iVolEnum)->Next(1, &pUnk, &cFetched)
pVMF3 = pUnk;
CComHeapPtr<LPWSTR> pVDSVolumePaths;
pVMF3->QueryVolumeGuidPathnames(&pVDSVolumePaths, &nPaths)
iterator iWMIVolPath = pvWMIRemovableVols->begin();
loop..
if (wcscmp(iWMIVolPath->data(), pVDSVolumePaths[i]) == 0)
{ // VDS Vol is removable! }
Now use this VDS volume object to format the volume:
foreach( vol in vRemovableVDSVols )
{
CComQIPtr<IVdsVolume> pVolume = *(vol);
IVdsVolumeMF *pVolumeMF;
pVolume->QueryInterface(IID_IVdsVolumeMF, (void **)&pVolumeMF);
pVolumeMF->Format( VDS_FST_FAT32,
L"MyFob",
512, // alloc size
true, // force
false, // quick
false, // compression
&pAsync); // async
}
And presto your USB stick is formatted! Whew.. but it seems to be working.
Could Microsoft really not have made this any easier?