windows api functions, not working. requirements?

hello
i just startet to learn programming in c.i like c, ithink its a very good language, however i have a situation now.i hope you nerds can help me out..


i need to code a windows api function. reading some binary files, store the data in a buffer and then build a tree whit it. this is not really a problem, i already implemented it (with some help), and it worked, but only on the workstation.not on some other machines.i have access to the api structures but all the handles goes to crap or -1(file not found) even if the files exist or some wildcard is used. i have visual studio 2005 on the workstation and visual studio 2008 on the other machines, full-install.this makes me insane, i started to go crazy.:) what is the solution for this one? also how can i check if any library file is damaged, if this is the case?

example
...
HANDLE fHandle; //HANDLE = 0xcccccc
WIN32_FIND_DATA fData;
...
fHandle = FindFirstFile("C:\*", &fData); //HANDLE = 0xffffff
...




ok:my english is crap, i already know that.you dont need to tell me.

Perhaps you need "C:\\*"?

--
Mats

Thanks for your help matsp, but this is not the solution. I just used "C:\*" as an example, cause this is the MSDN example to show any file in a root directory. But i tried many different ways. Beginning with "C:\*" , "C:\\*" , "C:\\path\\*.dat" to the full path of the file. But none of them seems to work.

Hmm - is it possible that you need a unicode string, e.g. _T("your path") instead of the plain string literal. Or you could try with FindFirstFileA(), which is the "narrow char" version.

--
Mats

Try with

Code:

---

fHandle = FindFirstFile("\\\\.\\C:\\*.*", &fData);

---

That works for me. Of course, be sure that your system have a C: root :)

Niara

You may want to display the extended error information. This may give you a better understanding of the problem.

Code:

---

fHandle = FindFirstFile("C:\\*", &fData);
  if (fHandle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
  {
    ShowError();
  }
 
 
void ShowError(void)
{
 char *lpMsgBuf;
 FormatMessage(
    FORMAT_MESSAGE_ALLOCATE_BUFFER | FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM,
    NULL,
    GetLastError(),
    MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_DEFAULT), // Default language
    (LPTSTR) &lpMsgBuf,
    0,
    NULL
 );
 printf("Error: %s\n", lpMsgBuf);
 LocalFree( lpMsgBuf );
}

---