Python class to create, work with and delete volume shadow copies on Windows
This is a simple python class that uses the pyWin32 extensions to create shadow copies, return the equivalent shadow copy path of a file, and clean up those shadow copies. There is much room for improvement in the way of error checking, correct path matching etc but it does work. For example:
import vss
# Create a set that contains the LOCAL disks you want to shadow
local_drives = set()
local_drives.add('C')
# Initialize the Shadow Copies
sc = vss.ShadowCopy(local_drives)
# An open and locked file we want to read
locked_file = r'C:\foo\bar.txt'
shadow_path = sc.shadow_path(locked_file)
# shadow_path will look similar to:
# u'\\\\?\\GLOBALROOT\\Device\\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy7\\foo\\bar.txt'
# Open shadow_path just like a regular file
with open(shadow_path, 'rb') as fp:
data = fp.read()
# When done, clean up the shadow copies
sc.delete()Please note, you must have the correct python and pyWin32 libraries installed for the bitness of your OS (32 or 64 bit). Using 32-bit python/pyWin32 on a 64-bit OS won't work.