Get all files and directories in specific path fast

Question

I am creating a backup application where c# scans a directory. Before I use to have something like this in order to get all the files and subfiles in a directory:

DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo("A:\\");
var directories= di.GetFiles("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);

foreach (FileInfo d in directories)
{
       //Add files to a list so that later they can be compared to see if each file
       // needs to be copid or not
}

The only problem with that is that sometimes a file could not be accessed and I get several errors. an example of an error that I get is:

As a result I created a recursive method that will scan all files in the current directory. If there where directories in that directory then the method will be called again passing that directory. The nice thing about this method is that I could place the files inside a try catch block giving me the option to add those files to a List if there where no errors and adding the directory to another list if I had errors.

try
{
    files = di.GetFiles(searchPattern, SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);               
}
catch
{
     //info of this folder was not able to get
     lstFilesErrors.Add(sDir(di));
     return;
}

So this method works great the only problem is that when I scan a large directory it takes to much times. How could I speed up this process? My actual method is this in case you need it.

private void startScan(DirectoryInfo di)
{
    //lstFilesErrors is a list of MyFile objects
    // I created that class because I wanted to store more specific information
    // about a file such as its comparePath name and other properties that I need 
    // in order to compare it with another list

    // lstFiles is a list of MyFile objects that store all the files
    // that are contained in path that I want to scan

    FileInfo[] files = null;
    DirectoryInfo[] directories = null;
    string searchPattern = "*.*";

    try
    {
        files = di.GetFiles(searchPattern, SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);               
    }
    catch
    {
        //info of this folder was not able to get
        lstFilesErrors.Add(sDir(di));
        return;
    }

    // if there are files in the directory then add those files to the list
    if (files != null)
    {
        foreach (FileInfo f in files)
        {
            lstFiles.Add(sFile(f));
        }
    }


    try
    {
        directories = di.GetDirectories(searchPattern, SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);
    }
    catch
    {
        lstFilesErrors.Add(sDir(di));
        return;
    }

    // if that directory has more directories then add them to the list then 
    // execute this function
    if (directories != null)
        foreach (DirectoryInfo d in directories)
        {
            FileInfo[] subFiles = null;
            DirectoryInfo[] subDir = null;

            bool isThereAnError = false;

            try
            {
                subFiles = d.GetFiles();
                subDir = d.GetDirectories();

            }
            catch
            {
                isThereAnError = true;                                                
            }

            if (isThereAnError)
                lstFilesErrors.Add(sDir(d));
            else
            {
                lstFiles.Add(sDir(d));
                startScan(d);
            }


        }

}

Ant the problem if I try to handle the exception with something like:

DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo("A:\\");
FileInfo[] directories = null;
            try
            {
                directories = di.GetFiles("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);

            }
            catch (UnauthorizedAccessException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("There was an error with UnauthorizedAccessException");
            }
            catch
            {
                Console.WriteLine("There was antother error");
            }

Is that if an exception occurs then I get no files.

Answer 1

This method is much faster. You can only tel when placing a lot of files in a directory. My A:\ external hard drive contains almost 1 terabit so it makes a big difference when dealing with a lot of files.

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo("A:\\");
    FullDirList(di, "*");
    Console.WriteLine("Done");
    Console.Read();
}

static List<FileInfo> files = new List<FileInfo>();  // List that will hold the files and subfiles in path
static List<DirectoryInfo> folders = new List<DirectoryInfo>(); // List that hold direcotries that cannot be accessed
static void FullDirList(DirectoryInfo dir, string searchPattern)
{
    // Console.WriteLine("Directory {0}", dir.FullName);
    // list the files
    try
    {
        foreach (FileInfo f in dir.GetFiles(searchPattern))
        {
            //Console.WriteLine("File {0}", f.FullName);
            files.Add(f);                    
        }
    }
    catch
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Directory {0}  \n could not be accessed!!!!", dir.FullName);                
        return;  // We alredy got an error trying to access dir so dont try to access it again
    }

    // process each directory
    // If I have been able to see the files in the directory I should also be able 
    // to look at its directories so I dont think I should place this in a try catch block
    foreach (DirectoryInfo d in dir.GetDirectories())
    {
        folders.Add(d);
        FullDirList(d, searchPattern);                    
    }

}

By the way I got this thanks to your comment Jim Mischel