How to: Create Files and Directories in Isolated Storage

After you've obtained an isolated store, you can create directories and files for storing data. Within a store, file and directory names are specified with respect to the root of the virtual file system.

To create a directory, use the IsolatedStorageFile.CreateDirectory instance method. If you specify a subdirectory of a directory that doesn't exist, both directories are created. If you specify a directory that already exists, the method returns without creating a directory, and no exception is thrown. However, if you specify a directory name that contains invalid characters, an IsolatedStorageException exception is thrown.

To create a file, use the IsolatedStorageFile.CreateFile method.

In the Windows operating system, isolated storage file and directory names are case-insensitive. That is, if you create a file named ThisFile.txt, and then create another file named THISFILE.TXT, only one file is created. The file name keeps its original casing for display purposes.

Isolated storage file creation will throw an IsolatedStorageException if the path contains a directory that does not exist.

The following code example illustrates how to create files and directories in an isolated store.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.IO.IsolatedStorage;

public class CreatingFilesDirectories
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        using (IsolatedStorageFile isoStore = IsolatedStorageFile.GetStore(IsolatedStorageScope.User | IsolatedStorageScope.Domain | IsolatedStorageScope.Assembly, null, null))
        {
            isoStore.CreateDirectory("TopLevelDirectory");
            isoStore.CreateDirectory("TopLevelDirectory/SecondLevel");
            isoStore.CreateDirectory("AnotherTopLevelDirectory/InsideDirectory");
            Console.WriteLine("Created directories.");

            isoStore.CreateFile("InTheRoot.txt");
            Console.WriteLine("Created a new file in the root.");

            isoStore.CreateFile("AnotherTopLevelDirectory/InsideDirectory/HereIAm.txt");
            Console.WriteLine("Created a new file in the InsideDirectory.");
        }
    }
}

Imports System.IO
Imports System.IO.IsolatedStorage

Module Module1
    Sub Main()
        Using isoStore As IsolatedStorageFile = IsolatedStorageFile.GetStore(IsolatedStorageScope.User Or IsolatedStorageScope.Assembly Or IsolatedStorageScope.Domain, Nothing, Nothing)

            isoStore.CreateDirectory("TopLevelDirectory")
            isoStore.CreateDirectory("TopLevelDirectory/SecondLevel")
            isoStore.CreateDirectory("AnotherTopLevelDirectory/InsideDirectory")
            Console.WriteLine("Created directories.")

            isoStore.CreateFile("InTheRoot.txt")
            Console.WriteLine("Created a new file in the root.")

            isoStore.CreateFile("AnotherTopLevelDirectory/InsideDirectory/HereIAm.txt")
            Console.WriteLine("Created a new file in the InsideDirectory.")
        End Using
    End Sub
End Module

• IsolatedStorageFile
• IsolatedStorageFileStream
• Isolated Storage