Getting all the files on my computer

Question

Hi,
I have written an algorithm which reads my harddrive from root, and goes all the files and folders and stores them in a index. I am using it for a project that gets all the folders and displays them in a explorer like Tree.
heres the algorithm below.
File[] files = new File[10000];  //Contains all the files read
int[] index = new int[10000];  //Contains a position of the root folder that file is in, in relation to files[]
int count = 0;
//---First part of code
count = 0;   //how many files and folders read so far
File[] getfiles = File.listRoots(); //Gets al the root drives
readfiles(getfiles[3]);  //Reads drive (i read my E:\ drive as its the smallest)
//--- Second part of code
private void readfiles(File folder) {
      File[] getfiles = folder.listFiles();   //gets files within that folder
      int i = 0;                         //for looping        
      int fold = count;             //Remebers this number as it has the index for the folder the files contained in
      while (true) {
        try {
          files[i+count] = getfiles; //saves the file details
index[i+count] = fold; //Saves the index of the folder it is contained in, so that it can be easily positioned in a tree
if (files[i+count].isDirectory()) {    //checks if directory
readfiles(files[i+count]); //repeats the loop wih the new folder
i++;
} catch (IndexOutOfBoundsException ioobe) {break;} //no more files to read kills the loop
count = count + i; //updates the count to stop writing over data
Hope i have documented it ok,
Heres the problem.
When i run it, it works perfect, but i see no folders, just files. I think my algorithm is writing over it but i tries and i get "null" errors when reading the data in other bits of code.
OK, well thanks in advance
I can post the whole code if needed but its kinda messy as i have left code in there for reference.

Answer 1

I wanted to index the whole drive for 2 reasons...
1. So that it can be put into a tree, so that the user
can go through the files as if they were using the
windows explorer tree menu thingyBut you don't need to put the whole file hierarchy into a single data structure to do that.
2. My program is going to be a back up program, and it
would use the index for comparisions and stuff.OK, but I'd suggest in this case, you may want to consider whether you need the whole thing in memory at a single time. It may be easier to compare recursively between dynamically created/loaded values. I suppose it'll depend on how you store the survey between invocations of the program.