read volume

[JB]

I thought I had read you could read
a volume like you read a file but it
can not be the startup volume.

I tried to read using the volume name shown
from the volumes function and open file and
it did not work so I used open driver and it
did not return any data either.

Is there a way to read a disk drive like you
read a file?  If I want to read all of the data
on a drive do I need to list all of the files and
then read from each file instead of reading
the drive or volume to end of file?

JB