how to create an image of a disk?

I'm developing in .net, but can use c++. I'm looking for a way to create a disk image. Ideally there could be an API somewhere that looks like this开发者_C百科:

createVMDK(string driveLetter, out string pathToVMDKOutputfile);
createVHD(string driveLetter, out string pathToVHDOutputfile);

Does anyone know of any API from Microsoft, VMWare or other that allows for the creation of full disk images like this?

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If there's no API, you can invoke Disk2VHD in a Process:

disk2vhd <[drive: [drive:]…]|[*]> <vhdfile>