The module tarfile has problems using os.stat() if the
filenames use direct device addressing on Windows systems. 
For example:
\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolume1\TEMP\1.txt

The following error is reported:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\urbanp\py\test.py", line 9, in ?
   
tar.add('\\\\?\\GLOBALROOT\\Device\\HarddiskVolume1\\TEMP\\1.txt',
'TEMP\\1.txt')
  File "C:\PROGRA~1\Python23\lib\tarfile.py", line
1204, in add
    tarinfo = self.gettarinfo(name, arcname)
  File "C:\PROGRA~1\Python23\lib\tarfile.py", line
1080, in gettarinfo
    statres = os.lstat(name)
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:
'\\\\?\\GLOBALROOT\\Device\\HarddiskVolume1\\TEMP\\1.txt'

As a solution we can use win32file.GetFileAttributesEx().
I mapped win32file.GetFileAttributesEx result into a
tuple that has the same structure as a os.stat result
tuple. Therefore, the same variable can be used.

The reason for using direct device addressing is that I
need to create a tar package from a volume snapshot
(vss on Windows 2003) that cannot be mounted.
The solution also works on StorageCraft VSnap snapshots.

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user_id=1188172

I don't know whether direct device addressing is officially
supported by any part of Python anyway.

Closing this due to lack of interest. This is no tarfile issue. If
direct device addressing should be supported by Python, os.stat() would
be the place to implement it.