Software should <i>absolutely</i> try to account for these kinds of errors and routinely does. When was the last time you saw a word processor or spreadsheet bork a machine so hard it needed to be restarted just because an AV scan kicked in? ReadFile and ReadFileEx both hand you a specific error if some part of the file you are trying to read is locked by another process because it&#x27;s hardly rare. &#x27;Halt and catch fire&#x27; is not generally considered a proportionate response. I&#x27;ve no idea where you&#x27;re getting this &#x27;unplugged the disk&#x27; thing from, AV software does not work this way.