Changing directory create times (ctime) using python in windows

I am trying to change the directory creation timestamp for a windows system using python. I have a directory that was copied over from another drive and the directory creation times are not preserved. This is what I am hoping to do,

Step 1 : Read the source directory list and thier creation times with the following code,

import os
source_dir_path = r'd:\data'
list_of_directories = os.listdir(source_dir_path)
creation_times = {}
for d in list_of_directories:
    creation_times[d] = os.path.getctime(os.path.join(source_dir_path, d))

Step 2 : Iterate over the directory list and set the Directory Creation Time. For this I am relyting on Python For Windows Extensions. Code is shown below,

from win32file import CreateFile, SetFileTime, GetFileTime, CloseHandle
from win32file import GENERIC_READ, GENERIC_WRITE, OPEN_EXISTING
from pywintypes import Time

destination_dir_path = r'f:\data'
#list_of_directories = os.listdir(source_dir_path)
for d in creation_times:
    fh = CreateFile(os.path.join(destination_dir_path,d), 0, 0, None, OPEN_EXISTING, 0,0)
    SetFileTime(fh, creation_times[d])

I am getting an 'Access is Denied' at the CreateFile line. I am not sure if this a valid way to setting creation time for the directory. Is this the right way set directory creation times

Solution

The following approach should work, although this does set the creation time also for the last access and last write times also. It creates a list of tuples (rather than a dictionary) of the filenames and creation times, copies the files from the source to the target directory. The main issue your code had was the parameters needed for the CreateFile call:

from win32file import CreateFile, SetFileTime, GetFileTime, CloseHandle
from win32file import GENERIC_WRITE, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, FILE_SHARE_WRITE

import os
import shutil

source_dir_path = r"c:\my_source"
destination_dir_path = r"c:\my_target"

creation_times = [(d, os.path.getctime(os.path.join(source_dir_path, d))) for d in os.listdir(source_dir_path)]

for filename, ctime in creation_times:
    src = os.path.join(source_dir_path, filename)
    target = os.path.join(destination_dir_path, filename)
    shutil.copy(src, target)

    fh = CreateFile(target, GENERIC_WRITE, FILE_SHARE_WRITE, None, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, 0)
    SetFileTime(fh, ctime, ctime, ctime)    
    CloseHandle(fh)