A method for providing access to a file by a requestor including creating an empty file in a format understood by the requestor, intercepting one or more reads by the requestor of the empty file, determining if a portion of the empty file being read by the requestor should contain expected content, if the portion of the empty file should contain expected content then, before fulfill ling the read, adding the expected content to the empty file to transform the empty file into a requested file, and fulfilling a read of the requested file.