>>
>>Can you access the files directly in File Explorer on the server when using FileStream?
>
>No but you can access files directly through special Windows API by first using FILESTREAM functions to obtain a logical UNC file system path of a file. After that the OpenSqlFilestream API will give you a file handle. This handle can then be used by Win32 file streaming interfaces, such as ReadFile() and WriteFile().

So are the files encrypted or something? Or are they just stored in a big blob?