Start reading massive text file from the end - vb.net

Question

I would ask if you could give me some alternatives in my problems.
basically I'm reading a .txt log file averaging to 8 million lines. Around 600megs of pure raw txt file.
I'm currently using streamreader to do 2 passes on those 8 million lines doing sorting and filtering important parts in the log file, but to do so, My computer is taking ~50sec to do 1 complete run.
One way that I can optimize this is to make the first pass to start reading at the end because the most important data is located approximately at the final 200k line(s) . Unfortunately, I searched and streamreader can't do this. Any ideas to do this?
Some general restriction
# of lines varies
size of file varies
location of important data varies but approx at the final 200k line
Here's the loop code for the first pass of the log file just to give you an idea
Do Until sr.EndOfStream = True 'Read whole File
Dim streambuff As String = sr.ReadLine 'Array to Store CombatLogNames
Dim CombatLogNames() As String
Dim searcher As String
If streambuff.Contains("CombatLogNames flags:0x1") Then 'Keyword to Filter CombatLogNames Packets in the .txt
Dim check As String = streambuff 'Duplicate of the Line being read
Dim index1 As Char = check.Substring(check.IndexOf("(") + 1) '
Dim index2 As Char = check.Substring(check.IndexOf("(") + 2) 'Used to bypass the first CombatLogNames packet that contain only 1 entry
If (check.IndexOf("(") <> -1 And index1 <> "" And index2 <> " ") Then 'Stricter Filters for CombatLogNames
Dim endCLN As Integer = 0 'Signifies the end of CombatLogNames Packet
Dim x As Integer = 0 'Counter for array
While (endCLN = 0 And streambuff <> "---- CNETMsg_Tick") 'Loops until the end keyword for CombatLogNames is seen
streambuff = sr.ReadLine 'Reads a new line to flush out "CombatLogNames flags:0x1" which is unneeded
If ((streambuff.Contains("---- CNETMsg_Tick") = True) Or (streambuff.Contains("ResponseKeys flags:0x0 ") = True)) Then
endCLN = 1 'Value change to determine end of CombatLogName packet
Else
ReDim Preserve CombatLogNames(x) 'Resizes the array while preserving the values
searcher = streambuff.Trim.Remove(streambuff.IndexOf("(") - 5).Remove(0, _
streambuff.Trim.Remove(streambuff.IndexOf("(")).IndexOf("'")) 'Additional filtering to get only valuable data
CombatLogNames(x) = search(searcher)
x += 1 '+1 to Array counter
End If
End While
Else
'MsgBox("Something went wrong, Flame the coder of this program!!") 'Bug Testing code that is disabled
End If
Else
End If
If (sr.EndOfStream = True) Then
ReDim GlobalArr(CombatLogNames.Length - 1) 'Resizing the Global array to prime it for copying data
Array.Copy(CombatLogNames, GlobalArr, CombatLogNames.Length) 'Just copying the array to make it global
End If
Loop

Answer 1

You CAN set the BaseStream to the desired reading position, you just cant set it to a specfic LINE (because counting lines requires to read the complete file)
Using sw As New StreamWriter("foo.txt", False, System.Text.Encoding.ASCII)
For i = 1 To 100
sw.WriteLine("the quick brown fox jumps ovr the lazy dog")
Next
End Using
Using sr As New StreamReader("foo.txt", System.Text.Encoding.ASCII)
sr.BaseStream.Seek(-100, SeekOrigin.End)
Dim garbage = sr.ReadLine ' can not use, because very likely not a COMPLETE line
While Not sr.EndOfStream
Dim line = sr.ReadLine
Console.WriteLine(line)
End While
End Using
For any later read attempt on the same file, you could simply save the final position (of the basestream) and on the next read to advance to that position before you start reading lines.

Answer 2

What worked for me was skipping first 4M lines (just a simple if counter > 4M surrounding everything inside the loop), and then adding background workers that did the filtering, and if important added the line to an array, while main thread continued reading the lines. This saved about third of the time at the end of a day.