A New Cd-switching Utility

[tcarman]

Tried that, unfortunately it was a no go.

[Nanaki]

I'll try to look into it when I have some time.

[chebarbudo]

Hi Nanaki,

Great idea as I'm trying to automate all my installations and don't have a DVD.

BUT... Sorry, there's a but, it looks like it's not working with me

1) Actually I use a laptop and my CD reader is external USB. If I run CDSwitch without the CD reader pluged, it fails immediately.

2) If I don't specify the CD letter (wich I usually don't know), it fails.

eg:

cdswitch "DELL_RESSOURCES" /g:LABEL

I made my personal, ugly, dos mode version of WAITCD, I'm gonna post it as soon as possible.

Hope my reports will help

Santiago

[Nanaki]

Could you run CDswitch with:

cdswitch "DELL_RESSOURCES" /g:LABEL /K

and post the contents of "c:\cdswitch.txt" afterwards? Also, please make sure that "/g:LABEL" is what you want. It will eject the drive wherein the disc labeled "LABEL" is.

Edited December 7, 2006 by Nanaki

[chebarbudo]

OK Nanaki, I got it.

As I don't know my driveletter, what I needed to do is :

cdswitch DELL_RESSOURCES 1

[Nanaki]

Is there anyway of using this if the CD happens to have no label??

I've uploaded a version with a fix here. In my small tests, it worked with an empty label (still use double quotes "").

OK Nanaki, I got it.

As I don't know my driveletter, what I needed to do is :

cdswitch DELL_RESSOURCES 1

Ok, good to hear.

Edited September 8, 2008 by Nanaki

[tcarman]

I've uploaded a version with a fix here. In my small tests, it worked with an empty label (still use double quotes "").

It detects the CD now but I can't seem to get it to do a custom label for the disc

cdswitch.exe "" X: /l:"IBM Director"

[Nanaki]

Try this one.

Edited September 8, 2008 by Nanaki

[tcarman]

I now want to add the ability to search for a particular file on the CD to ensure the correct CD is inserted, since the CD I am using does not have a label.

The code I am using does not appear to be working for me. If I use a CD where the file does not exist it does not eject the disc.

cdswitch.exe "" /l:"IBM Director 5.20" /g:"X:\director\agent\windows\i386\FILES\dir5.20_agent_windows.exe"

or

cdswitch.exe "" X: /l:"IBM Director 5.20" /g:"X:\director\agent\windows\i386\FILES\dir5.20_agent_windows.exe"

Any ideas?

[Nanaki]

Alright, the stuff I'm about to say might not be fully correct, since I don't have the resources to test it and it's been a while since I've written this code.

First, if you want to EJECT the drive containing the disc with certain file:

cdswitch "" /f:"director\agent\windows\i386\FILES\dir5.20_agent_windows.exe" /l:"IBM Director 5.20"

Notice how "X:" is omitted from the path, "/f" works like this.

Second, you want to check the new disc for a file:

sorry, not possible, this required a major overhaul of the code for it to work properly. I might try and put it in quite soon (just for you ), but first I need my laptop back for that. I'll try and see later today.

edit: try this one. I've found the disc I needed, so here's another new version.

Use this code:

cdswitch /f:"director\agent\windows\i386\FILES\dir5.20_agent_windows.exe" X: /l:"IBM Director 5.20"

Edited September 8, 2008 by Nanaki

[tcarman]

I cannot seem to download the new file, it appears it does not exist.

[Nanaki]

Typo: here.

Edited September 8, 2008 by Nanaki

[prathapml]

I was going to use this on vista today.  Observations that i'd like to share:

1. Works on vista.

2. CDswitch searches for its specified file *ONLY* on optical media & not on HDD (i know i must have been daft to think otherwise )

3. It manages to catch the file & create entry (variable appears in registry), but %CDDRIVE% wont work on 64-bit windows until the current (logon) session is closed & restarted.

Nanaki, awesome utility this is!

Thanks

Edited January 19, 2007 by prathapml

[Nanaki]

Good to know it's working, thanks for testing.

CDswitch searches for its specified file *ONLY* on optical media & not on HDD (i know i must have been daft to think otherwise

Why, you want it to?

[prathapml]

Hmmm.... Actually i thought it searches all drive letters. So I tried to make it search for a file on one of my partitions, just to test if it works on vista.

But after that, i tested using a virtual-drive and it was working fine.

In short, searching HDD while testing would be good, but not a priority.

Its good that it searches only optical drives.