A New Cd-switching Utility

[Nanaki]

God, the latest version I touched was using .INI-files to load settings instead of parameters, and now I remember why. =p

"Silent Mode" only ejects a certain drive, and doesn't check for one afterwards:

cdswitch /s /o /g:Disc1

It was basically added to replace CDR.exe or whatever it's called. Eject, no check.

'nyway, I did think about a rewrite, but the knowledge I need to do so to make it actually better I won't gain until next year, so maybe then. I might update this app again when the summer break is over, but the last version (0.9a1) was a real mess. xD

I'll try to make CDswitch "repaint" the image in a special version tomorrow. *marks on todo list*

[kof94]

Your a star, thanks .

Edit:

cdswitch /s /o /g:Disc1

Does actually make alot of sence, why didn't I think of that......

Edited July 10, 2006 by kof94

[Nanaki]

Maybe-fix over here, totally untested.

Edited September 8, 2008 by Nanaki

[kof94]

Thanks mate, I'll test it and get back to you.

[kof94]

IT WORKS!!!!

I've only managed a quick test in VM and it didn't envolve a disc swap but all the gui is there.

The Welcome screen disappers and for a split second you can see a blank window before CDSwitch re-spawns the image. This is perfect as far as I'm concerned.

I'll have my WPI disc up to scratch by the weekend so I'll run some tests in real time on my other HDD.

Oh, and I love the new cup holder feature by the way

Edited July 11, 2006 by kof94

[El Matador Y Tyrannos]

Hello people !

Sorry for my English, I'm French !

First, I want to say "Thanks !" to Nanaki for his help, now I use Cdswitch for making an unattended installation of Windows Xp + programs.

So my problem is that I want to know if Cdswitch is compatible with an install with a virtual machine (I use Microsoft Virtual PC 2004). I have encounter a problem : when Cdswitch is running on the installation of programs (I use a .bat script) during the end of the installation of Windows Xp, and show the warning "Chance the cd", when I change it (with Virtual PC you can only switch Iso) the Cdswitch program stop immediately and cancel the rest of the .bat script !

So... Help !

Thank you all for your answers.

Edited July 19, 2006 by El Matador Y Tyrannos

[Nanaki]

WFM in VMware. It's probably your set-up.

What's the .bat-script? =)

Oh, thanks kof94 for testing.

[El Matador Y Tyrannos]

But I can't use VMware ! So, no problem with Microsoft Virtual PC ?

This is my script MS-DOS (file .bat) :

@echo off
echo Installation des applications
echo -----------------------------
echo Installation de Microsoft .NET Framework
echo start /wait %SystemDrive%\Apps\DotNet\dotnetfx.exe /Q /C:"install.exe /q"
start "" /wait msiexec /i %SystemDrive%\Apps\DotNet\netfx.msi /qn
echo ...terminé...
echo .
set CDROM=D:
echo Attente du CDrom : SIMGV-POT-INFRA-2
start "" /wait %SystemDrive%\Apps\cdswitch.exe "SIMGV-POT-I2" %CDROM% /f:SIMGV-POT-I2
echo ...terminé...
echo .
echo Installation de Intel Desktop Utilities
start "" /wait %CDROM%\Intel\Desktop\setup.exe /S /v /qn
echo ...terminé...
echo .
echo Installation de LanDesktop manager
start "" /wait %CDROM%\Intel\LANDeskSystemManager.exe /S /v /qn
echo ...terminé...
echo .

When I capture the ISO of "SIMGV-POT-I2" with VPC, Cdswitch stop and the installation of programs in the cd-rom "SIMGV-POT-I2" can't run ! It's like Cdswitch close the execution of the script MS-DOS just after the switching.

Edited July 19, 2006 by El Matador Y Tyrannos

[Nanaki]

First:

cdswitch.exe "SIMGV-POT-I2" %CDROM% /f:SIMGV-POT-I2

"/f" is used in this way:

cdswitch.exe "SIMGV-POT-I2" /f:SIMGV-POT-I2

instead of using "%CDROM%" it searches for the drive that holds a file called "SIMGV-POT-I2" and uses that drive to ask for a new disc. I presume this isn't what you want.

Just change it to this:

cdswitch.exe "SIMGV-POT-I2" %CDROM%

The first thing that comes to my mind is this: is the batch file located on the disc that you're ejecting?

Edited July 19, 2006 by Nanaki

[El Matador Y Tyrannos]

Ok, now I don't use /f .

is the batch file located on the disc that you're ejecting?

That's right, my batch file is located in my own Windows cd-rom, but in the $OEM$ directory (with the file "cmdlines.txt" which launchs the script .bat). So I think that the batch file is copied on the hard drive just before the starting of Windows Installation and used for the installation of programs.

How can I do for being sure that my batch file is in hard drive and not to the Windows cd-rom ?

Edited July 19, 2006 by El Matador Y Tyrannos

[Nanaki]

So you're using cmdlines.txt? =)

I used to do that with this way:

[COMMANDS]
"..\Install\XPlode\XPlodelog.cmd"
"cdswitch WXHFPP2_NL 1 /F:WXHFPP1_NL"
"..\Install\XPlode\XPlodelog.cmd"

(very old cdswitch parameters, ignore those)

First I launched the batchfile from the Windows-disk (Disc One), you can of course also refer to %SystemDrive% or whatever.

Second, I launched CDswitch.

Third, I launched the second batchfile from Disc Two (you can also refer to another location of course).

[kof94]

@ Nanaki

Just to update you, I've tested the new CDSwitch in VM only and all is well. I havn't had a chance to do a real time test yet but I can't see it's gonna make a difference.

[El Matador Y Tyrannos]

First I launched the batchfile from the Windows-disk (Disc One), you can of course also refer to %SystemDrive% or whatever.

Second, I launched CDswitch.

Third, I launched the second batchfile from Disc Two (you can also refer to another location of course).

Quite simply !

Thank you very much for the help and of course the program !

[Nanaki]

@ Nanaki

Just to update you, I've tested the new CDSwitch in VM only and all is well. I havn't had a chance to do a real time test yet but I can't see it's gonna make a difference.

It shouldn't, thanks.

Quite simply !

Thank you very much for the help and of course the program !

Let's hope it works. =)

Just a reminder: I'll be gone for two weeks.

[kof94]

@Nanaki

I've found a bug .

Actually it's not that bad just interesting.

I run my entire unattended install with infs, the only batch file I have is to launch cdswitch. This .cmd, cdswitch.exe and cmdhide.exe are copied to HDD via an addon I've created at T-24 (ish).

cdswitch.exe and cmdhide.exe are copied to %systemroot%\system32 and my batch is copied to %systemroot%. This is finally executed via RunOnceEx at logon.

Anyway I changed the name of my .cmd last night to CDSwitch.cmd and experienced an interesting result.

CDSwitch sticks, recursing like a maniac, trying to find the disc label.

I fully tested everything to make sure it was cdswitch causing the problem. I found the only action I could take to fix the problem was to rename the .cmd to anything else other than CDSwitch.cmd.

As I said this isn't really a big bug but I though it might be worth noting.

This brings me to a new request.

For the next version would it be possible to add a function to execute a program using the disc label as the root of the disc.

so instead of using a batch

...
FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:\DVD.ICO SET CDROM=%%i:

cdswitch Disc_2 /g:Disc_1 /d /r:%CDROM%\WPI\WPI.hta
...

You could execute this via an inf with out setting a cdrom variable.

Somthing like this

cdswitch Disc_2 /g:Disc_1 /d /r:$Disc_2\WPI\WPI.hta

or is it this

cdswitch Disc_2 /g:Disc_1 /d /r:$Disc_2 & "\WPI\WPI.hta"

I'm a nOOb when it comes to AutoIt but you get the picture.

I don't know how easy this would be to code and if it's not possible don't worry but it would be a nice feature.

Anyway that's it, keep up the good work.

Edited July 28, 2006 by kof94