Checking drives on XP

[Dave Cragg]

At 1:22 am -0800 12/3/03, Richard Gaskin wrote:
>Dave Cragg wrote:
>
>>  At 10:32 pm -0800 11/3/03, Richard Gaskin wrote:
>>>  To test for the presence of a CD, I use a technique widely 
>>>discussed here in
>>>  which we get a list of mounted devices by checkng the drives function, and
>>>  then walk through the list checking for a specific file known to be on the
>>>  CD we're looking for.
>>>
>>>  On all platforms this metod works great - except XP.
>>>
>>>  In XP, it seems that checking for the existence of a file will cause the OS
>>>  to bring up an errr dialog if the device is for removable media 
>>>and no media
>>>  is currently in the drive.  Bummer.
>>
>>  No solution, but a little more information below from an earlier post.
>>
>>
>>  At 1:05 am +0000 24/12/02, Dave Cragg wrote:
>>>  No great help, but a little more information. The system error
>>>  message you describe doesn't always occur in XP, and it can occur in
>>>  other Windows versions. I've seen it in NT 4.0, and have had reports
>>>  of it happening with Win 2000.
>>>
>>>  I first experienced it  when scanning drives for a file on a CD
>>>  after re-installing XP. Previously, with XP on the same machine, I
>>>  hadn't got the message. I did a search on the web, and came across a
>>>  similar story concerning a software installer (unrelated to
>>>  Metacard) that scanned drives during its install. Some people were
>>>  getting the message and others weren't. One report described two
>>>  identical machines, only one of which had the problem . The machine
>>>  not experiencing the problem was apparently loaded with much more
>>>  software. Intrigued, I installed some more software on my machine,
>>>  and the problem disappeared and hasn't returned.
>>>
>>>  I guess that leaves you more puzzled than before. :)
>>
>>  The problem still hasn't returned on my XP machine. But I still have
>>  reports from some users on Win 2000.
>
>Interesting....
>
>Have you been able to identify the differences on your system between the
>time it had the error and when the error went away?
>
>I don't suppose it was as simple as having media in those drives, no?
>

Afraid not.

When I had the problem myself, I'd just re-installed XP and added 
very little software. I think (but memory vague) the only additional 
software that had been added via an installer was Office 97 and the 
Wise Installer system. But I do remember that after reading about the 
"loaded" computer anomoly that I installed Norton Anti-Virus and the 
problem disappeared (I didn't run NAV, only installed it). So maybe 
NAV has a use after all. :)

It's a bit annoying and I've had to disable a feature because of it. 
Normally, it's not such a problem if the error message comes up when 
the user is expected to have a CD in the drive. However, I have a 
situation where it's optional -- the application will normally load 
media from a web server, but if a media CD is present in the drive, 
it will use that. So the app checks for the CD each time it loads 
media, which is annoying for users who don't have a CD present.

Most users haven't reported a problem, but when I do get reports, 
it's from clusters of users from the same place. Presumably they have 
similarly configured machines.

But I don't fancy going through the process of installing XP again to 
track this down. :)

If you find any more info, please let us know.

Cheers
Dave