IMDisk starts from C drive

[boleary]

Hi Alaine, I've started a new thread in case this is an issue that others encounter. When I fired up XX this morning it happened again: after starting the bat file, XX showed that it started from the C drive instead of the A drive. One other issue too. It seems that in W8 when I made changes to XX settings while playing from the A drive those settings were saved and appeared the next time I started XX. Now, W7, whenever I start from the A drive the settings revert to those that were last used when playing off the C drive. To have changed settings be saved I have to close out of the A drive, open XX from the C drive, change the settings, close then reopen from the A drive.

Okay here's the bat file:

@ECHO OFF
rem Creation of the "B:\" drive for playback ramdisk
rem Replace the number "2" in the "-s 2g" with a lower or higher value if desired
rem "2g" means 2GB of ramdisk
IMDISK -a -m B: -s 2g -o hd,rem -p "/fs:exfat /q /A:2m /y"

rem Creation of the folder "xxplay" in playback ramdisk drive
MD B:\xxplay

rem remove the word "REM" from the following line if you do not want any ramdisk for XXHE
rem EXIT

rem Creation of the "A:\" drive for XXHE and XXData ramdisk
rem After the "-s ", what follows is the size of the ramdisk
rem "m" after a number means amount of MB (Megabytes) of ramdisk
rem "g" after a number means amount of GB (Gigabytes) of ramdisk
IMDISK -a -m A: -s 3g -o hd,rem -p "/fs:exfat /q /a:512 /y"

rem -- At the right of the "=" in the following lines:
rem -- Specify the source drive where XXHE is located (JUST a LETTER)
SET XXDRIVE=C
rem -- Specify the XXHE directory to copy FROM (no "\" to begin or end)
SET XXHE=XXHighEnd-09-z9

rem Copying the content of physical XXHighEnd and XXData in ramdrive
XCOPY %XXDRIVE%:\%XXHE% A:\%XXHE%\ /E /Q /Y
XCOPY %XXDRIVE%:\XXdata A:\XXdata\ /E /Q /Y

START A:\%XXHE%\XXHighEnd.exe

Thanks so much for the help!

p.s. We only got an inch of snow last night. Hallelujah!

[PeterSt]

Hi Brian,

whenever I start from the A drive the settings revert to those that were last used when playing off the C drive.

This will be because you didn't fill the "Copy Settings to" near the top in Settings with your XX folder on the c: drive.

Regards,
Peter

[PeterSt]

SET XXHE=XXHighEnd-09-z9

Seems wrong to me (for 1.186).
Is also wrong because it should contain the full path (excluding Drive Letter to remain consistent with the remainder of the .bat file).

XCOPY %XXDRIVE%:\%XXHE% A:\%XXHE%\ /E /Q /Y

So this is not right as well, and should be

XCOPY %XXDRIVE%:%XXHE% A:\%XXHE%\ /E /Q /Y

START A:\%XXHE%\XXHighEnd.exe

And this one I don't understand at all. Starting of XXHighEnd shouldn't be part of this.

Peter

[PeterSt]

Actually I don't see why to make it so complicated and fuzzy. Look, here is mine :

imdisk -a -m a: -s 2G -o hd,rem -p "/FS:EXFAT /Q /A:512 /Y"
imdisk -a -m b: -s 2G -o hd,rem -p "/FS:EXFAT /Q /A:2m /Y"

md a:\XXHighEnd
xcopy c:\xxhighend\1.186\*.* a:\XXHighEnd\*.*

md a:\XXData

xcopy c:\XXData\*.* a:\XXData\*.*

Outside the lacking explanations there's only one thing to change with a new version, and it is totally clear what that is. Edit : That will be the text in bold above.
Ok, again, now with explanations :

REM We assume XXHighEnd and the XX Data folder to be on drive c:.

REM The 2G is for 2 Gigabyte of RAMDisk.
REM We use drive a: and drive b: for the two RAMDisks.
imdisk -a -m a: -s 2G -o hd,rem -p "/FS:EXFAT /Q /A:512 /Y"
imdisk -a -m b: -s 2G -o hd,rem -p "/FS:EXFAT /Q /A:2m /Y"

REM Note with the last line above : Denote b:\ as your Playback Drive in Settings.

md a:\XXHighEnd
REM Change the below to where your XX foler resides.
REM Change the (implied) version number when a new XXHighEnd version is in order.
xcopy c:\xxhighend\1.186\*.* a:\XXHighEnd\*.*

REM \XXData is assumed to be your XX Data Folder (see Settings).
md a:\XXData

xcopy c:\XXData\*.* a:\XXData\*.*

REM Make a separate Icon on your Desktop that starts A:\XXHighEnd\XXHighEnd.exe (and denote "Start in" as : A:\XXHighEnd)
REM Denote "Copy Settings to" in XXHighEnd Settings as c:\XXHighEnd\1.186\ (which is consistent with the above used folders)
REM Change the default \XXData\ in XXHighEnd Settings to c:\XXData\ (which is consistent with the above used folders)

Edit : I added the last two lines above.

[AlainGr]

Hi Peter,

Hum... I would be a little confused if I was not computer savvy

I don't see anything in Brian's batch file that would be odd...

The only thing I can say is that when I go in XXHE settings the first time (the physical XXHE of course), I specify that XXDATA is C:\XXDATA (if this makes sense with the situation). So anything that is saved in XXDATA will be saved on the physical XXDATA (aka C:\XXDATA)...

Also the command line:
START A:\%XXHE%\XXHighEnd.exe

I prefer not to have it started automatically, even if this implies a second operation.

What I do to prevent this is put a "REM" in the beginning of the line, like this:
REM START A:\%XXHE%\XXHighEnd.exe
"REM" means that this line will not execute.

Then I go in the A: drive and in the XXHE folder to get the xxhighend.exe program and bring it on the desktop as a shorcut.

Then I rename that icon to "XXHE RAM", so I know that each time I select this shortcut, it is the version in ram...

About the settings not being replicated for the next session, Peter answered it with this post: http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2890.msg30475#msg30475

I just hope this helps.... But really I don't see anything wrong with the batch file... (sorry Peter, but it works perfectly here)

Alain

EDIT: Not much snow has fallen (maybe 4 inches), but the expressways are not as easy as usual... Took me almost double time to get to work... 2 feet of snow are announced at some places, but luckily not here ! Fiewwww...

[PeterSt]

Alain, of course it works perfectly with you, which is because you made it working for you. Still my remarks are valid and it is only that you don't see it. For example, put your XXHE in a folder structure like I have it (which is proper while yours is not) and one already won't know what to do.

As I told you long ago, yours is unnecessarily complicated, takes more lines to change (or check and understand !) than mine, it is actually reduntant (data to check or change is spread over several lines while thus one is suffiient) and it not as clear at all. Mine can't be more clear. I'm sorry (and again, remember that I told you so already).

Then your SET commands will work out only when the OS feels like it, but it takes reasoning I can't at this moment why something would start from c: instead of from a:. Still it is so that the SET's will only work "later", which is exactly the same as the reason why you receive the message about Alt-x only working after starting XXHighEnd a second time from the same location (after in there a similar SET has been performed). Btw there could be a difference between W7 and W8 here.

I am confident that my way of working can't go wrong, while yours contain several pitfalls. If you don't like to see that, then not, but now you tell why it doesn't work with Brian. I've had my take on this.

Regards,
Peter

PS: I added two remarks for clarity amongst which your mentioned "c:\XXData\".

[AlainGr]

Peter,

I am ok with what you say. I know that you have a lot more experience about teaching to all of us about the necessary details in the interest of all.

Yet I have to add that all I did has always been not in my only interest, but in the interest of the many.

In final, I certainly hope that Brian has not been too puzzled with the difference in our respective explanations... and I hope all will go well for him and of course, for all our colleagues

Now I will go outside to remove some snow and swear a little just to evacuate my frustration (joke)

Regards,

Alain

[boleary]

Thanks guys. Looks like I won't be able to get back to this till tomorrow. Will download Peter's file and check it out.

[acg]

START A:\%XXHE%\XXHighEnd.exe

And this one I don't understand at all. Starting of XXHighEnd shouldn't be part of this.

Peter

Can I ask why Peter?  I press the power button on my computer and windows boots, automatically creates and populates the RAMdisks and then starts XXHighEnd from RAMdisk.  It works well!

Anthony

[PeterSt]

Anthony,

Who says that when I boot my PC I want to *and* start that RAMDisk *and* start XXHighEnd ? So if you explicitly want to, then OK, but in my thinking it is already "wrong" to explicitly want that. This already counts for when booting into Normal OS and you'd most certainly don't want it then, but still it happens. Waiting waiting waiting.
And the counterpart ? Just click one icon after booting to initialize the RAMDisk. And yes, one other icon to start XXHighEnd. But *that* is what we do all the time.

Think what all can happen when you are changing versions, need a reboot, or try to set this up in the first place while not exactly knowing what you are doing. It will be a total mess for those people.

So it's just wrong procedure.

I have an icon for that RAMA.bat on my desktop. I click it when I need to initialize the RAMDisk, which can also happen more than one time duing a boot session. Of course it is common procedure to click it right after a boot (in MinOS - just saying). Of course it is common procedure to click the "XXHighEnd From A" icon after that when I first start XXHighEnd after that reboot. Big deal. But also totally clear what you are doing. Understandable.
And when I once in a while don't want that (which could be dozens of times at trialling and which could be more unique to my situation) then I just don't click those icons.

So that.
Peter

[boleary]

Ever since I turned off cover art I have not had a problem with  IMdisc and XX starting from the C drive.

[PeterSt]

Interesting ...

[AlainGr]

Could it be an environment variable that is not correct ? Maybe send to Brian a small script that simply display them in a text file and ask him to open and print in a post ?

Someting like
Set > xxenv.txt

Alain

[PeterSt]

Ever since I turned off cover art I have not had a problem with  IMdisc and XX starting from the C drive.

I can only imagine that something gets hogged too much from Coverart being too stressful when bringing up XXHighEnd during Unattended while playback is still going on (and then starting from c:). But I never saw Brian say exactly that. This is really puzzling ...

[BertD]

START A:\%XXHE%\XXHighEnd.exe

And this one I don't understand at all. Starting of XXHighEnd shouldn't be part of this.

Can I ask why Peter?  I press the power button on my computer and windows boots, automatically creates and populates the RAMdisks and then starts XXHighEnd from RAMdisk.  It works well!

Anthony

Starting XX from ImDisc directly using the batch file (nested in the auto start directory) does not work for me.

I need to create a shortcut from the RamDrive to have XX started from there and not from C:

Bert