Why has WinUAE's code-base changed such that it gains exclusive access to some drives
 

This is a serious problem for me and I doubt affects many other people so I would like to know why this has changed. Please allow me to explain:

Around six months ago was the last time I used WinUAE. I run various configurations each utilising one or more virtual HDDs and I store both configs and HDDs (file images and directory types) along with assorted Amiga software on an Iomega REV disk, a removable drive. Six month ago this setup worked fine but no longer as WinUAE is grabbing exclusive access to the drive thus preventing any virtual drives from being able to be mounted nor can I browse the disk in Windows Explorer (instead I get a "Please insert disk" or "Drive unavailable" message.)

After testing I know this is a WinUAE and not a Windows problem as version 2.00 works fine (I chose this version due to it being the first release of v2 and because I don't remember what version was out six months ago.)

Please can someone explain this all to me as I am now forced to use an old version with all its bugs if I am to continue using my REV drive (many GBs) to emulate Amiga software. I need to find which latest version works now of course, I'll post that if needed.

Thank you for any help you can give me.

The latest version that works is 2.3.3 which I guess makes sense as moving up to .4 suggests a major change. Guess I'll be sticking with this for the time being then. :(

WinUAE won't lock anything, even when mounting whole physical drives.

You didn't really say what are you exactly doing. (config, logs etc..)

EDIT: try 2.4.2 beta, there was one real drive mounting issue but it only should prevent mounting completely in some situations.

Perhaps it's something to do with CD emulation. The REV drive identifies itself as an optical read-only drive. Only if Iomega drivers are installed it allows write access, using UDF as file system.

I did try fiddling with the settings in the Misc. section but nothing substantial; any suggestions on what I should turn off or on? Thanks for the suggestion thomas.

Toni: It isn't really important what my config is unless something's changed, that's my point; it was working fine before. I did try the beta (latest one- 6 I think) but with no luck. I don't think I'd encountered that particular bug but thanks all the same.

Try disabling harddrives/CDFS automount CD/DVD drives.

Unchecking "CDFS automount CD/DVD drives" worked which means that WinUAE is treating these types of drives differently. Checking "Include CD/DVD drives" in v2.3.3 doesn't cause the problem. I guess it's logical to treat CDs and DVDs as read-only but we've had rewritable media for a long time now and I assume the Amiga has the ability to write to these disks too. It also doesn't help me where certain consumer drives are treated in Windows (XP at least) as optical drives. I wonder if this is because of XP- I think I'm sure that UDF had to be treated like rewritable CD media due to limitations in the OS and how UDF came after XP's launch. It's a long shot then that someone else has a REV drive or similar product that they could test WinUAE with in Vista, 7 or 8.
It also means of course that I cannot use actual physical CD/DVD media and will have to image these disks if I want to use them (Fred Fish et al.!)
Any advice on where to go from here? I can do what I was doing before except for accessing my REV drive as a disk. There is the option to mount it as a drive but it lists it as "[EMPTY]" and I'm not sure what settings to use so I'm a bit afraid to do this for fear of messing up the files on it. I guess this isn't a major problem but I am still interested to hear what changed from a technical standpoint in WinUAE's code.

CD access system changed, previously it was fake (accessed just like read-only directory harddrive = missing protection flags, comments and wrong case, truncated names etc.. depending on used CD), now it uses low level access and filesystem emulation is inside winuae (using modified linux isofs that includes full Amiga protection flags and comment support)

Drive is opened in shared read-only mode = won't affect other programs (including Windows Explorer) that also access CD in read-only mode. (Reason why there is no drive specific options)

Your problem is caused by your weird drive that says "I am a CD ROM, really!" but actually is something else and apparently its driver "locks" it when it is being accessed directly..

Only way to fix this is to implement black list for stupid devices.

Attach winuaelog.txt (tick logging enable checkbox in misc panel) with CD/DVD mount checkbox enabled. (Can be used to get the exact device name and other information)

I object to you calling it stupid, you've hurt its feelings! But on the other hand I appreciate you wanting to solve this problem. I mean it can't be the only device that causes this to happen right? And I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that it's a Windows XP limitation rather than a poor design by the manufacturers. I mean I can't say why they decided to use UDF but they can't be the only ones.
Anyway, here's two log files, one for my AmiKIT config and one for AiaB.

Thanks. 2.4.2b6 has simple blacklist check, could you check if it fixes the problem?

It still "opens" the device, then queries the device name (and closes it if blacklisted). Doing it this way may still cause the problem.

More difficult solution is to query Windows device database for the name but it is more complex and annoying..

Sorry for the delay, I've been busy and unable to test.
Trying the latest beta (7 as of today), which I presume retains the additional code, boots fine BUT does not mount the drive. Regular CD-ROMs are mounted though and their contents can be browsed.
I am accessing mounted directories on the REV drive, in case you've forgotten in the time since we last tackled this, including an entire installation of OS 3.(1, 5, 9, I forget!) for AiaB.
Cheers.

Do you mean this update solved the problem? No more disappeared/locked REV drive?

It is correct that it isn't mounted as a CDROM anymore.

Righto, so how do I now go about mounting it? All of the other options are ticked on but it still doesn't appear on the desktops.
Did you find any other problematic drives? I'm surprised nobody's used a ZIP or Jazz drives with WinUEA before for example.

Does the drive still disappear from Windows?

IoMega Zip ja Jazz drives work fine, they report as being normal removable harddrives, not some weird CDROMs..

It never disappeared at all, what would happen is that it would be "locked down". That is, if you had an Explorer window navigated to a directory on the drive when you booted WinUAE and you then tried to further navigate back in Explorer you'd get an error message. This also meant that no files on the drive (including Amiga OS installations) could be used by WinUAE; the drive was still there though.
Now this no longer happens but the drive is not mounted as a Windows drive on the emulated Amiga desktops. All my other drives are there and everything works fine (including browsing the REV drive in Explorer), it's just if I want to access files on it in WinUAE I have to mount a directory as a new virtual drive. It's a workaround but it's still 'wrong' that the REV drive isn't mounted in its own right, am I correct?
There must be some other device with this same problem!:laughing:guru
The REV is actually getting pretty old now as solid-state drives get cheaper; you could probably pick one up very cheap somewhere if you're interested.;)

Do people still use those?

They did back in the early 2000s! A terabyte was as futuristic as Star Trek way back then!

Add the drive letter as a directory harddrive ("Add directory or archive") button to mount it.

Unfortunately it can't be mounted automatically (even if mount PC drives or CD/DVD is ticked) anymore.

It only worked accidentally previously because old CD/DVD supported mounted all CD drives (and any other that looked like a CD drive, including this weird REV drive) as a directory hardrive.