66 replies to this topic

[Wonko the Sane]

This was an interesting topic before it was shifted to unrelated matters.

Hey, this is the new way to communicate, I seem to remember you were one of those against keeping things on topic...

Can someone update the link to latest version of Virtual Storage Driver that works in win7 64-bit?

Are you sure that a "latest" version, and namely one working under Windows 7 AND in the 64 bit version of it actually EXISTS?

I assume the above batches would also need be better clarified and updated by their developer?

Nice assumption.


Wonko

[sambul61]

Wonko

There is no fair comparison btw asking a single somewhat relevant question in a thread and diverting a thread like this one entirely (by a former Mod!) to such BS direction.

Nonetheless, I asked the above question not to keep reading similar BS, but expecting a substantive answer. If you can't help, pls refrain from commenting nonsense. Unless of course you're actively seeking for a familiar round of our dating discussion.

[Wonko the Sane]

.... expecting a substantive answer. If you can't help, pls refrain from commenting nonsense.

No comparisons made.

Here is your main answer:

AFAIK a signed 64 bit Windows 7 compatible driver does NOT exist.

Another serious answer:

IMHO no need to touch the half @§§ed batches, they are OK as they are - for what they are meant to be.

If you can't help, pls refrain from commenting nonsense.

I hereby re-affirm my right to judge myself what is nonsense and post it (no matter if nonsensical or not to othere people's eyes).

I appreciate how thankful you are for having being pointed here actually answering one of your questions (missing the not so trivial detail that you wanted it Windows 7 AND 64 bit compatible):
http://reboot.pro/13624/page__st__2
(further answer issued thereby - unfortunately not at all helpful)


Wonko

[sambul61]

Though I have NOT tested this feature, the mount and umount should work allright with drag'n drop the image file over the batch (or a link to it)

I possibly missed that part, but... what image types (file extensions) this batch can mount as fully accessible drives in what Windows versions?

[Wonko the Sane]

I possibly missed that part, but... what image types (file extensions) this batch can mount as fully accessible drives in what Windows versions?

RAW images, NO matter which extensions you give them.

Repetita juvant.
http://reboot.pro/13624/page__st__7

What you may have read if you just had opened vsmount.cmd in notepad or actually tried running it without parameters or with the /? one:

ECHO %~nx0 -	Small batch file by jaclaz

ECHO			to install and mount a disk or drive image through VSS services

ECHO			Release ALPHA 0.01 13th September 2009

ECHO.

ECHO USAGE:

ECHO	vsmount [filename]

ECHO.

ECHO WHERE [filename] is the name of EITHER:

ECHO         a DISK (whole disk) image file with MBR and hidden sectors

ECHO or

ECHO         a DRIVE (partition/superfloppy) image file

ECHO.

ECHO For the joy of non-dinosaurs you can also use a PATH with spaces within

ECHO (and you don't even need to put it betweeen double quotes) ;-)

ECHO.

ECHO EXAMPLES:

ECHO vsmount C:\myimage.img

ECHO vsmount C:\My Stupid and abnormally long path including spaces\my image.img

Try them on whichever version of windows you have (32 bit).


Wonko

[sambul61]

Thanks. I seems to recall seen some GUI versions or advancements of these batches posted by other members on Reboot after the batches were released. If this recollection is correct, what are they? If not, what jaclaz's batches mentioned GUIs were related to? Sorry for missing this part...

[Wonko the Sane]

If not, what jaclaz's batches mentioned GUIs were related to?

Mentioned what/where/by whom?


Wonko

[sambul61]

I don't recall as said. Is jaclaz aware of "ANY" GUI or extra tools developed around his batches and posted on Reboot?

[Wonko the Sane]

I don't recall as said. Is jaclaz aware of "ANY" GUI or extra tools developed around his batches and posted on Reboot?

NO , but he may be aware of a couple pseudo-GUI's NOT posted on Reboot, though:
http://jaclaz.alterv...ts/VDM/vdm.html
(direct link):
http://jaclaz.alterv.../VDM/VDMCMD.ZIP
or:
http://jaclaz.alterv.../VDM/VDMALL.ZIP
and (direct link):
http://jaclaz.alterv...X/mbrfix0.2.zip


Wonko

[L A M A]

I'm confused, who is jaclaz?

[Holmes.Sherlock]

I'm confused, who is jaclaz?

http://reboot.pro/10068/

[Wonko the Sane]

Rest assured, he knows:
http://reboot.pro/user/2/


Wonko

[L A M A]

The way you guys mention jaclaz as "someone" from sky... i had to know if everyone HERE knew who he was (specially sambul61)

[Wonko the Sane]

The way you guys mention jaclaz as "someone" from sky... i had to know if everyone HERE knew who he was (specially sambul61)

He also knows, rest assured.
http://reboot.pro/10870/


Wonko

[Wonko the Sane]

Nice info, thanks.

The VSS drives are "as low level" and "as plug 'n play" as possible, meaning that when you run them and mount an image you will get (I am talking of the 32 bit version on XP, but the 64 bit one will probably be the same)

• a tray notification for "found new hardware"
• the image appears in disk management as a disk
• it is accessible through \\.\PhysicalDriven
• the formatted volumes/drives get a drive letter by mount manager
• the disk geometry is by default 255/63

VDK misses points #1 and #2 above and you need a .pln or .vmdk file to have the 255/63 geometry as the default is 64/32.

You can check the "in home" drivers, Firadisk and Winvblock, which since are "in constant development" and written by the good members of boot-land reboot.pro karyonix and Sha0 may be updated/bettered to include specific functions you may need, and possibly offer some added features.


Wonko

[bilou_gateux]

Someone asked about a 64-bit version...

From the Windows 7 SDK:

GRMSDK_EN_DVD.iso 594,841,600 bytes
cde254e83677c34c8fd509d6b733c32002fe3572

Use MSI Unpacker from jsware.net to extract the files from the relevant MSI (I don't recall offhand which one that is). The 64-bit version will be extracted to <path>\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\Bin\x64\vsstools.

The .inf file does not target any OS version(s), so hopefully it works under any 64-bit NT. The SDK has a 32-bit version of same.

I was looking for a driver to emulate a physical drive that would appear as such to the operating system and applications when found this thread. I already had the SDK on my computer and found the files but haven't fiddled with them yet. Is this worth exploring or are there better alternatives (non-commercial) to go to first? (I've used VDK).

Could you extract both x86 and x64 binaries, create an archive and upload it to a free storage provider (megaupload or hotfile or depositfiles or ...) and post here the download link.

I would like to check if release 7.1 is compatible with NT5.x builds.

After creation of fixed disk with this command:

vstorcontrol create fixeddisk -memory -size %size%M

I use this script to find, format, and mount it to folder %temp%:

@echo off

set DEBUG=1

if "%DEBUG%"=="1" (set TRACE=echo) else (set TRACE=rem)



set ID=

For /f "tokens=2 delims=:" %%? in ('vstorctl list ^|find /I "ID"') Do (

    call :__ParseDesc "%%?")

if defined Desc call set "ID=%Desc%"

set Desc=

echo.[%ID%]

set NB=

set DEFINITION=

For /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%? in ('dosdev -a^|find /i "VirtualBus#GenDisk#%ID%"^|find /I "\Device\HarddiskVolume"') Do (

    call :__ParseDesc "%%?")

if defined Desc call set "DEFINITION=%Desc%"

set Desc=

echo.[%DEFINITION%]

set nb=%DEFINITION:~-1%

echo.[%NB%]

set DL=

For /f "tokens=1 delims==" %%? in ('dosdev ^|find /i "%DEFINITION%"') Do (

    call :__ParseDesc "%%?")

if defined Desc call set "DL=%Desc%"

set Desc=

echo.[%DL%]

format %DL% /fs:NTFS /c /v:Temp /q /y

For /f %%# In ('Mountvol %DL% /L') Do (

    (Set "VOLGUID=%%#"))

Mountvol %DL% /D

Mountvol %temp% %VOLGUID%

goto :eof



:__ParseDesc

set "inVar=%~1"

%TRACE% Parsing: [%inVar%]

Call :__TRIM %inVar%

if not defined Desc set "Desc=%inVar%"

set inVar=

goto :EOF



:__TRIM

Set inVar=%*

GoTo :EOF

dosdev tool (post #4) required

[Wonko the Sane]

Knowing the usual MS convention of naming things the wrong way , it is quite easy to find them in:
\WinSDKWin32Tools

There are two files in the directory:

• WinSDKWin32Tools_x86.msi
• cab1.cab

Universal extractor extracts them allright (extract in subdirectory, "MSI Administrative Install"), the output goes to:
\WinSDKWin32Tools\WinSDKWin32Tools_x86\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\Bin\vsstools
(this is the 32 bit version)
and to:
\WinSDKWin32Tools\WinSDKWin32Tools_x86\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\Bin\x64\vsstools
(the x64 version)

It should be possible to download just the two mentioned files, respectively around 700 Kb and 10 Mb, using httpdisk:
http://reboot.pro/13049/
from here:
http://download.micr...MSDK_EN_DVD.iso


Now, the BAD news:
From the .inf, BOTH the 32 bit and the 64 bit version are:

DriverVer= 04/26/2005, 6.0.5062.0

so, not really "Windows 7"


Wonko

[Wonko the Sane]

Isn't that the truth...

JFYI, it is by design :
http://reboot.pro/3541/


Wonko

[bilou_gateux]

Blah. On XP64: "vstorcontrol.exe is not a valid win32 application". (not an architecture mismatch, should work on win7-64...)

same on Windows XP Professional 32bit

[erwan.l]

Hi Gents,

I hope I am not off topic but has anyone noticed the following about vss driver : it seems it has no MBR?

When opening the vss pseudo physical drive at byte 0 you actually end up on byte 0 of the logical drive?

Try it with Hxd Hexeditor or any disk hexa editor.

I noticed that when trying to restore a partition image to that vss pseudo drive, I ended up with a corrupted drive.

Not a big deal but disturbing, at least for me during playing around with that driver.

Regards,

Erwan

[erwan.l]

For the record, another file driver (i checked starport) does emulate a MBR, on top of showing in the disk management.

/Erwan

Attached Thumbnails

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[Wonko the Sane]

erwan
how did you create the image?

If you create a hard disk image OUTSIDE VSS, (of course an image with the MBR) it has the MBR allright when mounted in VSS (I actually used the VSS drivers ONLY this way) so what you report is strange.

And yes storport is a "good" driver, just like Total mounter.


Wonko

[erwan.l]

Uhm indeed, I feel stupid : cant reproduce it
Vstorcontrol create fixeddisk -memory -size 256M gives me a physical drive, I formatted it and now I see my mbr...

Looks like that when I restore a partition image to my vss logical drive, then I end up having my restored partition starting at offset 0 of the physical drive..
Checking again.

/Erwan

Edit : my mistake, it was a bug on my side.
Actually, I am happy I "played" with this VSS driver and was therefore able to fix a bug in my software