334 replies to this topic

[friske]

I saw a new version in october. what's new?

[v77]

I saw a new version in october. what's new?

 

There is the changelog on Sourceforge.
In fact, I didn't want to release something so soon, but there was a critical bug for those who use the ramdisk synchronization feature. I speak of that here.

Unless there is another critical issue, the next version should be a big one, with an important feature and a lot of bug fixes (perhaps some new ones too ).

Edited by v77, 09 October 2016 - 01:48 PM.

[v77]

Version 20161017
- MountImg.exe: added an option to mount the image file at system startup
- ImDisk-Dlg.exe: added support for mount points
- fix in MountImg.exe x64: on Windows 8 and later, the drag and drop could fail if the file is dragged from a 32-bit application
- fix in RamDiskUI.exe: Temp folder was not created for ramdisks that have just been created on mount point
- fix in RamDiskUI.exe: the workaround for non visible drive letters in Explorer fails since 20160726 and never worked for other drive letters than R:
- various minor fixes
 

 

This version brings an option in MountImg to mount image files at Windows startup. Files that don't require DiscUtilsDevio are directly mounted by the driver, like with the -P switch of imdisk.exe. Otherwise, a new service is added (ImDiskImg).
As always, there are tooltips to give some details.

There is also a lot of bug fixes, the main ones are in the changelog. In particular:

- There was a bug that prevented notifications to be sent at system startup. I used this opportunity to change the method. Instead of using the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry key, I have found a method to create a process in the user's session directly from the service, in order to bypass the session 0 isolation. This method has various advantages, such as to avoid to send notifications for nothing when the user logs on after being logged off.

- A bug of Windows prevents the drag and drop to work when the file comes from a 32-bit application and is dropped into a 64-bit one. I tried to discuss the issue here (see my answer for a summary of the "discussion"). As a fix, I choose the 2nd method. We can call that a hack but it seems to work well.

[v77]

I just found an interesting issue. Since the version 20160726, RamDiskUI creates the RamDyn process in the session 0 through a temporary service. The purpose was to avoid that it is killed before the data synchronization was done by the ImDiskTk-svc service.
But as the fast startup feature of Windows writes the whole session 0 onto the hard drive, this means that the dynamic ramdisks are now saved, like the static ramdisks.

Before the version 20160726, this was also the case for ramdisks created after a full restart, because RamDyn is created by the ImDiskRD service.
For the case where RamDyn was running in the user session, the ramdisk was recreated after a full restart, and disappeared with a shutdown/start because the shutdown kills the processes of the user's session and the fast startup does not restart the services.

Therefore, even if the situation is now more consistent from the user's point of view because RamDiskUI always puts RamDyn in session 0, I will have to change the text and the tests of the related dialog box.

This fast startup feature is really terrible for this kind of tool...

[TheHive]

Thanks for the update.

- MountImg.exe: added an option to mount the image file at system startup

- ImDisk-Dlg.exe: added support for mount points

 

 

Clean layout in installer and the explanation tool-tips are very helpful.

[v77]

Version 20161120
- RamDyn.exe: improved cleanup function (Security Margin parameter removed)
 

 

This version brings a new cleanup function for those who cannot use the TRIM commands with the dynamic ramdisks.

Instead of gradually filling the whole space with an empty file, a small empty file is now created and then moved on the free space with the FSCTL_MOVE_FILE control code.
With this command, the file system first checks that the destination does not contain used clusters, this is why it can be used reliably on a volume in use.
This command is less efficient than directly writing a file (especially with the FAT file systems), but as it is used only where memory blocks can be freed, in practice the final result should be faster in most cases. Consequently, the time required is now relative to the amount of RAM to free instead of the size of the empty space.

An advantage of this method is to avoid filling the empty space, which can be especially useful with softwares that monitor the size of the empty space.
This also means that the "Security Margin" parameter is no longer required. Therefore I removed everything related to it.

This version should also process all the requests slightly faster.

[v77]

Since several days, the Sourceforge webpage of ImDisk Toolkit is no longer indexed by Google (and using search Console changes nothing). Perhaps it's related to the previous version (20161120) which has been flagged as a threat by 23 / 56 antiviruses on VirusTotal...

Does someone know how to fix that?

[Wonko the Sane]

Since several days, the Sourceforge webpage of ImDisk Toolkit is no longer indexed by Google (and using search Console changes nothing). Perhaps it's related to the previous version (20161120) which has been flagged as a threat by 23 / 56 antiviruses on VirusTotal...

Does someone know how to fix that?

It's "queer". 

 

Right now it is first result  for me in google.it for "imdisk toolkit" (without quotes) it can be easily tested via lmgtfy:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=imdisk+toolkit

 

BUT try it with different browsers, it is first using Chrome (actually Iron) and nowhere to be seen using Opera nor QTweb. (first result is MajorGeeks)

 

Wonko

[v77]

The important decrease of the number of download per day shows that it's not only me (and you with Opera).
Moreover, similar searches with my other projets (ProxyCrypt and Whirlpool File Checker) display the SourceForge page at the first place, as usual.
Same results with IE11, and I don't use Chrome.

[Wonko the Sane]

If I use site:sourceforge.net I can of course find it in Opera or QTweb (obviously) BUT there is something still strange, first result is:

https://sourceforge....toolkit/driver/

 

that redirects neatly to Olof's LTR Data page:
http://www.ltr-data....de.html/#ImDisk

 

Wonko

[copyrighthero]

This thread is dedicated to the ImDisk Toolkit. This all-in-one package gathers several tools to let you mount many formats of image files and making a ramdisk with only a few clicks.
 
This includes the ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver, the DiscUtils library for managing the formats of image files like VHD, VDI, VMDK, etc., the RamDisk Configuration Tool (RamDiskUI), and some new GUI to use the capabilities of DiscUtils directly from Explorer and add some features.
 
Please note that RamDiskUI is no longer available alone, but can be used exactly like before. It has no dependency (except, of course, the ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver) and uses the same parameters than the previous versions.
 
 
You can download the installer of the ImDisk Toolkit and the sources here:
 
https://sourceforge....imdisk-toolkit/

 

Hello v77,

 

I really enjoy this software and update every time, but google seemed to have identifie your sourceforge page as 'contains harmful software', I think you might want to complain to google about this... 

 

Anyway, happy new year and thank you for your fantastic program <3

[v77]

Most files are removed from SourceForge. Therefore there is currently nothing to download. I will see if this can remove the alert from Google Safe Browsing.

[v77]

All the executables have been removed yesterday. Google Safe Browsing has just been updated, and still reports that https://sourceforge....imdisk-toolkit/ contains harmful programs.

I will still try to remove a few other things.

[v77]

Until this issue is fixed, the last version can be downloaded here:

32-bit: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=37405708159183936514
MD5: 43D8F2F1C913DABAD408206118B5E231
SHA-1: CAA8351E10CA603B60BD394866ACD3C837CFB703
SHA-256: C833505532F0DC5243C2CD07F5B63AA840FB47155E5D041027B669384BF10750

64-bit: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=77983549252186523070
MD5: 9DD73BEAC69C0166BDD9A50CDAD33653
SHA-1: 5A6D75B1AC64ABC1D1FF2A8133DD2121F44C93C5
SHA-256: 7C1601CA718887F055ABAD3E72CFA7A8A5B8C3E0FAA3EF03EF81F619D41A6607

Edited by v77, 05 April 2017 - 07:03 PM.

[v77]

Everything is now back to normal. A discussion of this topic can be found here.
Google Safe Browsing is no longer complaining, and a minor fix in the version 20170407 leads to an important decrease of the number of false positives by the antiviruses. Therefore, the 32-bit version is now directly hosted by SourceForge like before.

[v77]

Version 20180917
- installer: added an option to disable automatic loading of the ImDskSvc service which is installed by the driver
- installer: added a command line switch to set the installation folder
- RamDiskUI.exe: added informations in a tooltip about the image file that can be used to load data
- raised minimal volume size to 65 KB in RamDiskUI and MountImg because of a new size check appeared in driver 2.0.8
- fix in RamDiskUI.exe: synchronization parameters were not properly registered when a ramdisk on a drive letter was defined just after one on a mount point
- fix in ImDiskTk-svc.exe: the service could crash with several ramdisks to be synchronized
- fix in MountImg.exe: when a file was selected with the "..." button, the "OK" button was not enabled

 

 

It's been a while, but here is a new version of ImDisk Toolkit.

There are 2 important bug fixes, when the synchronization feature is used with several ramdisks.

I also added an option in the installer to disable the automatic loading of the ImDskSvc service. This service, installed by the driver, is not used by the tools of this package, so we can save some KB of our expensive RAM by avoiding its loading.
On a new install, the automatic loading is disabled by default.
On an existing install, the configuration of the service is kept (the option is set according to the current configuration).

[v77]

ImDisk Toolkit has just been selected to be on the next "Projects of the Week" of SourceForge, starting from September 24th, 2018.

This means that it will be displayed on the homepage of SourceForge (9 projects are randomly displayed on a list of 4 "Popular Projects").

[Wonko the Sane]

ImDisk Toolkit has just been selected to be on the next "Projects of the Week" of SourceForge, starting from September 24th, 2018.

This means that it will be displayed on the homepage of SourceForge (9 projects are randomly displayed on a list of 4 "Popular Projects").

 

Congratulations.

 

While I am here, cannot say if it may be of interest for the IMDISK ToolKit as a feature for a next release (or maybe it is already available in a late/last version) the "normal" IMDISK GUI cannot (I believe) use an extent on PhysicalDrive, while via command line it is possible see here:

http://reboot.pro/to...image/?p=192170

 

For which recently a good use was found (JFYI):

https://msfn.org/boa...k-disk-manager/

 

Wonko

 

[ppgrainbow]

Hey there!

 

I have found a bug involving trying to mount a hard disk image that has more than three partitions.

 

When I use the ImDisk Tooldisk version 20180917 to try to mount a 7.8GB partition, only the first 1.84 GB partition can be mounted and I can't view other partitions mounted in the extended partition.

 

When I check the second partition, I get this error message:

An error occurred while the mounting. Please check the partition.

UPDATE: I uninstalled both the toolkit and the driver and I only installed the ImDisk Toolkit again which has the driver. I once again mounted a 7.8GB partition split into four partitions and this is what I got:

 

https://imgur.com/a/YhzNGgb

 

A hard disk that is partitioned a primary partition and a extended partition with three logical drives are NOT supposed to have a fifth one...so something tells me that this could be a bug in the ImDisk driver.

 

I sure hope that you look into this issue and fix it!

 

Thank you! The ImDisk Toolkit is going good so far, but it needs more improvement.

Edited by ppgrainbow, 15 November 2018 - 09:10 PM.

[Olof Lagerkvist]

@ppgrainbow

The ImDisk driver does not handle these kinds of things so the problem cannot be there. However, depending on how this is handled by ImDisk Toolkit the problem could be in ImDisk API. I am very curious about what the master boot record and the boot record of the extended partition look like. Could you possibly share them somewhere? At least the MBR?

[ppgrainbow]

@ppgrainbow

The ImDisk driver does not handle these kinds of things so the problem cannot be there. However, depending on how this is handled by ImDisk Toolkit the problem could be in ImDisk API. I am very curious about what the master boot record and the boot record of the extended partition look like. Could you possibly share them somewhere? At least the MBR?

 

Sure. What tools can I use for viewing the information of the master boot record and the boot record of the extended partition/logical drives?

[Olof Lagerkvist]

Sure. What tools can I use for viewing the information of the master boot record and the boot record of the extended partition/logical drives?

 

You can start with the MBR and use my rawcopy tool. My usual website seems to have some trouble right now, but rawcopy is also available at a backup of the site: https://ltr-data.azu...les/rawcopy.zip

 

What we want here is the first 512 bytes of the disk image, like:

 

rawcopy 512 "C:\DOS\Hard Disk 1.vhd" "C:\DOS\HD1_MBR"

[ppgrainbow]

Thank you for the help!

 

I'll do that right now and update with the results.

 

Olaf, is it possible to  do a rawcopy of the logical drives inside the extended partition on the hard disk image and should I post the MBR here?

Edited by ppgrainbow, 15 November 2018 - 11:12 PM.

[Olof Lagerkvist]

Thank you for the help!

 

I'll do that right now and update with the results.

 

Olaf, is it possible to  do a rawcopy of the logical drives inside the extended partition on the hard disk image and should I post the MBR here?

 

Let's begin with the MBR in the first sector and post that here. From there we can later tell where the partition table for the extended partition is located.

[ppgrainbow]

Let's begin with the MBR in the first sector and post that here. From there we can later tell where the partition table for the extended partition is located.

 

Okie dokie.

 

Here are the contents if the MBR of C:\AMI486\SCSI HD #4.img: https://1drv.ms/u/s!...wIIPPBS03ceEAfy

 

I will remove the link to the contents of the MBR once you get it.