Besides I have a rather specific experience with using VDK and I guess ALL or MOST similar Filedisk/Ramdisk kind of drivers, in other words, I know NOTHING about what is inside the car boot, but I can drive fast enough.
VDK was written by Ken Kato for Windows 2000, using actually a lot of "presumptions" based on NT 4.0. (including it's default geometry of nx64x32)
Though an exceptionally good app, it was never properly "updated" with the needed changes.
As you know I am mainly a 2K user, VDK will never "hang" on a 2K machine.
You can make a batch to INSTALL/START/OPEN and then CLOSE/STOP/REMOVE it ALL the times you want, it WON'T hang.
As soon as you try using on XP, it will probably hang as soon as you REMOVE it and try to restart it.
This behaviour has been reported constantly by several users and of course these reports have become more frequent since the "BootSDI" and similar methods of booting became "main stream".
peter (psc) rebuilt the driver, with Ken Kato's permission, in a "special" version for the Winbuilder based projects, in an attempt to correct this behaviour.
Recently more reports were brought to his attention and he is seemingly willing to review once again the code to solve this problem.
My guess, based uniquely on my above summed up experience with these drivers is that a profound re-writing of the code is needed to solve the mentioned problem and to finally fill the original TODO list:
http://chitchat.at.i...e/vdk.html#todo
TODO
Will appear in the next major release:
Allow non-administrative users to use the program.
Virtual disk manipulation such as REDO log merging, defragment, type conversion, creation, etc.
May appear someday...
Better compatibility with Win2K/XP (PnP support, Mount Manager support, etc).
GUI front end program.
Virtual disk error correction.
Thogh very similar, XP and 2K differ, expecially when it comes to mounted filesystems (just think about VSS).
Though very similar, Vista and XP differ, expecially when it comes to mounted filesystems (just think about transactional NTFS, different approach to Removable devices, differnt FORMAT command and what not).
PE environments, though strictly connected to the corresponding "base" OS behave differently.
Pretending that a KERNEL DRIVER developed on NT 4.00 and adapted to Win2K still works without a glitch on XP, Vista, now 7 and the corresponding PE's is asking for a miracle.
It's has been years that I go around this board BEGGING to find a programmer interested in doing this rewrite/update, this same topic has come to the surface for YEARS, and after some "bla.-bla" it was EACH time left behind to do something more important.
Now it's the right time to take a decision.
Option 1: We put VDK in (early) retirement
Option 2: We solve the §@ç#ing problems once and for all.
jaclaz