General Questions

[* Beta 5 *]

I wasn't very impressed with the GUI for physdiskwrite, although I do appreciate the author of the program for making it. The GUI was not written completely in English, and I found it to be somewhat bloated for just being a GUI. I just started using m0n0wall and have found it to be a great firewall, so I thought I would do my part to contribute. Please test this GUI front-end that I made for physdiskwrite, and let me know if you run into any problems. I have tested this only on XP Pro SP3.


* Beta 5 *
http://www.datafilehost.com/d/e3b9b98e

* Source Code *
http://www.datafilehost.com/d/99b0dcea


Beta 5 change log: [Oct 5th, 2013]
------------------------
- device combobox now retains selected device when dropdown arrow is selected
- some GUI controls are disabled when not needed
- terminate running physdiskwrite if GUI is closed
- remove statusbar information when appropriate
- prevent main window gui interaction when neccessary
- error check to make sure physdiskwrite.exe exists in directory
- make sure image path is a valid path to a file

Beta 4 change log:
------------------------
- added new filter in file dialog to allow all file types

Beta 3 change log:
------------------------
- added abort button
- writing status is a little more animated in the statusbar
- disabled the write button when a write is in progress

Beta 2 change log:
------------------------
- fixed image path problem

Thanks for this.

One thing I have noticed so far is that you can browse to the location of the image file you wish to write and select the file. The image file can be anywhere.

But nothing gets written unless the image file is in the same directory as the ImageWriter.exe program.

The other thing, that most physdiskwrite users probably already know is that the program must be run as Administrator.

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't notice the image location problem since the image I was using was located in the same folder as the GUI. This should be an easy fix. I also will implement a check to determine if a user has administrator rights and warns users if they lack the appropriate rights. On a side note, I read the following:

physdiskwrite works with Vista, but you must make sure to run it as administrator (simply having admin rights isn't enough), or it won't find any disks.

It appears that administrator rights isn't enough. I find that kind of odd but I don't have Vista or Windows 7 currently available to test that.

Was a simple fix to correct image path problem you were having Fred Grayson. I would appreciate further feedback to eliminate any problems before submitting stable version to Manuel Kasper.

Please download any further updates from my initial post. Updated to beta 2.

Thanks for the update.

On XP SP3 the problem with the image file being somewhere other than in with the program is resolved.

I also tested this on Windows 7 Enterprise running in a VM under XP SP3. It worked fine when right clicking on the program and selecting "Run as Administrator."

I currently don't have a native Windows 7 or Vista box here, and running in a VM had added complexity with virtualizing USB devices. Although it did work for me under these conditions, it should of course be tested by other in native installs of these other OSs.

Thanks again for this. I find it to be a valuable addition to the toolset.

Once again thanks for the feedback Fred Grayson. I've updated the link above to beta 3.

- added abort button
- writing status is a little more animated in the statusbar
- disabled the write button when a write is in progress

I will look further into admin rights a little later when I get a chance to install my Windows 7.

I still haven't tried it but i would suggest something - You could do it in Java, so it would be cross-platform.

I still haven't tried it but i would suggest something - You could do it in Java, so it would be cross-platform.

Thats probably the most sensible way to program this particular gui. I have no experience programing in java though. I will provide my source code soon so maybe someone could port it over. Guess it could be somewhat useful.

By the way I like your photographs on your website Јаневски. Well done.

My first post now has a download link for the source code. Most of it uses the Windows API. Also has physdiskwrite included. Can been compiled use the masm32 package freely downloadable from http://www.masm32.com/.

I still haven't tried it but i would suggest something - You could do it in Java, so it would be cross-platform.

Thats probably the most sensible way to program this particular gui. I have no experience programing in java though. I will provide my source code soon so maybe someone could port it over. Guess it could be somewhat useful.

By the way I like your photographs on your website Јаневски. Well done.

Thanks a lot.

One other suggestion. In the file name drop down list, please have a choice for all file types, not just .img

Thanks.


Edit:

I took care of this myself by hex editing the executable file, changing img to *

Fred Grayson thanks for the suggestion. Updated first post to beta 4.

- added new filter in file dialog to allow all file types

Thanks. Keep up the good work!

Updated to beta 5. I would appreciate any feedback.

I'll have a look and get back to you.

Edit:

Works fine. Thanks!