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Thread: Programming Challenge?

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    Programming Challenge?

    Right, this might be a PoP for someone here but it has my brain confused. I'm moving all my data from my backup DVDs to my new RAID array and its a PITA as I have to do this one at a time.

    Requirement - automated copying of files from DVD drives to HDD under W7
    Hardware- two DVD drives (E: and F
    Storage: one 2Tb drive D:

    I can do this for a single drive by using autoplay to call a rip.bat script which copies files using DOS copy command to the location and then ejects the disk. I then swap the DVD and push the next disk in and it does its stuff until it ejects again. Rip.bat is basically

    xcopy e:\*.* d:\crap\
    nircmd eject e:

    What I want is to be able to get both DVD drives working. So the batch file needs to cope with that. You might assume I could replace "e:" in the script with a variable. I could detect whether a given drive has a disk in it but that doesn't help as that drive might be already copying so I'd end up trying to access that drive twice and not get the other drive working.

    Any ideas? Solutions even better!!

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    two .bat files, one for e: and one for f:? I presume you can set different autoplay targets for each DVD drive?

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    I dont think you can set diff autoplays for a media type on a per drive basis. Have you found you can?

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    Quote Originally Posted by Methanoid View Post
    Have you found you can?
    I've never tried, to be honest Just the first thing that came into my head. If that's not possible then I'd have to wade through documentation to come up with an answer, and my employers might not like me doing that when I'm supposed to be automating an Excel report export...

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    Thanks. I appreciate any and all suggestions. And any time that can be spent on it (outside of work time!)

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    was your batch file stalling when trying to access the other drive?

    if you use Start (command) then it will simply move to the next command if the first one fails.
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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jay View Post
    was your batch file stalling when trying to access the other drive?

    if you use Start (command) then it will simply move to the next command if the first one fails.
    Youve lost me. If I inserted a disk in the other drive it tried to execute batch file and (assuming the normal drive was empty) then completed and ejected the normal drive. Did nothing at all on the "other" drive.

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    So what happend if you run...

    @echo off

    xcopy e:\*.* d:\crap\
    xcopy f:\*.* d:\crap\
    nircmd eject e:
    nircmd eject f:
    □ΞVΞ□

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jay View Post
    So what happend if you run...

    @echo off

    xcopy e:\*.* d:\crap\
    xcopy f:\*.* d:\crap\
    nircmd eject e:
    nircmd eject f:
    I dont need to run that to know.. it would start this batch file as soon as each disk was run. That would result in it trying to access each drive twice.. BAD news and two copies of the files, that would be assuming the DVD drives survived being hammered reading the file twice in each case at same time!!

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    We have a winner.. A kind chap on another UK forum knocked up a VB program that does just what is needed. And runs until I tell it to stop. I'm sorted but thanks for the input guys.

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    Do you have a link for the program? Thanks in advance if you do.
    ... I use now a big vent for the whole machine now, but I cant use it forever, it is my grandma's ventilator...

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    It was done by an Aria forums member who took it offline after I downloaded it. You'd have to ask him. I doubt he'd object.

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    Hi
    There are two types of programming challenges - code completion and help-free challenges. Code completion problems are designed for beginners to get a grasp of syntax while practicing basic algorithms.

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    Following the resounding success of my last request (and very useful solution I was given) I've been wondering about some simple batch jobs to automate some more processes. I'm building a server for 24/7 use and it makes sense for that to do as many processes automatically to minimize the time I spend at a machine doing routine rubbish. So a new challenge for the DOS batch file gurus I suspect!!

    1) A batch file ideally, as it is easily amended. From a given start directory, delete any file that isn't suffixed with .ISO and then zip each remaining ISO file. Then delete the source file leaving the Zip(s) only

    2) As backing up files is important I am thinking to backup some stuff to usenet (encrypted!). So, taking a single file, SAMPLE.EXT, RAR it (with the file split at a given size say 15Mb splits), then PAR to create a 10% PAR set. Probably need to use the commandline RAR and PAR tools. As I will have lots of larger files to backup it's not userfriendly to import them into usenet software or do it all manually. Being able to run a script or drop 20 files on a script file to work would be much much easier. The end result of all this should be SAMPLE.Rar1-20 plus SAMPLE.Par1-5

    Any help, either in form of complete solutions or pointers or discussion (which can help me solve it myself) will help!

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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    Using usenet as an offsite backup ?
    Ever further from its roots as a text discussion forum !
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    Re: Programming Challenge?

    Quote Originally Posted by mikerr View Post
    Using usenet as an offsite backup ?
    Ever further from its roots as a text discussion forum !
    Binary groups. I saw it suggested as a cheap way of offsite backup. Post an encrypted set of files with heavy duty encryption and meaningless filenames and to a group like alt.binaries.test ... Cheaper than Amazon S3 isnt it?

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