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USB Safely Remove 4.0, bug-report, suggestions to improve

Posted: Apr 12th, 2008, 4:56 pm
by Igor
Today, on April 12th, we have released the first public beta-version of USB Safely Remove 4.0. It will being in development during some time, before we will have released the final version. Therefore we would like to get as much your feedback regarding new functionality as possible (card-readers support, drive letter management):
1. Is this functionality useful for you?
2. What aspects of this functionality would you recommend to improve?
3. And of course, please, send us bugs or strangeness in new version.

Find full description of the new features here: Version 4.0 beta 3 description

Download the version:
USB Safely Remove 4.0 b3

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April 23, USB Safely Remove 4.0 b3 is released! See latest changes here:

Version 4 Beta1

Posted: Apr 12th, 2008, 10:13 pm
by Midnight
Just installed the Beta and apart from the fact that the Free license key does not work, the program works fine. No bugs so far and the new features are very useful. It finds my scanner and all (3) card readers instantly.
This qualifies as a Final!! Darn, you guys are good!!!

SHILCreateFromPath error!

Posted: Apr 15th, 2008, 6:27 am
by dimidimi
Hi!

I just downloaded and installed this first beta on my Win2000 SP4 machine and got an error stating that and entry for SHILCreateFromPath could not be found in shell32.dll. Was support for Windows 2000 removed from v4.0? Have I missed something?

Thanks
Dimitrios

Re: SHILCreateFromPath error!

Posted: Apr 15th, 2008, 1:21 pm
by Igor
dimidimi wrote:Hi!

I just downloaded and installed this first beta on my Win2000 SP4 machine and got an error stating that and entry for SHILCreateFromPath could not be found in shell32.dll. Was support for Windows 2000 removed from v4.0? Have I missed something?

Thanks
Dimitrios
Hi Dimitrios! Thank you for the bug report! It's a bug in this beta and we will try to win back support of Win 2000 as soon as possible.

Re: SHILCreateFromPath error!

Posted: Apr 15th, 2008, 1:49 pm
by dimidimi
Igor wrote: Hi Dimitrios! Thank you for the bug report! It's a bug in this beta and we will try to win back support of Win 2000 as soon as possible.
Thanks so much for the prompt reply, Igor! I am so glad to hear that I will still have one of my favorite proggies under Windows 2000 :-)

Posted: Apr 23rd, 2008, 11:29 am
by Igor
Hello!
The latest beta-version USB Safely Remove beta 3 is out. What was changed:
Beta-version bugs:
- Sometimes an error occured on displaying "Hide empty drives?" window
- It's possible to disconnect card reader from the main window even if
option "Never disconnect" is checked.
- "Hide empty drives?" window could suggest to hide drives of usual HDD if they weren't formatted
- "Hide empty drives?" window can be displayed at inappropriate moment (when you are in Device Properties or Options window)
- Netherlands language didn't autodetect
* Our translators updated next languages
* Bulgarian
* Czech
* French
* Netherlands
* Chinese-Simplified

Bugs that were in the latest stable version:
- The program icon could disappear or be displayed when it wasn't required (When "Hide icon when there are no devices to be stopped" option is checked)

Win2000 SP4 and beta 3

Posted: Apr 24th, 2008, 7:34 am
by dimidimi
Hi Igor!

I just wanted to report that the "SHILCreateFromPath could not be found in shell32.dll" persists in the new beta.

Thanks!

Re: SHILCreateFromPath error!

Posted: Jun 25th, 2008, 5:46 pm
by oomingmak
Igor wrote:It's a bug in this beta and we will try to win back support of Win 2000 as soon as possible.
I am very pleased to hear that Windows 2000 compatibility will be retained in SafelyRemove.

Thank you for continuing to support this particular OS. I look forward to testing the beta as soon as Win2000 compatibility has been restored.

Win2000 Server / SATA Drive Bay / Safely Remove

Posted: Jun 30th, 2008, 4:18 pm
by MattBowers
Win2000: Yes, this is the only reason I'm trying SafelyRemove 3.3.1

Bug:
The reason that I installed it is to help with removing an "IcyDock" drive bay. It's a SATA bay and drive enclosure. Under Win2000 Server, I cannot get Safely Remove to shut down the device. It say's that it's in use, but not really.... Probably something to do with the W2000 OS, or a setting.

I'll post here if I ever figure it out.
Email me if someone knows how to issue a command line to make this work properly.

Re: Win2000 Server / SATA Drive Bay / Safely Remove

Posted: Jul 9th, 2008, 10:59 am
by Igor
Version 4.0 beta 5 has been released!

This version includes many major updates and critical bug fixes:
  1. New features:
    + Ability to return just stopped devices back!
    + Can stop SATA or Firewire drives which doesn't support authentic "safe
    removal" feature
    + Processes searching speed is now many times faster!
    + Ability to specify manually if a device is card reader
    + Multi monitor support
    + Ability to close files opened by locking processes rather than killing
    processes
    + Some interface improvements
    + Vietnamese language added
  2. Bug-fixes
    - Some types of devices like PCMCIA couldn't be stopped!
    - BSoD occured on some systems while program is searching for locking
    processes
    - Windows 2000 support restored (however some functions are disabled)!!
    - Couldn't mount a device to a folder that contains spaces in the name
    - Minor bug-fix
P.S.
In this version we have rewrote the program core, so probably there can be some new bugs. Your bug-report will be appreciated.

Re: Win2000 Server / SATA Drive Bay / Safely Remove

Posted: Jul 9th, 2008, 11:02 pm
by oomingmak
MattBowers wrote:Win2000: Yes, this is the only reason I'm trying SafelyRemove 3.3.1

The reason that I installed it is to help with removing an "IcyDock" drive bay. It's a SATA bay and drive enclosure.
I am also using an IcyDock enclosure, but it's the tool-less version (MB-664US-1S).

It generally works fine, but I have to just take my chances if I want to unplug it without shutting down the OS first.

I have just tried beta 5 of Version 4 (which has Windows 2000 compatibility restored), but my eSATA device is still not detected. :cry:

The only thing in the list was my USB key and some kind of system device (ROOT\LEGACY_PARPORT\0000) in the hidden devices list. I'm guessing that it must be something like the disabled parallel driver (because my motherboard does not have a parallel port).

Re: Win2000 Server / SATA Drive Bay / Safely Remove

Posted: Jul 15th, 2008, 4:50 pm
by Igor
Oomingmak,
thank you for your reply and sorry for my long response!

oomingmak wrote:
MattBowers wrote:Win2000: Yes, this is the only reason I'm trying SafelyRemove 3.3.1

The reason that I installed it is to help with removing an "IcyDock" drive bay. It's a SATA bay and drive enclosure.
I am also using an IcyDock enclosure, but it's the tool-less version (MB-664US-1S).

It generally works fine, but I have to just take my chances if I want to unplug it without shutting down the OS first.

I have just tried beta 5 of Version 4 (which has Windows 2000 compatibility restored), but my eSATA device is still not detected. :cry:
Please try to re-download the program again (we have released a hot-fix for the beta 5), install it, go to the Options of the program -> General tab and check "Display all storage devices" option. Then you'll probably see your device.
oomingmak wrote: The only thing in the list was my USB key and some kind of system device (ROOT\LEGACY_PARPORT\0000) in the hidden devices list. I'm guessing that it must be something like the disabled parallel driver (because my motherboard does not have a parallel port).
It was a bug in the program, now it's fixed, and this device will disappear after you install the new version.

Please feel yourself free to let me know if this version and enabling of the mentioned option helps you to solve the problem or not.

Posted: Jul 17th, 2008, 8:47 pm
by oomingmak
Thank you for taking the time to reply to me Igor. I do appreciate it.

I have today downloaded beta 5 of v4.0 and I can confirm that the ROOT\LEGACY_PARPORT\0000 device is no longer visible. Even better news is that my SATA / eSATA devices are now finally showing in the list!! 8)

If I am not mistaken, I even think that my eSATA device was listed in the visible items list while my regular (internal) SATA devices were in the hidden list. I can't be sure if that was definitely the case because after installing I did move a few things back and forth just to test the software, but if SafelyRemove is making this distinction (as the initial setting - which user can override if they choose) then that is really very good.

Detection seems to be working fine. When I plug in my Icy Dock eSATA external HD enclosure, I get a notification balloon saying that the device has been connected. However, unfortunately I still can not stop the device using SafelyRemove. When I click on the relevant icon to shut down the device, I see the following dialog.

Image
No feedback report was automatically generated, so I'm sorry I can't give you more technical details about the exact nature of the error.

I have tried disconnecting and reconnecting the drive, and also I tried it again immediately after performing a reboot (to be sure that no processes were locking the drive), but the same problem occurs. I did also try leaving it for a long time, just in case the process was slow, but that didn't make any difference either.

Once the dialog shown above has been closed, the drive remains fully accessible from Explorer and clicking on the SafelyRemove tray icon to attempt to shut down the device again results in a very brief flash of a dialog (which happens so quickly that it can not be read). I think it's the dialog that has the animated icon saying that the device is trying to be disconnected, but I can't be sure because the dialog only stays on screen for a fraction of a second.

If I just pull the eSATA lead out, the Windows built-in 'Unplug or Eject Hardware' dialog appears warning me about having not safely shut down the device.

With regards to a slightly different point, I notice that version 4 has fixed the icon display issue on the Look and Feel options tab. As you probably already know, Windows 2000 can not display 32bit icons (it can't do 8bit alpha blending) and so graduated transparency in XP icons looks really ugly when viewed in Windows 2000. The icons on the Look and Feel tab used to have white jagged fringes around them in v3.3, but they now render perfectly and look great on Windows 2000.

Image Image

It is nice to see such attention to small details, especially on a program like this where these details would be easy to ignore because of having to deal with more important complicated low level hardware issues. The attention to the interface as well as the functionality makes SafelyRemove feel very professional.

Posted: Jul 19th, 2008, 12:47 pm
by Igor
oomingmak wrote: If I am not mistaken, I even think that my eSATA device was listed in the visible items list while my regular (internal) SATA devices were in the hidden list. I can't be sure if that was definitely the case because after installing I did move a few things back and forth just to test the software, but if SafelyRemove is making this distinction (as the initial setting - which user can override if they choose) then that is really very good.
Honestly I couldn't remember that we made this distinction... You can see by yourself, whether it is defined by program or not. Just open properties of the device and see in which value this option is set: Image
oomingmak wrote: Detection seems to be working fine. When I plug in my Icy Dock eSATA external HD enclosure, I get a notification balloon saying that the device has been connected. However, unfortunately I still can not stop the device using SafelyRemove. When I click on the relevant icon to shut down the device, I see the following dialog.
We have fixed this incompatibility with Windows 2000 in our working version. Could you download it and see what it displays:
http://safelyremove.com/upload/usbsafel ... a5_w2k.exe
oomingmak wrote: It is nice to see such attention to small details, especially on a program like this where these details would be easy to ignore because of having to deal with more important complicated low level hardware issues. The attention to the interface as well as the functionality makes SafelyRemove feel very professional.
Thanks for this note. We try to follow the rule "Little things are infinitely the most important" :)

Posted: Jul 26th, 2008, 7:56 am
by oomingmak
Hi again Igor.

I downloaded your 'working version' of beta 5 (linked in your previous post) and I am delighted to report that it finally works on my system!! 8)

For the first time ever I have been able to successfully stop a non-USB device (in this case it was my external hard drive in an IcyDock eSATA enclosure).

I also successfully restarted the device with no problems at all. It worked perfectly.

This is a major breakthrough. You've done a great job getting this working. Thank you.
Maybe now I can go back to 'moaning' about trivial little things again. :lol: