Communication (Interface)
Interface for optical media (CD, DVD, BD)
[ These options are not available anymore from IsoBuster 3.1 onwards, since they do not apply on modern OS anymore. Aspi dates back from the Windows 9x era. ]
IsoBuster is able to communicate directly with optical devices and hooks in the system right above the device driver. This is done without the need to install proprietary drivers. IsoBuster makes use of Aspi (An Adaptec interface) or SPTI an NT native interface.
Aspi (wnaspi32.dll) is standard installed on Windows 95, 98 and ME. Microsoft did Adaptec a big favor here and the nice thing about it is that we can make use of it as well.
This interface is default selected under Windows 95, 98 and ME. Since SPTI cannot work under these OS, the option to select SPTI is grayed out.
Updates for Aspi can be found on the Adaptec website. IsoBuster is able to work correctly with all versions of Aspi, starting from the oldest Windows 95 version to the newer Windows ME version or the versions downloadable from the Adaptec Website. Sometimes Aspi can become corrupt because some applications install older parts of Aspi and destroy a good working combination of dll, vxd and registry entries. Funny enough it's often Easy CD Creator that causes havoc. When this is the case, one can always download an AspiChk utility from the Adaptec Website and check the installation. Or just run an update from the Adaptec website. Or use Google.com and look for "fixaspi" or "forceaspi".
When IsoBuster doesn't find your drives or when IsoBuster crashes while starting up (only seen this happen once), try to determine if the Aspi layer is working correctly ! If the interface 'seems' to work properly (because it says so to IsoBuster) but then decides to crash when IsoBuster sends through the first command .... then there's little IsoBuster can do about it !
Nero (www.nero.de) also offers a nicely working wnaspi32.dll with an almost exact interface. IsoBuster works great with all versions of this dll too !
SPTI
SCSI Pass Through Interface is standard available on Windows NT4, 2K, XP, Vista, W7 etc. Under these OS, Aspi is not installed by default. However, as a user, you could have installed Aspi or another application might have done it for you.
There are two types of SPTI, SPTI and SPTI direct. IsoBuster uses both, taking care of and working around lots of Windows bugs, especially in the first implementations (e.g. NT4).
Under NT4, 2K, XP and Vista IsoBuster will select SPTI by default but will also try Aspi if no drives can be found via SPTI. In case of no Administrator rights, you may have no rights to access drives at low level via SPTI and hence IsoBuster will not be able to list the drives. If this is the case, please ask your administrator to change this setting:
SPTI Access control
Changing this is only necesarry when you don't find drives via SPTI but you know they are present in your system. Only Administrators have the proper system rights to change this setting. So, if this option is not available (greyed out), you will have to ask the administrator to log in and change the setting.
Changing this setting basically does the same as (which IsoBuster now does for you) :
Windows 2000 :
Open the "Local Security Policy" console by clicking on the start menu -> control panel -> administrative tools, and select local security policy. Then expand the "Local Policies" section and select "security options". Change "Restrict CD-ROM access to locally logged-on user only." to ENABLED.
Windows XP :
Open the "Local Security Policy" console by clicking on the start menu -> control panel -> administrative tools -> performance and maintenance, and select local security policy. Then expand the "Local Policies" section and select "security options". Change "Devices: Restrict CD-ROM access to locally logged-on user only." to ENABLED.
Store selected interface
If you want IsoBuster to always start with the selected interface, which may be different from the default interface, select this checkbox