Detecting a Blank CD vs an Empty Drive

[roberts]

Is there any way to differentiate a CD drive that is empty from one that contains a blank CD? (My specific problem is that I want the operator told to insert a blank disk if none is present so that an overnight backup can be performed.)

The following functions do NOT make a distinction between the two:

DriveStatus()

DriveSpaceTotal()

DriveSpaceFree()

DriveGetFileSystem()

All of these return the same values for empty drives as for ones containing a blank CD.

I have not been able to find even a general answer to this on the internet. I suspect that this problem is in CD hardware generally since so many have been complaining that their CD drive/burning software cannot recognize a blank CD/DVD.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[zackrspv]

Is there any way to differentiate a CD drive that is empty from one that contains a blank CD? (My specific problem is that I want the operator told to insert a blank disk if none is present so that an overnight backup can be performed.)

The following functions do NOT make a distinction between the two:

DriveStatus()

DriveSpaceTotal()

DriveSpaceFree()

DriveGetFileSystem()

All of these return the same values for empty drives as for ones containing a blank CD.

I have not been able to find even a general answer to this on the internet. I suspect that this problem is in CD hardware generally since so many have been complaining that their CD drive/burning software cannot recognize a blank CD/DVD.

Thanks in advance for any help.

FROM THE HELP PAGE:

DriveStatus

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Returns the status of the drive as a string.

DriveStatus ( "path" )

Parameters

path Path of drive to receive information from.

Return Value

Value Interpretation

UNKNOWN Drive may be unformatted (RAW).

READY Typical of hard drives and drives that contain removable media.

NOTREADY Typical of floppy and CD drives that do not contain media.

INVALID May indicate the drive letter does not exist or that a mapped network drive is inaccessible.

PAY ATTENTION to the bolded part Btw, it worked like a charm for my DVDRW's who havn't been formatted (which returns an UNKNOWN status because the FileSystem is RAW). So it really should work for you. If not, give us an example of the code your trying to use.

Edited April 22, 2008 by zackrspv

[MrCreatoR]

Here is one solution:

$sCDROM = "H:\"

If _CDROMIsBlank($sCDROM) Then
    $iAsk = MsgBox(36, "CD " & $sCDROM & " is Blank!", "Now we will burn to this CD something :) ... OK?")
    
    If $iAsk <> 6 Then Exit
ElseIf @error Then ;CDROM is "NOTREADY"
    MsgBox(48, "CD " & $sCDROM & " is NOT Ready!", "Oops, please insert a CD (a Blank one please :) )")
    CDTray($sCDROM, "Open")
Else
    MsgBox(48, "CD " & $sCDROM & " is NOT Blank!", "Oops, please insert a *Blank* CD!")
    CDTray($sCDROM, "Open")
EndIf

Func _CDROMIsBlank($sCDROM)
    If DriveStatus($sCDROM) = "NOTREADY" Then Return SetError(1, 0, 0)
    
    Return DriveSpaceFree($sCDROM) = DriveSpaceTotal($sCDROM)
EndFunc

[roberts]

The following code produces the same message for an empty CD drive and for one containing

a blank disk. Note that in these two cases, it displays a diagnostic string ($DriveInfo) that is identical.

(Why are all of my tabs being removed?! Please forgive the unnecessarily difficult format.)

-----CDCHECK.AU3

; CdCheck: checks status of CDROM burner. This version compiled for Win2K.

;

; R Supansic 04.19.2008

;

; Command line parameter 1: Full path to file for testing for backup CD.

#include "GUIConstantsEX.au3"

#include "Date.au3"

$CDDrives = DriveGetDrive( "CDROM" )

If ( $CDDrives[ 0 ] = 0 ) Then

MsgBox( 4096, "", "No CD drive was found on this computer." )

Exit

EndIf

$DriveLetter = $CDDrives[ 1 ]

$TestFile = $CmdLine[ 1 ]

CDTray( $DriveLetter, "open" ) ; Force initialization of drive

CDTray( $DriveLetter, "closed" )

$BlankState = "NOTREADY" ; No CD/Blank CD status for Win2K

;$BlankState = "UNKNOWN" ; No CD/Blank CD status for Win9x

$DriveState = DriveStatus( $DriveLetter )

Switch $DriveState

Case "INVALID"

MsgBox( 4096, $DriveState, "The CD drive letter is not valid." )

Case $BlankState

$DriveSize = DriveSpaceTotal( $DriveLetter )

$DRiveFree = DriveSpaceFree( $DRiveLetter )

$FSType = DriveGetFileSystem( $DriveLetter )

If ( $FSType = 1 ) Then

$FSstr = "BLANK"

Else

$FSstr = $FSType

EndIf

$DriveInfo = String( $DriveSize ) & "|" & String( $DriveFree ) & "|" & $FSType & "|"

$DriveInfo = $DriveInfo & $FSstr & "|" & String( @error ) & "|"

If @error = 1 Then

MsgBox( 4096, $DriveState, $DriveInfo & " Please place a blank disk in the CD drive." )

Else

MsgBox( 4096, $DriveState, $DriveInfo & " There is a blank disk in the drive." )

EndIf

Case "READY"

If FileExists( $TestFile ) Then

MsgBox( 4096, $DriveState, "There is a backup disk in the CD drive." )

Else

MsgBox( 4096, $DriveState, "There is a non-backup disk in the CD drive." )

Endif

EndSwitch

Exit

[zackrspv]

(Why are all of my tabs being removed?! Please forgive the unnecessarily difficult format.)

Try warpping your code in code tags. like [ code ] and [ /code ] Note no spaces between the brackets. And then your code will be tabbed and much easier to read. Still looking at the script.