Autorun from a thumb drive

JohnWPB · 04-25-2008, 02:35 PM

I am trying to make a program execute when a thumb drive is inserted to send a command to RR. I am not having much luck at all.

I have an autorun.ini on the thumb drive, and have made sure that autorun is turned on in windows.

This is what is in the autorun.inf:
[autorun]
open=AutoRun.exe
icon=AutoRun.ico

On the drive as of now are just the three files, the autorun.ini, autorun.exe and the icon.

the AutoRun.exe presently is just a small script that will open a message box saying "AutoRun Successful". Very basic, just a test for now.

Is there something I am missing here?

BTW, I am trying to get a program to run off of the thumb drive, and not have a program constantly running on the CarPC looking to see if a thumb drive is inserted.

MGD · 04-25-2008, 03:20 PM

From MS, the autorun capabilities are restricted to CD-ROM drives and fixed disk drives. If you need to make a USB storage device perform Autorun, the device must not be marked as a removable media device and the device must contain an Autorun.inf file and a startup application.

The removable media device setting is a flag contained within the SCSI Inquiry Data response to the SCSI Inquiry command. Bit 7 of byte 1 (indexed from 0) is the Removable Media Bit (RMB). A RMB set to zero indicates that the device is not a removable media device. A RMB of one indicates that the device is a removable media device. Drivers obtain this information by using the StorageDeviceProperty request.

Check this out.
http://www.softplatz.com/Soft/Utilit...USB-Drive.html

http://www.totalautorunner.com/

jonessc · 04-25-2008, 03:47 PM

I can get a menu to display when a flash drive is inserted by making a custom ini file on the root of the drive, but you have to physically select an option and press ok before it will run any of them (eg install xxx)

Im assuming you already thought on an autoit script to monitor for a flash drive then run your program? (if your interested drop me a pm im sure i got the sourse for something similar made in autoit you could adapt to do this)

TheSovereign · 04-25-2008, 04:21 PM

I have used this Hitachi Microdrive driver to make flash drives appear as a fixed disk.

http://www.xpefiles.com/viewtopic.php?t=92

JohnWPB · 04-25-2008, 06:13 PM

@MGD, I tried out that little program, and it does not seem to like my thumb drive

Not sure what it is, but it relies on you unplugging in the drive, pluggint it back in, and then right clicking on the tray icon to choose it to set it up. When I plug it in, no choices appear when right clicking the icon except "help", which just states what I mentioned already.

@Jonessc, yea, I wanted to avoid having a script running constantly checking for the drive to be plugged in. If all else fails, I have a script I wrote some time ago that can do it with some small changes.

@TheSovereign
I just grabbed that driver, there are no instructions whatsoever for its use. I right clicked on the INF and installed it, but not sure what to do next to set anything up. You said you have used this, can you offer any pointers?

MGD · 04-25-2008, 09:33 PM

I played with those Hitachi drivers today and it will show up in the drives as fixed drive. You can partition it and everything but as soon you insert it it will go to autorun and you have to click what you want to do. I had a program awhile back which you have to install and it will chek for removable drives and you could have a batchfile execute what ever you want. Let me look for it. I will report back to base........

Jebus · 04-25-2008, 09:58 PM

Hey John,
Have you seen this?
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb776823.aspx
..JJG

MGD · 04-26-2008, 08:51 AM

Again, it does not refer to Removable_Devices.
The only command that is changed is the "action" command, which brings up the AutoPlay window where you can select the ACTION form the window.

[autorun]
title=My Drive
action=Please Click Me
In Vista you get this.

JohnWPB · 04-27-2008, 12:59 AM

Thanks for all the help! BlueZX3 saw this post and whipped up a little code that fires when a new device has been added to the system. Seems to be working quite well!

ThunderStick · 04-27-2008, 09:43 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by JohnWPB

Thanks for all the help! BlueZX3 saw this post and whipped up a little code that fires when a new device has been added to the system. Seems to be working quite well!

Please share, I would love this capability as well.