"no disk" error - LV 8.20 bug?

[Rod42]

I came accross an interesting problem with LV today (LV 8.20, Professional Development system, Win XP Pro)

I opened a .vi directly from CD by double clicking the file in Windows explorer while LV 8.20 was showing its start screen. [I don't think it's relevant but the file was "Clear Specific Error.vi" from the LV Intermediate I course CD.]

I Quit LV and removed the CD

Attempts to restart LabVIEW gave an error box titled "LabVIEW.exe", and containing the text "There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into drive E", with buttons "Cancel", "Try Again" and "Continue". Pressing any of the buttons simply caused the error box to re-appear. [My CD maps to drive E:] The only way to get LV running was to put a CD (any CD) into the drive and "Try again". This allowed LV to start.

On the start screen I selected the E:\.....vi from the recent files list. As the CD I had inserted was not the CD I had read the .vi from, I got the expected file does not exist message with an OK button. After pressing OK, the E:\...vi was removed from the recent files list, and a subsequent start of LV without the CD in the drive worked.

Has anyone else experienced the same or similar problem?

Whilst I can now fix/avoid this problem again for CD's, there remains the possibility of having loaded a .vi over a network share, and having that network share missing or having moved server on a subsequent run of LV, or loading from a stick which I then leave at home, rendering LV unstartable.

Is is possible to remove a file from the recent files list by using regedit or a text editor? In the state I described LV won't start until it has the disk it's asking for and it may not always be possible to provide the disk/share it's asking for.

Rod.

Message Edited by Rod on 05-08-2007 04:56 PM

Message Edited by Rod on 05-08-2007 04:57 PM

[mikeporter]

One thing to try is look in the Labview.ini file. This is where the lists of recently opened files and such are stored. You can try editing these lists to remove references to the now non-existant disk.  In terms of the problem itself, this sounds like another variation of a theme that has existed for a while. Basically, the issue is that LV tends to hold onto disks that it sees and won't let you eject or remove them. In additon, you will sometimes get the "Disk not Found" error when opening the Open File dialog box if you remove the disk any way.

Unfortunately I can't test your exact problem to verify it because I don't have access to a system runnign LV8.x right now, but if it is correct that a missing disk can keep LV from even launching, this would be a major bug. Can anybody verify?

Mike...

[Rod42]

Thanks, found the list in Labview.ini - I did look there first, due to the way Vim displays long lines failed to notice the LRU lists - I've looked properly now!

At least I know a text edit will get round the problem if it happens again.

[Rod42]

Tried a bit more....

Made a copy of my labview.ini, and then changed one of the files in the recent files list to be on the CD drive (E) On attempting to start LV, I got the same error as before. I stopped LV in Task Manager, edited the name back to the C: drive and all was OK.

I also tried another drive letter (P) which wasn't assigned to anything, and drive letter that had been used by a USB stick (the stick was NOT in). On both occasions LV started up OK and the vi appeared in the recent filles list. I also changed the name of a file that was of the form \\server\directory\file.vi to have a non-existant server, and LV started OK. In all three cases an error message appeared when attempting to open the listed .vi, but did not cause LV a problem.

So the only condition I could reproduce that causes LV to fail to start is to have a file with the CD drive letter in the recent files list, and no CD in the drive.

Rod.

Message Edited by Rod on 05-08-2007 06:05 PM