Chambers wrote:
> Five: Blocking IO.
> 
> Why the he** should everything on my computer freeze up when a scratch is 
> encountered on a CD?

I think it's only explorer that locks up. Other programs keep running, as 
long as they're not accessing it.  Local disks always cause those sorts of 
lock-ups, because there's no good way to say "open it, but don't wait for it 
to open." It has been a problem in most OSes, including UNIX from at least 
V7 on (they used to distinguish "fast open" from "slow open" devices), and 
including locking up (under WIndows at least) while waiting for a disk to 
spin up from power save, too, for example. I thought Vista was a bit better 
at this, in that you can now specifically cancel out o something like that 
and get control back. You've canceled of course, but Vista lets programs 
abort I/O that they didn't used to be able to abort. (That was one of the 
explicit improvements. Maybe it only applies to network opens, tho?)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

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