Hard Disk Emulation status code error C00000A3

I posted this via support and then saw the suggestion to post in online forum too, so here's what I was having a problem with in Windows 7 (x64).

When I attempt to mount anytime with the Hard Drive Emulation option it takes about 30 seconds of thinking before returning with the following prompt:

Operation failed with status code = C00000A3 and image status code =
Image load succeeded
0 The operation completed successfully

Before this window appears the drive is even visible and usable in Windows Explorer (I can create folders on it etc.) - though I've also tried to mount the drives and just leave them with no other windows/apps open and without trying to affect the drive.

No other options seem to help, just always with the H flag on it fails and with it off it doesn't, so I can optionally choose removable (R), or to create an image and mount it, or use the add disk option, and they all produce the same error with the H flag and no error without it.

I also ran this command as seen in another thread to gather some information:

C:\>verifier /querysettings
Special pool: Disabled
Pool tracking: Disabled
Force IRQL checking: Disabled
I/O verification: Disabled
Deadlock detection: Disabled
DMA checking: Disabled
Security checks: Disabled
Force pending I/O requests: Disabled
Low resources simulation: Disabled
IRP Logging: Disabled
Miscellaneous checks: Disabled

Verified drivers:

None

C:\>

Creation of the image files seems fine, I'm trying to create images approximately 1GB in size (tried 1000MB, 1024MB, and 1280MB), and have approx. 13GB RAM free out of 16GB total according to the RAM Disk application.

I'm wondering what may be causing this error code as googling didn't pick up any matches for it with your software (and it is odd that everything seems to work until this error, and then it pulls/dismounts the disk again).

Thank you.

Tried some more researching for clues, main one is that this could be a Windows error status for 'Drive Not Ready', apparently prone for some removable drive types to throw or for software that scans drives that haven't been mounted.

I made sure that the 'hide empty drives' feature of windows explorer wasn't enabled, and put a disk into each drive that didn't have one (2 virtual cd roms and 1 physical), beyond that the only other drive I have is my main hard disk. Floppy controller is uninstalled / disabled.

After that I still get the same error using hard disk emulation though, so no luck with that. I also tried the technet article saying to change a registry value for ErrorMode to 2 (from an original value of 0) and reboot, but that also didn't help so I put that back to default again.

Could you please post here a screenshot of the Disk Management console showing all disks and all partitions on your computer?

It could shed some light on this issue.

I can do that yes:



O: is a physical DVD ROM drive
F: and G: are Virtual CloneDrive devices

It didn't seem to matter if I had disks/volumes mounted to those drives or not.

I may have had some success now since looking at these drives - I disabled the VCD devices, and the hard disk emulation option in RamDisk worked. I then re-enabled the VCD devices, and it all seemed to stay working for now too.

Maybe after a reboot I'll have the problem again - as I was having the issue through reboots and complete power offs too before - but then I'll also see if this allows me to workaround the problem again as well. For now though it looks like it might have been an incompatibility of settings or drivers though with VCD.

Thanks.

Further tests:

- every time I disable/add my two VCDs, they appear in Drive Manager as new device 'numbers' (e.g. at boot they are CD-ROM 1 and CD-ROM 2, when I disable and re-add, they come back as CD-ROM 3, and CD-ROM 4).

- every time I do this, it somehow gives me 'space' to create 2 more RamDisks with hard disk emulation enabled, and then as soon as I create a 3rd I get the C00000A3 status code error again.

- if I disable/add my 2 VCD's twice without adding any RamDisks, it still increments the drive 'numbers' (note that the letters always remain the same, F: and G, this time by 4 places total, and I can now create 4 RamDisks with hard disk emulation and from the 5th I then get errors.

So it seems that whenever it bumps up against the VCD drives, it's unable to create any disk numbers past them (e.g. I can have up to Disk 6 with RamDisks, but if VCDs are CD-ROM 7+ then I can create no more RamDisks).

For the meantime I can workaround this at boot time by increasing the VCD drive numbers to a sufficiently high number before using any RamDisks, but it would be better if I could have them co-existing without error at all.

Thanks.

Thank you.
It looks like we've identified the issue. A fix should come out soon. Stay tuned

Update: this issue has been fixed in the new version which can be downloaded from the home page.