ASPI

Advanced SCSI Programming Interface

ASPI is a driver that interfaces with your CD/DVD drive controller, and works with either SCSI or IDE.

ASPI is an interface specification developed by Adaptec, Inc. for sending commands to a SCSI host adapter. ASPI has become a de facto standard that enables programmers to develop applications and drivers that work with all ASPI-compatible SCSI adapters.

Win2000-XP by default, has no ASPI layer !!  Run ASPI Check to see if you have an ASPI driver loaded.  If you have none - download one from Adaptec, or Nero, or your CD drive's manufacturer's website, or click Here to visit the Force ASPI site and download a popular and highly compatible ASPI driver.

Quick ASPI Facts

Which ASPI Drivers to Use

It's so silly . . .  all the discussion this has caused on CDfreaks.com.  The bottom line, is that it does not matter, at all - unless you are having problems.  Most of the ASPI drivers work fine.  However, if you are having problems, the most stable driver is Adaptec's ASPI v4.60.  Many use Adaptec v4.71 because it is the newest and I have had no problems with it.

Others swear by the generic, works for all, Force ASPI.

Nero offers their own ASPI drivers - one for Win95-98-ME (NEASPIEN.exe) and one for Win2000-XP.  Normally, Nero works fine with the Adaptec ASPI driver, but some system cannot see the Nero "Virtual CD", and this is fixed with the Nero ASPI driver. 

ASPI Driver Downloads

 Adaptec ASPI v4.60    Adaptec ASPI v4.71    Nero ASPI Win95-98-ME    Nero ASPI Win200-XP

Force ASPI     ASPI Boot Disk with DOS ASPI Drivers

Force ASPI is an install routine for Adaptec's most stable, v4.60 drivers for any Windows system, see http://radified.com/ASPI/forceaspi.htm for details.  

ASPI Boot Disk with DOS ASPI Drivers - first create a bootable Win98 SE disk and then copy all files to it

Cleaning up your ASPI Mess - 3 Steps

Step 1) Display which ASPI drivers are Loaded

Again, Win2000-XP by default, has no ASPI layer !!  But you probably have ASPI drivers loaded anyway, because many CD utilities require an ASPI layer to access the CD in RAW mode, and many of them install their own.

You can end up with several ASPI layers, which although it is not a major problem, is not a good idea.  They creep up on you as you install programs.

ASPI Check and Feurio's System Scan - these will display the currently loaded ASPI drivers on your system.  ASPI Check lists them with no extra info, while Feurio's system scan will list them and give details.  Below, I just ran both utilities and here are the results - four Adaptec ASPI drivers !!!  (Nero also makes their own version of WINASPI32, and I have Nero installed so I am not sure why it lists this as an Adaptec driver). 

ASPI Check

Feurio System Scan

Step 2) Remove all ASPI Drivers

This can be quite challenging !!  That is, if you want to do a complete, clean removal.  But do you need to do this?  If your CD utilities are working fine, even if you have multiple ASPI layers, just leave them be !!!

There may be no way to do a clean remove - but instead, you can usually get stop the drivers from loading by the following steps:

  1. run ASPI Check, and write down the file names
  2. run a search on your entire drive for all instances of each of these files
  3. delete the files (if they are locked, you may need to reboot into Safe Mode, or boor to a command prompt with a Win98 disk)
  4. reboot and run ASPI Check again to make sure they are gone !!!
  5. if you are brave and want a cleaner removal, backup the registry, and run regedit - search for all instances of the file names and delete the associated keys

Step 3)  Install the ASPI Drivers

Simply download the ASPI driver of your choice from the page (see abive) and install.  Only install One ASPI driver !!!  I recommend the most stable, Adaptec v4.60 and install it using the ASPI Force install routine, downloadable from their site.