The aspi layer is basically a software layer between software applications and hardware. It is part of the Windows 95/98 operating system. Some companies modify these files to make CDWriters, Scanners, SCSI cards, and other devices work in there systems. The files that are modified are the APIX.VXD, WNASPI32.DLL, and WINASPI.DLL. Only the APIX.VXD and the WNASPI32.DLL are significant to our products. You can determine whether the files have been modified by checking the time stamps on the files. The files should have the same time stamps and the correct times will vary with the version of Windows 95/98.

• Windows 95 0/A 7/11/95 9:50 am
• Windows 95 B/C 8/24/96 11:11 am
• Windows 98 5/11/98 8:01 pm
• Windows 98 SE 4/23/99 10:22 pm

If these are not the correct version, you will need to modify them to a version that works. How you do that and what files you choose will depend on what version of Windows you are using and what modified the files in the first place.

Windows 95

If you have/had an Adaptec SCSI controller or an Hewlett Packard Scanner or CDWriter, Adaptec has made a version of the aspi files that should work with their hardware and our drive. This is supported by whatever company modified the Windows version of the files.

If you do not have a device that qualifies them for the above version of the files, check and see if you have back ups of the files that are the correct version. You can find these by searching for APIX.*, WNASPI32.*, and WINASPI.*. If there is a version of these on the system (they will most likely have a bak extension), you can shut down to DOS MODE, rename current files and then rename the bak files to the appropriate extensions. Restart in Windows and the new files should take affect.

If you do not have a device that uses the adaptec version and do not have back ups, you will need to re-extract the files from the Windows CAB files. There is a command to extract those files. To do this you will need to go to Start, Run and type the following where D: is the letter of your CD Rom drive.

EXTRACT /A /L C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM D:\WIN95\WIN95_02.CAB WNASPI32.DLL
EXTRACT /A /L C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM D:\WIN95\WIN95_02.CAB WINASPI.DLL
EXTRACT /A /L C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS D:\WIN95\WIN95_02.CAB APIX.VXD

If you get sharing violations trying to copy the files, the easiest way to get around it is to run the above extract commands at a command prompt, but change the C:\WINDOWS... to C:\ and extract the files to the root directory of the C drive. Then shut down to DOS MODE. In DOS MODE, back up the current version of the files and then move the files from the root directory to the correct location. When you restart in Windows, the new files will take affect.

In all cases, if the changing the version of the files causes another device to stop working, you will need to check with the manufacturer of that device to see if they have a patch that will allow both devices to function.

Windows 98

The easiest way to extract the aspi files under Windows 98 is to go to Start, Run , and type SFC. This runs the System File Checker utility. In the utility, there will be 2 radio buttons, select the lower one about extracting a single file. Type in the name of the first file and select start. It will ask where to extract the file from and where to extract the file to. The location to get them from should be directed to the location of the Windows 98 CAB files. They may be on the system locally, or they may be in the win98 subdirectory of the Windows 98 CD. It should ask about backups.