Asus BW-16D1HT drive disappears when using MakeMKV first

[quaytsar]

This is a really weird issue that I haven't seen mentioned exactly anywhere. The drive is mounted inside a tower and connected via SATA, not an external USB drive. What happens is:

1. I open MakeMKV
2. I insert a disc into the drive
EDIT: 3. This actually happens before I tell MakeMKV to open the disc, so its still loading up the disc open button when it first tries to read the disc
3. I tell MakeMKV to open the disc (so I haven't seen any files; the disc is not being ripped yet)
4. MakeMKV enters a non-stop loading cycle
5. The drive no longer exists in Windows Explorer and I can't do anything with it (such as eject the disc)

I can get the drive to reappear by force closing everything MakeMKV related in the task manager (importantly the disc arbiter), then disconnecting and reconnecting the SATA cable of the drive (which is an annoyance because I have to leave my tower open).

I'm fairly certain this is a problem with MakeMKV because I can avoid this issue by swapping steps 1 and 2. If I insert the disc and wait for Windows to recognize it, then open MakeMKV I can rip twenty discs in a row with no problem. There are no error messages because, as far as MakeMKV is concerned, it's still trying to open a disc, and will stay that way without end.

[Woodstock]

If Windows goes into a long read-the-disk cycle, even without MakeMKV being loaded, then Windows is having trouble talking to the hardware itself. MakeMKV can't load the LibreDrive extensions if it isn't running, so that kind of limits its influence on "long load times".

Resetting the hardware (unplug/plug) is one thing. Are you also shutting the computer down to do this, or are you "hot plugging"?

[quaytsar]

Windows isn't having any trouble. If I insert a disc without MakeMKV open, it quickly shows up in Explorer in my disc drive. Then I can open MakeMKV and do everything normally. If I open MakeMKV then insert a disc, MakeMKV starts the spin up animation before opening the disc (Type: Loading; Label: Please Wait; disc drive spinning animation) then my drive disappears from Explorer and MakeMKV keeps spinning.

I am hot plugging the disc drive to fix the issue, but it doesn't work if any MakeMKV executables are running (i.e. hot plugging while MakeMKV is open results in the drive not appearing. I must close MakeMKV then hot plug the drive), which makes me suspect MakeMKV is the issue. I can also restart the computer to fix the issue (which, again, shuts down MakeMKV before telling the computer about hardware attachments), but that takes longer.

[MartyMcNuts]

Windows isn't having any trouble. If I insert a disc without MakeMKV open, it quickly shows up in Explorer in my disc drive. Then I can open MakeMKV and do everything normally. If I open MakeMKV then insert a disc, MakeMKV starts the spin up animation before opening the disc (Type: Loading; Label: Please Wait; disc drive spinning animation) then my drive disappears from Explorer and MakeMKV keeps spinning.

I am hot plugging the disc drive to fix the issue, but it doesn't work if any MakeMKV executables are running (i.e. hot plugging while MakeMKV is open results in the drive not appearing. I must close MakeMKV then hot plug the drive), which makes me suspect MakeMKV is the issue. I can also restart the computer to fix the issue (which, again, shuts down MakeMKV before telling the computer about hardware attachments), but that takes longer.

Just for s***'s and giggles, can you drop back to MakeMKV v1.15.2 and let us know if this issue still occurs. Just in case you don't know, here is the link to the previous versions: https://www.makemkv.com/download/old/

[quaytsar]

I tried 1.15.2 and it worked fine, but I remember this being an issue for quite some time and I'm fairly certain it was an issue with 1.15.2, as well. So I tried 1.16.3 again and it worked fine after giving me grief all Sunday. So, in my efforts to duplicate the issue I have found it occurs when I launch any version of MakeMKV from the Start Menu. Using a desktop shortcut, a taskbar shortcut or running the .exe directly all work without issue.

Except, now that's working just fine, too. Which is frustrating. I had done the same thing for months and had the same problem for months and now the problem is gone. I can't get it to stall out at all anymore. And I've reinstalled MakeMKV before, not including just regular updates, and that never fixed it and now it's as if the problem never happened. It was reliable that if I started MakeMKV before inserting a disc, my drive would disappear. Now it all works without issue, but I can't point to having done anything different which makes me think the issue is still there waiting to rear its ugly head.

[MartyMcNuts]

I tried 1.15.2 and it worked fine, but I remember this being an issue for quite some time and I'm fairly certain it was an issue with 1.15.2, as well. So I tried 1.16.3 again and it worked fine after giving me grief all Sunday. So, in my efforts to duplicate the issue I have found it occurs when I launch any version of MakeMKV from the Start Menu. Using a desktop shortcut, a taskbar shortcut or running the .exe directly all work without issue.

Except, now that's working just fine, too. Which is frustrating. I had done the same thing for months and had the same problem for months and now the problem is gone. I can't get it to stall out at all anymore. And I've reinstalled MakeMKV before, not including just regular updates, and that never fixed it and now it's as if the problem never happened. It was reliable that if I started MakeMKV before inserting a disc, my drive would disappear. Now it all works without issue, but I can't point to having done anything different which makes me think the issue is still there waiting to rear its ugly head.

LOL, that's always the way. Oh well, just be happy it is working (for now...)