"Keep HDD Awake" Plugin for Winamp

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

1. About

The "Keep HDD Awake" plugin for Winamp is aimed to keep hard disk drives (HDD) running, i.e. not going to sleep, while Winamp is running. This may come in handy in case you've distributed your media data across several HDDs where it may happen that one HDD is going to sleep while Winamp is playing from another. In case this happens, there may be a huge delay in playing the next track when Winamp switches to the sleeping HDD. The purpose of the "Keep HDD Awake" plugin is to avoid such delays.

nanos gigantum humeris insidentes: This project is dedicated to my European heritage. It is strictly to be understood as a statement against the "sweet" liberal lie of "multiculturalism" which is going to destroy Europe as we know it, in particular against the Merkel regime selling out Europe for nothing as we watch.

2017-01-01	0.0.8	Now compiles with the Microsoft Visual C Complier `cl.exe` (in addition to the MINGW compiler `gcc.exe`). Added an About box. Moved from MSYS to MSYS2. Added a section How to compile `gen_hdd.dll` for yourself to this overview. Added a political statement to the About section.
2016-12-19	0.0.7	Added a random number to the name of the folder being written temporaryly to the disk in order to keep it awake. (If the folder always has the same name it seems to have no effect on some disks.) To the configuration dialog, added a control for disabeling/enabeling the plugin.
2014-05-15	0.0.5	Skip accessing the HDD from where the current track is playing from. Replaced Timer Queues by Waitable Timer Objects. Some other minor optimizations.
2014-05-12	0.0.4	Initial version

3. Installation

If not already done, download and install Winamp:

.

If not already done, close Winamp.

Download the latest release.

Run the installer "gen_hdd-2-<ver>.exe".

Start Winamp.

4. Configuration

Open the preferences dialog: Options → Preferencs → General Purpose → Keep HDD Awake → Configure selected plug-in:
Mark the drives you want to have monitored by "Keep HDD Awake" in the Deactive list:
Transfer the marked drive letters from the Deactive list into the Active list by means of the ">"-button:
Confirm by means of the "OK"-button.

5. The About Dialog

The About dialog is opened when you hit the About button from the Configuration dialog:

It displays a tabulator control with two pages:

Copyright gives you information about just that and

Compiler gives you information about the compiler and it's version used to compile the plug-in (i.e. whether it is cl.exe or gcc.exe, cf. below).

6. How to compile `gen_hdd.dll` for yourself

Download and install MSYS2 including the build system and the 32 bit compiler.

Download and install the Winamp SDK.

Optionally download and install Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop with Update 4.

Download the latest release's source code. That's a file named gen_hdd-2-<version>-src.tar.gz.

From the MSys2 shell, unpack the source code:

$ tar xfvz ./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8-src.tar.gz
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/bits
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/configure
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/COPYING
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/css/
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/css/styles.css
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.4/
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.4/config-2.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.4/config-3.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.4/config-4.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.4/config.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.4/step-01.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.4/step-02.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.4/step-03.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.7/
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.7/step-01.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.7/step-01.png
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.7/step-02.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.7/step-02.png
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.7/step-03.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.7/step-03.png
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/about-01.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/about-01.png
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/about-02.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/about-02.png
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/step-01.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/step-01.png
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/step-02.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/step-02.png
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/step-03.jpg
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/images/0.0.8/step-03.png
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/doc/index.html
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/gen_hdd.c
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/hdd.h
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/hdd_about.c
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/hdd_timer.c
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/hdd_trace.c
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/hdd_trace.h
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/Makefile
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/nsi/
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/nsi/gen_hdd.nsi
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/rc/
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/rc/manifest.xml
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/rc/resources.h
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/rc/resources.rc
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/rules.mak
./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8/version.mak

From the MSys2 shell, change to the release's sub-directory:

$ cd ./gen_hdd-2-0.0.8

From MSys2 shell, run the configure script with the --help option:

$ ./configure --help
Usage: ./configure [OPTION]... [VAR=VALUE]...

OPTIONS:
  Avoid white space left and right the equal sign:
  --with-msvs=default
    Use default locations for Microsoft Visual C and Microsoft SDK
  Avoid white space left the equal sign:
  '--with-msvs=<folder where Microsoft Visual C is installed>'
  '--with-mssdk=<folder where Microsoft SDK is installed>'
  '--with-wasdk=<folder where Winamp SDK is installed>'
  '--with-nsis=<folder where NSIS is installed>'

If you want to build the plug-in gen_hdd.dll using the MINGW compiler gcc.exe:

From the MSys2 shell just call configure and make as follows (assuming that you have installed the Winamp SDK at the default location, otherwise you have to provide it's location to configure by means of the --wasdk option):

$ ./configure && make
CP      resources.h
GCC     gen_hdd.o
SED     resources.rc
SED     manifest.xml
WINDRES resources.o
GCC     hdd_about.o
AR      libhdd.a(hdd_about.o)
GCC     hdd_timer.o
AR      libhdd.a(hdd_timer.o)
GCC     hdd_trace.o
AR      libhdd.a(hdd_trace.o)
GCC     gen_hdd.dll

Finally you may test whether the plug-in is really there:
```
$ ls gen_hdd.dll
gen_hdd.dll
```
If you have in mind to proceed with Microsoft Visual C you should issue the command
```
$ make clean
```
in order to remove each dependent file.

If you want instead build the plug-in gen_hdd.dll using the Microsoft Visual C compiler cl.exe along with the Microsoft Windows SDK and all the other MS tools as e.g. lib.exe and rc.exe:

From the MSys2 shell call configure and make as follows (assuming that you have installed Microsoft Visual C, the Microsoft Windows SDK and the Winamp SDK at their respective default locations, otherwise you have to provide their locations to configure by means of the --msvs, --mssdk, or --wasdk options):

$ ./configure --with-msvs=default && make
CP      resources.h
CL      gen_hdd.obj
RC      resources.res
CL      hdd_about.obj
LIB     libhdd.lib(hdd_about.obj)
CL      hdd_timer.obj
LIB     libhdd.lib(hdd_timer.obj)
CL      hdd_trace.obj
LIB     libhdd.lib(hdd_trace.obj)
CL      gen_hdd.dll

Finally you may test whether the plug-in is really there:
```
$ ls gen_hdd.dll
gen_hdd.dll
```

Home:		http://gen-hdd.sourceforge.net/
Project:		http://sourceforge.net/projects/gen-hdd/
Download:		http://sourceforge.net/projects/gen-hdd/files/

Winamp Forum:		http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=373206 (discontinued)