Plextor University - ASPI What does ASPI stand for? ASPI stands for Advanced SCSI Programming Interface. Developed by Adaptec, ASPI (commonly referred to as ASPI drivers or ASPI layer) acts as a standard file-system interface to allow an application to communicate with a device driver. As the name implies, its function is to act as a standard interface between SCSI controllers and peripherals, eliminating the software programming problems that an application vendor faces if forced to use drivers specific to another vendor's SCSI host bus adapter. However, many applications that require this programming interface will install the drivers regardless of whether you are using ATAPI or SCSI devices. Installing an application that uses its own unique version of ASPI, may create conflicts if a different version is already resident on your system. As of November 2002, the current version of Adaptec's ASPI Installer is version 4.71.2. This application will automatically install the proper version of ASPI drivers for your operating system. Windows 98, 98 SE, and Me, all come pre-installed with an earlier version of ASPI. Windows NT, 2000, and XP do not have ASPI pre-installed as part of the operating system, and most applications may function correctly without the addition of ASPI. Adaptec's ASPI does not support Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, so it should not be installed on these operating systems. The ASPIINST.exe contained on PlexWriter Software CD revision 1.11 (and higher) will install Adaptec ASPI, version 4.6, build 1021, onto your system. This version is compatible with Windows 95, 98, 98SE and Me, but should not be installed on NT, 2000, or Windows XP. Applications shipping with current Plextor drives do NOT require that ASPI be installed, as these applications have their own file-system interface that they use to communicate with device drivers. The same is true for the firmware updaters that Plextor offers for current Plextor drives. In the past, Plextor firmware updaters DID require that ASPI be installed on the system in order to successfully update the drive's firmware. However, this is no longer the case with current shipping Plextor drives or future firmware releases. If you have an older Plextor recorder, it probably is at the most recent firmware version. If it is not, and you try to upgrade the firmware, you may receive a prompt that "no ASPI driver" was located. If this prompt occurs, you must install the ASPI drivers from the PlexWriter CD or download the application from Adaptec in order to use the flash utility. There are other companies that write their own ASPI drivers specifically for use with their devices or software programs. Those ASPI drivers should be transparent to the operating system and work normally. Adaptec's ASPI drivers are the most widely used programming interface for peripheral devices and are the closest thing to being a standard ASPI interface. In fact, many of your installed applications and device drivers may be developed specifically for use with Adaptec's ASPI drivers. If your system is functioning properly, we recommend that you do not install ASPI unless it is part of an applications software package, or is recommended by a technical support representative. As you may realize, the presence of ASPI can have a great effect on many different applications within your system, ranging from your software CD player, to MP3 encoding programs, certain video game software, and even software DVD players. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, conflicts arise when one installed application in your system overwrites or conflicts with other applications and/or ASPI in your system. Therefore, if you do have ASPI installed in your system, it is a good idea to keep your ASPI drivers up to date, even though your CD burning applications may not require ASPI to be installed in the first place. If you are not sure what version of ASPI (if any) you have on your system, you can use the ASPICHK.EXE utility. This file, included in the PlexWriter CD and in the Adaptec version 4.7 download, not only gives you a list of installed software components; it lets you know if the drivers are functioning correctly.