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DNS Benchmark v2 is Finished and Available! Guest:
That's right. It took an entire year, but the result far more accurate and feature laden than we originally planned. The world now has a universal, multi-protocol, super-accurate, DNS resolver performance-measuring tool. This major second version is not free. But the deal is, purchase it once for $9.95 and you own it — and it's entire future — without ever being asked to pay anything more. For an overview list of features and more, please see The DNS Benchmark page at GRC. If you decide to make it your own, thanks in advance. It's a piece of work I'm proud to offer for sale. And if you should have any questions, many of the people who have been using and testing it throughout the past year often hang out here.
/Steve. -
Be sure to checkout “Tips & Tricks” Dear Guest Visitor → Once you register and log-in please checkout the “Tips & Tricks” page for some very handy tips!
/Steve. -
BootAble – FreeDOS boot testing freeware
To obtain direct, low-level access to a system's mass storage drives, SpinRite runs under a GRC-customized version of FreeDOS which has been modified to add compatibility with all file systems. In order to run SpinRite it must first be possible to boot FreeDOS.
GRC's “BootAble” freeware allows anyone to easily create BIOS-bootable media in order to workout and confirm the details of getting a machine to boot FreeDOS through a BIOS. Once the means of doing that has been determined, the media created by SpinRite can be booted and run in the same way.
The participants here, who have taken the time to share their knowledge and experience, their successes and some frustrations with booting their computers into FreeDOS, have created a valuable knowledgebase which will benefit everyone who follows.
You may click on the image to the right to obtain your own copy of BootAble. Then use the knowledge and experience documented here to boot your computer(s) into FreeDOS. And please do not hesitate to ask questions – nowhere else can better answers be found.
(You may permanently close this reminder with the 'X' in the upper right.)
Sounds like you're seeing an image supplied by the BIOS/UEFI boot that you never used to see. Did you make changes to boot settings? It sounds like it's looking at the USB device and deciding it can't boot it for some reason, likely because of secure boot settings, or the lack of a CSM or something similar.
There have been changes to the boot settings so I decided to print the relevant pages of the online manual that describes the BIOS settings. Then I could go through the BIOS while referring to the manual.
While setting up the BIOS info print, my PS/2 keyboard stopped working (wireless one is OK) then my printer broke after 3 of the 17 pages. It's a 'send to service centre' fault. It's 7 years old so I'll buy a new one.
It's been one of those weeks. I'm sure this is not new to most on this blog, but I've now joined the club!
Rough week! While you’re checking things, maybe make sure you’re on the most recent firmware
Great news and frustrating news:
In the BIOS I found the CSM was disabled so enabled it. Also found a Secure Boot option which I disabled. Then the boot list of 5 drives which included 'UEFI: Intenso Rainbow line, partition 1' (the SpinRite drive) was now a list of 13 including 'Intenso Rainbow line' so I made that boot #1 and SpinRite booted perfectly
I have since searched the MoBo manual for secure boot and find no reference to it.
Frustratingly the SATA to USB adapter I have for attaching the HDD for testing doesn't appear to be working, not even in Windows. I'll have to look into that
In the BIOS I found the CSM was disabled so enabled it. Also found a Secure Boot option which I disabled. Then the boot list of 5 drives which included 'UEFI: Intenso Rainbow line, partition 1' (the SpinRite drive) was now a list of 13 including 'Intenso Rainbow line' so I made that boot #1 and SpinRite booted perfectly
I have since searched the MoBo manual for secure boot and find no reference to it.
Frustratingly the SATA to USB adapter I have for attaching the HDD for testing doesn't appear to be working, not even in Windows. I'll have to look into that
@Rog7 I presume you would be receiving an error message if your CMOS settings were resetting, but if you're having unexplained changes to them, perhaps you might want to consider whether or not to change your CMOS battery. (How old is it and/or the machine... if it's been 5+ years it might need a replacement.)
The PC is 5 years old but it has rarely been powered off. I worked 30+ years in IT, mainframes which frequently broke on powering up so it was safer to keep powered on and old habits die hard.
If the CMOS battery is only used when there's no power it should have quite a bit of life in it.
I will, eventually, check it but I've spent so many hours on this SpinRite problem that I'm way behind on domestic and sports club duties that I must attend. Plus an email problem arose last night.
Although I still haven't run SR on my dodgy HDD when I do I'll start another thread if there's a problem.
Thank you and everyone for all that welcome assistance.
IIRC the CMOS battery is used all the time to maintain the settings. If it fails, but mains power is still available, the settings should be retained, but if the mains fails, settings will be lost/reset to factory.If the CMOS battery is only used when there's no power it should have quite a bit of life in it.
Right, if we pull the power plug and remove a laptop's removable
battery, for example, to force a complete shutdown, if the little CMOS
BIOS batter is weak, the computer may ask the data and time and reset
factory defaults at next boot.
battery, for example, to force a complete shutdown, if the little CMOS
BIOS batter is weak, the computer may ask the data and time and reset
factory defaults at next boot.
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