Creating bootable USB stick to run spinrite

[francoisdelisle]

Hi,
Yesterday I bought a copy of spinrite.
I had trouble creating a bootable USB stick to run it. I finally use Rufus to create a bootable USB stick with freedos and copy spinrite exe on it.
Is there a better way to create a spinrite bootable USB stick ?
With the technique i used, am i able to use all of spinrite features ?
The computer i am using to create the USB stick is running Windows 10.

-Thanks

 

[rfrazier]

check your machine's motherboard/BIOS/UEFI manual

I haven't bought motherboards in a long time, over a decade. But, if I remember right, the BIOS manual for my MSI motherboards was pretty useless. I hate it when it says something like (for example): Option Name: Legacy Boot. Description: This turns on Legacy boot. Yeah. That told me exactly nothing that wasn't already on the BIOS screen. Maybe the OP will have better luck.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron

 

[PHolder]

BIOS manual

Well at least it tells you the option exists and saves you hunting through nested menus hoping to find IF an option exists... no?

 

[rfrazier]

You do have a point. Would be nice if it told me why I'd want to use such a thing though. Actually MSI motherboard manuals, as I recall, are pretty good. I just have a pet peeve about "help" screens that aren't helpful.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron

 

[pats2265]

Hi,
Yesterday I bought a copy of spinrite.
I had trouble creating a bootable USB stick to run it. I finally use Rufus to create a bootable USB stick with freedos and copy spinrite exe on it.
Is there a better way to create a spinrite bootable USB stick ?
With the technique i used, am i able to use all of spinrite features ?
The computer i am using to create the USB stick is running Windows 10.

-Thanks

I recently bought SpinRite as well, and ran into a lot of trouble getting my MOBO to boot the SpinRite USB.
Here was my original post, requesting some help https://forums.grc.com/threads/unable-too-boot-into-dos-to-run-spinrite.961/.

As it turns out, the SpinRite GUI has the option to create the bootable USB drive. This worked, I just didn't know that it was working!
I spent several hours booting and tweaking options in the MOBO BIOS and booting and booting and googling for solutions until I learned enough to make it work.
I wish there were an easy way. There were only two things I needed to do:
1. Disabled secure boot, and
2. Enabled legacy boot mode.

And yes, the SPINRITE.EXE provides all of the features so simply putting that on the USB stick will give you access to all of the features.

Search for "How do I enable legacy boot on MOBO XYZ" replacing XYZ with your MOBO. If you don't know what MOBO you have, boot to BIOS and use the BIOS name instead of the MOBO name.

Hope that helps.

 

[Mervyn Haynes]

I wish there were an easy way. There were only two things I needed to do:
1. Disabled secure boot, and
2. Enabled legacy boot mode.

Have we not got a thread on this guys? It crops up a lot and if not, maybe we should have a "sticky"

 

[pats2265]

Have we not got a thread on this guys? It crops up a lot and if not, maybe we should have a "sticky"

I'm brand new to the forum, so I don't know the answer, but yes, it makes sense it should be EASY to find!

 

[redey]

Hi, @francoisdelisle.

Have you ever tried Ventoy? Windows and Linux setup tools are supported. It creates a bootable USB drive that can boot other ISOs from the same storage device. All you need to do is copy a full ISO into the Ventoy USB stick, like any other regular file. When you start the computer, it will present a list of ISO files you can choose to boot from.

Ventoy

www.ventoy.net

Will spinrite 6.1 be usable from Ventoy? As 6.0 (FreeDOS, as I remember) isn't, in any way I tried. Have this been requested and testing with the current alphas? Is there a description anywhere that make version 6.0 (and beyond) work with Ventoy? Thanks,
Akos

 

[miquelfire]

If Ventoy can't use DOS, then 6.1 won't be usable with it.