Creating bootable USB stick to use on Zimaboard without a windows PC

[AgingKeeper]

I have been listening to Steve discuss his Spinrite progress on Security Now and decided to get a Zimaboard to use in place of my very old Dell Dimension 4600. I wanted to get familiar with the ZB and using it with Spinrite and then my Dell died.

Unfortunately I (currently) have no other Windows PC handy as I transitioned to Macs over a decade ago. So I am left wondering how (aside from getting a Windows license for the ZB) I might create a bootable USB stick or CD with Spinrite 6.1+ on it that I can use with the new ZB.

Based on the information I have found so far on this forum I have yet to see any approach that does not require Windows.

On my Dell I had been using Spinrite 6 from a bootable CD. I can pull the image off of that CD to my Mac, add the new files and then create a new CD using this same image. But I suspect that I really need the updated version of FreeDOS I think Steve is using. Of course I'd prefer to boot from a USB stick but at this point beggars can't be choosers.

Also is there any information on the forums about how to get the Zimaboard to boot from another device? I attempted to change the boot order to boot from my Spinrite 6 CD and it failed. Will hit the ZB forums too.

Thanks!

 

[Steve]

My plan — once everything else is finalized and in place — is to also offer the same licensed .ISO and .IMG files for direct download by SpinRite users specifically to address the "I don't have ready access to a Windows machine" for Linux and Mac users.

 

[AgingKeeper]

My plan — once everything else is finalized and in place — is to also offer the same licensed .ISO and .IMG files for direct download by SpinRite users specifically to address the "I don't have ready access to a Windows machine" for Linux and Mac users.

Thanks will keep playing with my new ZB in the interim

 

[CSPea]

(snip)

Also is there any information on the forums about how to get the Zimaboard to boot from another device? I attempted to change the boot order to boot from my Spinrite 6 CD and it failed. Will hit the ZB forums too.

Thanks!

Hi AgingKeeper,
(You may already have tried this ...? )
On my ZimaBoard - with my bootable thumbdrive already inserted in one of its USB ports - I press F11 repeatedly during the ZimaBoard bootup to get the built-in Boot device/choice menu.

Of course that menu will already show the presence of the native ZimaBoard bootable media ... but no doubt you'll spot your own USB thumbdrive as an option on the list.

Or are you seeing some other hurdle?
Colin

 

[BPippert]

Hi,
I'm newbie, and can seem to get off the ground. I have a ZimaBoard, a 64GB USB 3.1 drive, a Mac (arm64) with balenaEtcher installed (I reinstalled this app to see if that was the problem). I have download FreeDOS 3.1 (FullUSB version), (twice, to see if that was the problem), and sprinrite.exe (6.1). I have formated the blank 64GB USB 3.1 drive to be MS-DOS (FAT32) and ExFAT. None of these variations change the error I receive when I try and create the bootable USB drive. The error message states "Something went wrong. If it is a compressed image, please check that the archive is not corrupted. Error spawning the child process. I have been using the "Install FreeDOS on ZimaBoard to be able to run SpinRite natively" YouTube video.

Does anyone have any ideas I what I could be doing wrong?

Is there a better video / set of instructions I should be following to get SpinRite to run natively on my ZimaBoard?

Thank you in advance for your assistance

 

[ColbyBouma]

I have download FreeDOS 3.1 (FullUSB version), (twice, to see if that was the problem), and sprinrite.exe (6.1).

I recommend using the image file you can download from grc.com.

https://www.grc.com/upgrade.htm

 

[BPippert]

I recommend using the image file you can download from grc.com.

https://www.grc.com/upgrade.htm

View attachment 1470

Thanks for the recommendation, unfortunately I received the same results.... but just for grins I tried flashing the USB drive using balenaEtcher from an account with admin rights and it work. Hopefully this post will allow help someone out in the future.