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.)
I’m sorry, I’m confused. I can’t find “Newsreader Configuration“. Could you give me the link please? And once there, is it easy to join the group? From what Steve was saying back in January the version available then was finished and working well and he was waiting for more testing to be done on weird or obscure drives. Where would I find the version he was talking about in January? I’ll give that one a go.
You really should read the whole page (or at least skim it, as it has all the advice for new users). As you're reading, you'll come across the section that you need to pay extra attention to, looking like:
I know it's difficult to have to use a newsgroup, but this *IS* Steve's requirement, not mine. He already has many hundreds of users who are testing, so I guess he knows his own users well enough to know how to limit the incoming testers to the sorts of people he wants to be using an early alpha. If you make the effort, just post to the SpinRite dev newsgroup asking for advice on using the previous version you'd like to try, and there are very good odds that Steve himself will reply directly to you.
... a few months off ... are we really looking at 2024 before us common folk can get 6.1?
I’m trying to join the news group but I’m having trouble
. If I were to pull out the 4T western digital HDD from my server and ran SR 6.0 level 4 on it, would SR at least fix any errors in the first 2.2TB? I seem to remember me trying SR over a year ago when I first thought that there was a problem with the drive and SR told me “Everything is weird, the disc info is too crazy to cope with, don’t proceed, doom, gloom and disaster awaits if you do”. I think that those were the exact words 
. So I didn’t proceed as I was a wimp.
Subject: Re: Looking for a clean B04E PNG screen shot?
Date: Sun, 21 May 2023 19:22:32 -0700
Message-ID: <u4ejl7$t0t$15@GRC>
Lines: 27
Following up on what Steve Gibson wrote...
> I'm working on a new GRC web page to document the B04E
> division overflow. I'd like to embellish it with a chunk of
> screenshot showing the error. Could someone post a digital
> capture PNG here or on GitLab?
Paul's "MDFYSR60" utilities are now officially documented and
available for download from GRC:
The new page in SpinRite's small knowledgebase collection:
https://www.grc.com/sr/kb/b04e.htm
MDFYSR60's presence among GRC's freely downloadable utilities:
https://www.grc.com/freeupdated.htm
And I added an entry near the top of SpinRite's FAQ page:
https://www.grc.com/sr/faq.htm
I haven't yet looked into updating GRC's purchase and download
system, but I would also like to add notices to the download
page and to the user's receipt page to notify new owners of the
MDFYSR60 utilities. I'll look into that after Tuesday's podcast.Return to your previous thread and follow the steps here https://forums.grc.com/threads/spinrite-iso-issues.1227/post-8975
Well since the patch is TSR (terminate and stay resident) you need only run it once before running SpinRite. If the ISO boots but does NOT run SpinRite automatically, then so long as you could find another way to copy the MDFYSR60.COM executable into your virtual environment, you could execute it before starting SpinRite.
