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.
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The red areas ares red because ValiDrive can NOT write to them. Neither will anything else. So the answer to your question is a Yes.
268 GB is a definitely odd size. Such drives do not exist. Your data tells you two things: The drive is fake. And, the combination of hacked firmware and possibly failing NAND are producing weird results.
I agree. They are very good about accepting returns for any reason, within the first 30 days. I 'd like to be able to say that it failed to store more than about 73 GB because files stored above that amount could not be retrieved. (I don't have to mention Validrive in the actual return note, which, as you say, may not be read anyway. During Steve's podcast he said that he was told Amazon would not allow a negative review, based on Validrive. I'd like to try a negative review as well. If enough people make similar bad reviews, with or without mentioning Validrive, perhaps one of Amazon's employees will alert them to the problem, and they'll screen their drive sellers for unethical practices.
Perhaps that's why Steve included the statistical analysis, to justify that his results truly represent the state of the drive.
Please reboot your computer and try again. You may be running into a bug in ValiDrive.
Thanks. I ran the the test on the drive 4 times, each time the "validated size" was different: See Attached. The two things they agree upon is that the last block is red and there are many more green blocks than red blocks. Doesn't this invalidate Validrive?
No. Stop expecting the same results. The USB flash drive is clearly a fake and totally faulty.
So you (and Mr Starfish) are saying the location of the first red block and the "validated" drive size can change. If so, then Vaidrive should simply say, it's a fake drive or faulty without saying there IS any particular validated size. I wonder if Steve is aware of the possible changes in the number and locations of the red blocks. If he is, I would certainly appreciate such a warning in the tutorial that pops up when running Validrive, along with a possible explanation of how this can happen.
It looks like Steve already addressed this issue: https://forums.grc.com/threads/validrive-results-differ-each-run.1332/#post-9756 . His reply does explain what's going on. I can only hope that Version 2, which Steve has been threatening to create, will do away with the unfortunate phrase "validated drive size".
