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  • 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.

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Is SpinRite 6.1 really that different?

#1

L

lamwilli

I’m a loyal Security Now listener and was happy to have an opportunity to use SpinRite. My son, a habitual Mac user, needed a Windows laptop for a new project. I had an old HP Pavilion machine that had slowed to the point it became unusable. Assuming the drive needed error correcting, I purchased a SpinRite license to check it out.
I downloaded SR6.0, booted the laptop from CDROM and began a level 4 scan. SpinRite estimated it would take about 94 hours to process the entire 800GB drive. Wanting to give my son an answer in less than four days, I found a pre-release image of SR6.1, rebooted the laptop, started the scan, and went to bed.

In the morning, I saw that the scan had completed in less than 4:30 hours!

I rebooted the computer and confirmed that as good as SpinRite 6.1 is, Windows still sucks and there is nothing SpinRite can do about it.

SpinRite 6.1 is amazing. It clearly was a massive effort and deserves a higher version number. While my son isn’t getting a free Windows machine, I know that I have a solid laptop that will make a great Linux Mint workstation for my home lab of the local school.


#2

Steve

Steve

lamwilli said:
SpinRite 6.1 is amazing. It clearly was a massive effort and deserves a higher version number.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your note and feedback, @lamwilli. It really is very much appreciated, especially as we're finally emerging from what was, as you correctly noted, a massive effort.

It truly was a team effort. I'm always more than happy to code — it's what I love more than anything else — and all I really want is to produce the best possible result within whatever constraints are imposed. But it was equally the amazing group of volunteers who, while they were also having some fun, were still patiently testing (over and over endlessly) and pounding on all of this very new code.

The first document I've prepared is "SpinRite v6.1 for SpinRite 6.0 owners", meaning "if you already know SpinRite from 6.0, what has changed in SpinRite 6.1" — and so, yeah, I also know what you mean about it needing a larger version number change. But that will come with the next project... 7.0!!

Until then, thank you so much for your support and feedback!


#3

Simon Zerafa

Simon Zerafa

How about calling the final final release version v6.11 for Workgroups? 😉


#4

Steve

Steve

Simon Zerafa said:
How about calling the final final release version v6.11 for Workgroups? 😉
Click to expand...
Ha! Probably a bit too much of an inside joke! :) I suppose, if we were not so far downstream, it would call this v6.5. That seems more fitting, especially since we're heading toward 7.0. But, v6.1 it is.


#5

S

SeanBZA

How about the final candidate being declared as ver6.22


#6

W

Wolfen

You did not state if SpinRite found errors with the hard drive.
Windows not booting may well be a windows issue of corrupt files etc and not an issue with the hard drive itself.
Did you try windows recovery via disc/usb


#7

C

cbrillow

SeanBZA said:
How about the final candidate being declared as ver6.22
Click to expand...
At times during torturous testing of the alpha releases, I've thought version 6.66 might be an appropriate version number. I was, after all, having a helluva time in — more ways than one!;)


#8

L

lamwilli

Wolfen said:
You did not state if SpinRite found errors with the hard drive.
Windows not booting may well be a windows issue of corrupt files etc and not an issue with the hard drive itself.
Did you try windows recovery via disc/usb
Click to expand...
Wolfen, No, Spinrite did not detect any errors. The laptop is an old HP Pavilion dv6. My recollection is that it originally ran Win 7. It slowed down significantly after the Win 10 upgrade and became even slower with successive updates. I had ready address file fragmentation, so my hope was that the sluggishness was caused by disk imperfections. Problems Spinrite could address. It turns out that HP made a solid system. The slowness was 100% inefficiencies introduced by successive iterations of Windows.

I thank Linus Torvalds about once a week that there is an alternative.


#9

A

AdmFubar

lamwilli said:
Wolfen, No, Spinrite did not detect any errors. The laptop is an old HP Pavilion dv6. My recollection is that it originally ran Win 7. It slowed down significantly after the Win 10 upgrade and became even slower with successive updates. I had ready address file fragmentation, so my hope was that the sluggishness was caused by disk imperfections. Problems Spinrite could address. It turns out that HP made a solid system. The slowness was 100% inefficiencies introduced by successive iterations of Windows.

I thank Linus Torvalds about once a week that there is an alternative.
Click to expand...
you need to thank more than Linus. there is a whole list of people starting with R. M. Stallman.


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