I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't assume yes because of the higher power needs of a HDD motor.
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/Steve. -
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.)
Well, in general, amperage doesn't matter, as long as it's enough. I'm no specialist, but my understanding is, all other things being equal, a device will only draw as many amps as it needs. Voltage times amperage is wattage, so you'd have to know if 12v x 10a = 120W is enough for the everything, but I suspect that is more than sufficient as that is was Steve purchased for himself and thus recommended.
So let me do a finish checklist of all the hardware that I will need then this thread can be closed off.
ZimaBoard 232
shop.zimaboard.com
SATA Y-Cable for ZimaBoard/ZimaBlade
shop.zimaboard.com
Deal: BENFEI Displayport to HDMI Adapter, Dp(Display Port) Male to Hdmi Female Converter with Audio for Lenovo, Dell, HP, Asus and other brand(Dp to Hdmi) https://amzn.eu/d/1CvSX9D
Thanks for all the advise throughout this post.
12V 10A Power Supply UK - COLM AC Adaptor 100-240V 50-60HZ DC 12V 120W Adapter Charger
https://www.amazon.co.uk/COLM-Switching-100-240v-Transformers-Accessories-12V-10A/dp/B07J43TMYWZimaBoard 232
ZimaBoard - A Decentralized Home Server
Unlock versatile computing with the ZimaBoard Single Board Server, ideal for DIY tech projects and server applications. Experience robust performance and seamless integration in your personal or professional setup. Shop now to elevate your technology!
shop.zimaboard.com
SATA Y-Cable for ZimaBoard/ZimaBlade
SATA Y-Cable for ZimaBoard & ZimaBlade – Expand NAS & RAID Storage
Expand your ZimaBoard or ZimaBlade with the SATA Y-Cable, supporting two 2.5" or 3.5" HDDs/SSDs. Ideal for NAS or RAID setups, it's compact and efficient—perfect for personal cloud storage, media servers, and data security.
shop.zimaboard.com
Deal: BENFEI Displayport to HDMI Adapter, Dp(Display Port) Male to Hdmi Female Converter with Audio for Lenovo, Dell, HP, Asus and other brand(Dp to Hdmi) https://amzn.eu/d/1CvSX9D
Thanks for all the advise throughout this post.
Zimaboard will sell you a mini-HDMI to HDMI for a fair price, and usually they discount their add-ons, so check that.
Also, the 232 is fine for SpinRite 6.1, but if money is more available and the deal is right, Steve did suggest the ones with more RAM would be useful for future versions of SpinRite 7, which will theoretically be able to multi-task. (So process two drives at once, as one example.) So it's not necessary, but could be beneficial if you follow the thinking.
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I've been following this thread with interest as I have a 4TB external SSD drive that is always connected to a USB 3 port (i.e. at startup) I was hoping the latest Spinrite would help but I can't get the "Mass Storage Drive" to show up for Spinrite to see it. I'm going to try your idea of moving it to a USB 2 port and see if that works. It makes sense when you think of the age of the BIOS. This is my main box and I am running an upgraded graphics card, 32mg of RAM additional cooling fans. It already had the latest and greatest Intel i7 chipset when I built it in 2015 so it is still quick with 8 drive slots, however, the motherboard only supports four SATA connections and four IDE connections. I love my beast and am hoping to get another couple of years out of the motherboard before building a completely new rig.
USB is not optimal for use with SpinRite. Because there are some BIOSes that had serious memory corruption bugs, SpinRite clamps the USB drive to something on the order of 128GiB (137GB) max. I thought there was a command line workaround if you know your machine isn't suffering the corruption bug, but I don't see it documented in the FAQ.
It all seems to depend on the age of the BIOS and the features that are available. My current desktop is running UEFI, but does have BIOS compatibility, and I can see my NVMe drive as a BIOS device. Other people have reported that their machines won't even see SATA M.2 devices.
Hi All
Just a quick update, I purchased a ZimaBoard and ran spinrite 6.1 with it, it worked like a charm.
But I have come away with one question.
Does spinrite have a DOS command, in the terminal after finishing a drive to safely shut down spinrite to power off the ZimaBoard?
I don't want to just switch off the board via the wall socket as it could damage the drive and lead to data loss.
Thanks
Just a quick update, I purchased a ZimaBoard and ran spinrite 6.1 with it, it worked like a charm.
But I have come away with one question.
Does spinrite have a DOS command, in the terminal after finishing a drive to safely shut down spinrite to power off the ZimaBoard?
I don't want to just switch off the board via the wall socket as it could damage the drive and lead to data loss.
Thanks
From the FreeDOS site or GitHub, get the fdapm executable and add to the FreeDOS disk. After running SpinRite, run fdapm with the “poweroff” option
fdapm/fdapm.txt at master · FDOS/fdapm
APM / ACPI control/info, energy saving TSR/control, cache flush, rebooting... {a replacement for MS-DOS POWER} - FDOS/fdapm
github.com
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So in the terminal I just have to type the commands in upper case and they will execute?
Sorry, I was wrong. I believe ReadSpeed included fdapm. I just created a fresh SpinRite drive, and I don't see it.
Once you follow Scott's instructions, yes, just type "fdapm poweroff" in the terminal. It is not case sensitive.
Once you follow Scott's instructions, yes, just type "fdapm poweroff" in the terminal. It is not case sensitive.
Can I just add fdapm executable to the root directory of my spinrite USB, or do I need to create a fresh bootable drive?
You can just add FDAPM.COM to the root of your SpinRite flash drive. Here's the link I downloaded it from:
There's another COM file in that BIN folder, but I don't think it's necessary. I tried only adding FDAPM.COM and running "fdapm poweroff", and it shut down my computer successfully.
There's another COM file in that BIN folder, but I don't think it's necessary. I tried only adding FDAPM.COM and running "fdapm poweroff", and it shut down my computer successfully.
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