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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.)
It will likely be awhile . . . See
Subject to change if/as Steve's thinking changes.
As Dan says, it is on the roadmap. It will happen. But how “soon” is completely unknown.
I agree that this is what we're seeing more and more. This is why I'm so excited about the subtle timing variations we detected in SSDs during the ReadSpeed benchmark development which was built upon the native AHCI driver development. Drives that are having trouble reading their own data — as revealed by reduced reading speed — cannot hide that fact from any sufficiently sensitive examination. This promises to be a really big deal for SpinRite.
You will need Google translate as the web page is in Russian, but the program is in English.
Go figure.
It's particularly enlightening on old drives that have bad spots.
If you can access USB attached drives from SpinRite on your PC now then you should be able to access an NVMe drive in a USB adapter.
ReadSpeed? NO. It will not. ReadSpeed by design is ONLY for internal drives. RS cannot see/access USB drives.
SpinRite? Maybe. PROVIDED: Provided your system BIOS supports this. Most BIOS are very limited in their USB support capability.
And if you are fortunate enough to be able to scan ANY USB drive, the s-l-o-w BIOS I/O speed would make any benchmarking meaningless and useless. All you would see would be the very s-l-o-w BIOS I/O speed.
And the slow scan speed would mean a rather l-o-n-g scan time. But the long, slow scan would be valid - eventually
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