Running SR 6.1 in VMware Workstation Pro 17

  • DNS Benchmark v2 Release 5 with Consultant License
    Guest:
    If you own any earlier release of our DNS Benchmark you may immediately download its release #5 replacement. Running an earlier release will detect the new release and help you upgrade.

    Although this release is cosmetic, appearance matters and affects ease of use. The biggest change, as seen in the image above, is that the DNS Benchmark now has a traditional Windows application menu to more fully expose its many features. This release is also "Consultant License Aware" and GRC will now issue a Consultant version when owners have previously purchased four "Personal Use" licenses. If you have previously purchased four DNSB licenses, or if you wish to upgrade your "Personal Use" license to Consultant, GRC's purchase process will direct you through that process.
    /Steve.
  • Be sure to checkout “Tips & Tricks”
    Dear Guest Visitor → Once you register and log-in please checkout the “Tips & Tricks” page for some very handy tips!

    /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.)

Dpace23236

New member
Feb 15, 2024
4
0
Ok, so I'm not experienced enough to know what my problem is exactly. I have VMware Workstation Pro 17 running on a Dell Latitude Laptop Windows 11. I have successfully created the virtual machine from the SR ISO and have SR 6.1 Rel 4 running. SR starts and everything looks great, performs mem test etc. When I get to "Discovering Mass Storage Devices" it only sees the SR Virtual Disk, I get a second line that says...Type - BIOS...Port - 80...Model - This Drive cannot be accessed. The drive that I have plugged in and connected to the VM is an 8GB Thumb Drive. When not connected to the VM the Host OS sees the Thumb Drive just fine. What am I missing here?
 
Ok, so I'm not experienced enough to know what my problem is exactly. I have VMware Workstation Pro 17 running on a Dell Latitude Laptop Windows 11. I have successfully created the virtual machine from the SR ISO and have SR 6.1 Rel 4 running. SR starts and everything looks great, performs mem test etc. When I get to "Discovering Mass Storage Devices" it only sees the SR Virtual Disk, I get a second line that says...Type - BIOS...Port - 80...Model - This Drive cannot be accessed. The drive that I have plugged in and connected to the VM is an 8GB Thumb Drive. When not connected to the VM the Host OS sees the Thumb Drive just fine. What am I missing here?
Forgot to mention I have it connected as USB Controller, couldn't figure out how to directly attach the Thumb Drive as a hard disk.
 
SpinRite 6.1 does not have any USB support. It relies on the BIOS for that. You virtual machine probably does not expose the USB device in a manner which FreeDOS can work with, thus neither can SpinRite. You need to figure out how to set up what other VMs call a "Raw Drive". There are instructions around this site for VirtualBox though, and it's free, so you could try that, or at least contrast those instructions for looking up help on VMWare.