Listening to Security Now, Steve refers to V6.1 test version is available for testing, I would like to be able to test it. Where can I find it ?
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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.)
You cannot find it yet, as it's still in development. What you will find is some pre-release versions that are incrementally testing new capabilities as @Steve rewrites them. Accordingly, you really need to keep up with the discussions on what is going on in order to successfully test and provide feedback. These forums are not yet ready for that task, and may never be, as Steve prefers to work in the newsgroup he has dedicated to the testing and development of SpinRite. Accordingly, you need a news reader and you need to very closely read and follow the instructions for it's configuration to be able to successfully post there. I'll link you here to another discussion that will give you the details you need.
Some additional details you need to be aware of. Your PC *MUST* be able to boot Legacy BIOS. There are other discussions on this site about that if you need to refer to them. You need a DOS (or more likely FreeDOS) bootable USB on which to put your downloads of the test executable(s). The best way to make one of these easily is probably to use the tool Steve created for a previous test, ReadSpeed . Running the program will format the USB for you, load the correct FreeDOS and will also configure it to run ReadSpeed. Once you have that working, you can add any new SpinRite test executables to it (from Windows) and then boot into DOS to test them.
Some additional details you need to be aware of. Your PC *MUST* be able to boot Legacy BIOS. There are other discussions on this site about that if you need to refer to them. You need a DOS (or more likely FreeDOS) bootable USB on which to put your downloads of the test executable(s). The best way to make one of these easily is probably to use the tool Steve created for a previous test, ReadSpeed . Running the program will format the USB for you, load the correct FreeDOS and will also configure it to run ReadSpeed. Once you have that working, you can add any new SpinRite test executables to it (from Windows) and then boot into DOS to test them.
Jeff,
Only development demos are available at this time. They may be found here:
To run any of them you will need a boot media that BIOS boots your machine into a suitable DOS environment.
The best way to do that is to go here:
Download the ReadSpeed for Windows tool (if you are running Windows) and run it to prepare a USB stick for booting a custom environment for running RS.exe (the DOS executable ReadSpeed benchmark tool) or any released SpinRite development demo. Just download the desired SR-R0x.exe from the above link to the prepared USB stick, boot from it and run.
Note: When the USB stick is first created, RS.exe is placed on it and runs at boot-up, displaying the ReadSpeed splash screen. At that point you may either (a) press Enter to run ReadSpeed and benchmark your drives to see what they are doing or (b) press ESC to exit ReadSpeed to a DOS prompt for running a SpinRite demo.
The latest SpinRite demo is SR-R04,exe, which has an issue with older Intel chip sets running in ATA mode (R04 hangs hard). Steve has figured that out, made additional tweaks to the new benchmarking code in SpinRite 6.1, and is testing it. A new SR-R05.exe release should be available in the near future.
One final note: The above is for BIOS boot machines only. UEFI boot capability will be in a future SpinRite version.
And yes, the NG is the place to report any development test results, as @PHolder said. This forum is for support of released GRC products, including SpinRite 6.1 after it is eventually released.
Hope this helps . . .
I intentionally didn't link to this, because running these without participating in the newsgroup is basically a waste of time. The first thing you need to do is join that community so that you can get support and report the results or problems. These forums are not the place for that, at least not right now.
I disagree. I follow the newsgroups but do not post in them. I think it is fun to run these pre releases and see what is going on. Personally I have had no problems with running these pre releases apart from one instance. I don't know why it is made so difficult to post in the newsgroups, when it is very easy to do so here. Steve says it to stop spam, but surly we would have the same problems in this group
We DID have a massive SPAM problem for a stretch, but Steve made changes to make it more difficult to post here. That's not affecting you because you're already a member. But it does slow down new joiners. Sensing a pattern?
I was referring to there being little value to the final project if someone runs it without feeding back into the newsgroup. Even a simple "worked for me on platform X" is useful info when changes are being made and the intent is to verify something unintended hasn't changed.
I fully agree. I reiterated that at the end of my post. But, being at the end of the post I suppose it may not always be seen ...
In any case, the OP seemed to need some help and direction which I tried to provide.
Posting in the NG's is easy, at least for me.
The tricky part may be getting things set up properly so one can post. That I believe has changed since I did it a long time ago (it was quite tricky for me to figure out back then).
I am not completely sure of the correct procedure today, but I think it is simpler now than when I did it.
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This is what I was meaning, I tried it twice and gave up! Also I found it difficult to find all posts by one member, probably just me, I have a low pain threshold
!
I agree it's not easy (it took me quite a few tries). But once you have the directions and follow them scrupulously, you never have to do it again.
For those not paying attention to the newsgroup, there is a new SR-R05 available. I just tested it, it's still only benchmarking, but it's looking pretty sweet.
Hi,
Just wanted to give feedback after testing Releases 4 and 5 of SpinRite. SR4 did not detect USB drives but SR5 could. Benchmark ran as a charm on a Samsung 860 Evo connected to USB (around 28 MB/s on all part of the drive).
Anyway great piece of software, hope to running Level 2 on this drive soon!
Just wanted to give feedback after testing Releases 4 and 5 of SpinRite. SR4 did not detect USB drives but SR5 could. Benchmark ran as a charm on a Samsung 860 Evo connected to USB (around 28 MB/s on all part of the drive).
Anyway great piece of software, hope to running Level 2 on this drive soon!
The SR demos are getting better with each release. The SR6 version (not released yet) looks to be even more impressive.
However: SpinRite 6.1's USB support will be only via the system BIOS. That is, SpinRite 6.1's USB support will be limited to what a system's BIOS can / cannot do.
You are one of the lucky few
to have a system BIOS with decent USB support! The rest of us, however, will have to wait for SR 7.1 for USB support.
That said, SR 6.1 looks to have better USB support overall than SR 6.0 (with the aforementioned BIOS limitations) , but many/most of us will still be left wanting more.
However: SpinRite 6.1's USB support will be only via the system BIOS. That is, SpinRite 6.1's USB support will be limited to what a system's BIOS can / cannot do.
You are one of the lucky few
to have a system BIOS with decent USB support! The rest of us, however, will have to wait for SR 7.1 for USB support. That said, SR 6.1 looks to have better USB support overall than SR 6.0 (with the aforementioned BIOS limitations) , but many/most of us will still be left wanting more.
Right. The simple truth is that bringing the 17-year-old, circa 2004 SpinRite v6.0 current — with everything we want it to be in 2021 and beyond — is a huge amount of work. We all know that I'm unafraid of work. But that amount of work translates into a long wait, since we also know that I believe in being unhurried and getting whatever I do as correct as I'm able to while I'm focused upon it.That said, SR 6.1 looks to have better USB support overall than SR 6.0 (with the aforementioned BIOS limitations) , but many/most of us will still be left wanting more.
For example, while we've been working to nail down the migration of the new hardware drivers into SpinRite while converting them to hardware interrupt based completion signalling (and rearchitecting SpinRite around a I/O abstraction model), we've also been iterating on what the benchmark does and shows. As a result, it has also come a long way and has become a far more useful component of SpinRite than ever before. We didn't know that would happen, but that's always what seems to happen.
My point is, given the time required to get everything done the way we want, it makes sense to find a release point where a useful interim product can be made available.
Once SpinRite v6.1 is established, I'm not going on vacation (well, okay, maybe a weekend off). Instead, I will be immediately being the work of porting v6.1 over to the OnTime RTOS-32 OS. That will create the first-ever SpinRite for UEFI. And then the work on USB and NVMe will commence. And the cool thing about that is that they will be added to a brand new foundation that was built to accept them.
Two things, first does SR (or will it) support RAID. I have a two drive RAID where they are mirror, a redundant 6TB. If it does not, I am not sure I know how to unhook the drives and reconfigure for a single drive configuration. Also that RTOS-32 looks cool, I didn't know about that, Win32 APIs.
RAID is not really a standard (as far as interfaces or data formats) so it's unlikely that any tool not from the supplier of the RAID itself is going to do a lot for you. If you want to run something like SpinRite on the drives, it should be able to process them individually as "raw disks". The problem *COULD* be that if it finds a problem with the disk, and takes a "repairative" active that that could cause problems for the RAID data structures which could actually potentially harm your data.
Good Evening.
Finally joined the forums after listening to SecurityNow since Episode <single digits>...
Notes:
1. I don't think SR will ever need to 'support RAID' per se. If am not mistaken SR needs to run on a single drive-at-a-time. SR is agnostic as to the drive's data format. It scans-and-repairs the RAW drive data. Hence why it can scan and repair FAT32 / NTFS / HFS+ / Btrfs - e.g. my Synology drive [which it's SR v6.0 is currently working on right now]
To use it on your "RAID" you will have to shut it down, then individually scan each HDD @coffeeprogrammer using a PC dedicated to SpinRite [I have a cheap Gigabyte motherboard based old WinXP box that I now just use to SpinRite].
2. @PHolder - Is my point 1 above completely incorrect? - Could SR "repairing" a HDD cause the data structure to break and harm the data?
3. @Steve Am I correct to assume that SR v6.1 will be able to address and scan HDDs >2.2TB (e.g. my WD RED 6TB drives I use in my Synology? - because that's what am scanning right now... but of course SR 6.0 is only going to 'see' and scan the first 2.2TB....
Cheers,
Marc.
I have the older SR6 from 2004, I once tried running it on a 2TB, but I didn't let it finish as the it was taking way to long. Am I correct that I can download the SR6.1 @Steve has been working on and run it on my two SSD? I have one SSD (I don't what they are called NVMe or something) that connect directly on the motherboard 512GB as my OS and Programs volumes and a 2TB 2.5" SSD for my virtual machines. From what I am understanding I can download SR6.1 beta (I will call it) and it will make an iso for me to burn or put on a flash drive and if should scan those drives fairly quickly. And actually that is just my main machine, I have a few laptops and other computer, so I really should check out the improved speed. I remember that the original SR6.0 would crash in FreeDOS because of a bug I think, I very confident that has been repaired.
Edit:
Where can I get the beta? I am not sure where to download it? I have SR6.0, although I lost track of my exe of it. If I remember correctly, when I bought it, it just downloaded an exe that was all set.
Second Edit:
I just read some of the other posts in the thread. I tried joining the Newsgroups with the gravity program, but I could not get it to work correctly. I also tried using thunderbird, which didn't work. I was connecting to news.grc.com and I entered a passphrase as both my username and password. That is what I understood to do. Maybe I missed something about registration?
Edit:
Where can I get the beta? I am not sure where to download it? I have SR6.0, although I lost track of my exe of it. If I remember correctly, when I bought it, it just downloaded an exe that was all set.
Second Edit:
I just read some of the other posts in the thread. I tried joining the Newsgroups with the gravity program, but I could not get it to work correctly. I also tried using thunderbird, which didn't work. I was connecting to news.grc.com and I entered a passphrase as both my username and password. That is what I understood to do. Maybe I missed something about registration?
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@coffeeprogrammer
SR v6.0 "older" IS the Current version of SpinRite.
To get a fresh .exe of it, you will need your 'Your PRIVATE Transaction Code' that your received in your original Purchase Confirmation email from GRC. I keep all those email in Gmail so a search for 'spinrite' brings it up. If you have lost that, you can contact Greg at http://www.grc.com/cs/customerservice.htm
The current SR6.1 is not a beta... yet. It's more of a POC Proof-of-Concept which is currently testing Drive access. It's a non-functioning version of SR with only the Drive Benchmarking feature working.
In terms of getting SpinRite onto a USA stick, Steve's ReadSpeed app now does that all AutoMagicially on Windows (it worked in a Paralles Win7 VM running on my Mac).
In terms of getting the SR6.1 POC app, just re-read @DanR 's post at the top of this thread.
Best wishes,
GoodNight from London,
Marc.
SR v6.0 "older" IS the Current version of SpinRite.
To get a fresh .exe of it, you will need your 'Your PRIVATE Transaction Code' that your received in your original Purchase Confirmation email from GRC. I keep all those email in Gmail so a search for 'spinrite' brings it up. If you have lost that, you can contact Greg at http://www.grc.com/cs/customerservice.htm
The current SR6.1 is not a beta... yet. It's more of a POC Proof-of-Concept which is currently testing Drive access. It's a non-functioning version of SR with only the Drive Benchmarking feature working.
In terms of getting SpinRite onto a USA stick, Steve's ReadSpeed app now does that all AutoMagicially on Windows (it worked in a Paralles Win7 VM running on my Mac).
In terms of getting the SR6.1 POC app, just re-read @DanR 's post at the top of this thread.
Best wishes,
GoodNight from London,
Marc.
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When SR 6.1 gets to the point of what most would call "beta" @Steve may release it for testing. When that will occur is probably still many months away. At that time, you will need to prove you're an existing customer of GRC by using the same means you would use today to re-download your personal copy of SR 6.0. (In case you don't know or didn't notice, every copy is licensed to the purchaser, and is uniquely encoded with your name and your serial number... it will be the same thing for 6.1 when the time comes.)
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