SpinRite Won't Boot On Three Machines

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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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H

Helmanfrow

Member
May 11, 2022
9
1
Hi.
Long-time listener, First-time caller.

I've been using SpinRite 6.0 since September 2007. I thought I'd encountered every kind of booting issue there is.
Today I tried to run it on an Intel DH77KC motherboard running the latest BIOS but it wouldn't boot.
By contrast CloneZilla, MemTest86 and some other utilities booted up without an issue.

Naturally I made sure the BIOS was set to "Legacy" boot mode instead of UEFI and I set the SATA controller to "Legacy" (or the equivalent).
I tried flashing SpinRite (using SpinRite.exe and also a third-party USB boot flasher) onto two different (known good) flash drives and two USB card readers (including an old Kingston HCR-FS3 USB cwhich is usually unflappable at boot time). Still nada.
The computer has an optical drive but I haven't any write-able discs on hand.
This was taking a long time so for a sanity check I tried booting SR on an old ThinkPad T520 I had under my desk.
No go. I went through the whole rigamarole and it SR wouldn't boot.

Then I tried on my current main ThinkPad P50, dotting my t's an crossing my lower-case J's.
Would. Not. Boot.

It's been a long day.


The Defeated
 
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