FYI SpinRite's Development Roadmap

[aatech]

Another issue - It seems that if a disk/volume is protected by FDE with Pre-Boot-Authentication turned on (which is one of the main reasons people install FDE), the startup bootloader of the Disk Imaging software would not work, because that bootloader conflicts with the bootloader of the FDE app. I wonder if the use of SpinRite would affect the effective working of the bootloader of either the Disk Imaging app or the FDE app?

Correct me if I'm wrong, it seems that only 1 bootloader can be installed. Wonder if it's possible to create a "SpinRite meta-bootloader" where SpinRite users can at startup choose between the SpinRite 8.0 bootloader, the Disk Imaging app's bootloader, or the FDE's bootloader? But then it may defeat the purpose of activating FDE's Pre-Boot-Authentication in the first place... just thinking aloud.
Or is it possible to have SpinRite 8.0 bootloader automatically loaded after FDE Pre-Boot-Authentication?
i.e. Power up PC => FDE Pre-Boot-Authentication bootloader => enter FDE pre-boot credentials => SpinRite 8.0 bootloader loads up and provides options to 1) start SpinRite to check/repair disk, or 2) Windows 10 startup bootloader, with options for entering UEFI, boot using external devices or proceed to normal Windows startup

 

[PHolder]

@aatech If the disk allows reads and replacement of sector contents, then SpinRite can work on it as a raw disk. @Steve will have to reply here to explain why he currently even bothers to comprehend the partition table/file system on any particular disk. I presume it is to allow you to run SpinRite on less than the full disk, which makes sense with past versions of SpinRite that ran more slowly. On modern computers, where it will be driving the disk at its maximum speed, this option probably makes less sense.

 

[PHolder]

only 1 bootloader can be installed

SpinRite is NOT installed. It boots from media, and runs. It would NEVER be safe to attempt to install SpinRite on a disk that was potentially damaged.

 

[Dave]

SpinRite is NOT installed. It boots from media, and runs. It would NEVER be safe to attempt to install SpinRite on a disk that was potentially damaged.

Although SpiRite is not exclusively used on potentially damaged drives. It is billed as a maintenance and recovery tool.

 

[SpacePilot]

Looking forward to the updates. Hard to believe I've been following you now for over 20-years ...where the hell does the time go!

I found Steve around Security Now episode 7, went back to catch up from episode 1.

 

[SpacePilot]

Are there any Beta versions of 6.1 we can get a hold of? The time and electrons necessary to scan my multi-terrabyte drives has precluded SpinRite maintenance on them.

 

[Steve]

Are there any Beta versions of 6.1 we can get a hold of? The time and electrons necessary to scan my multi-terrabyte drives has precluded SpinRite maintenance on them.

Nothing yet. We first need to finish the ReadSpeed benchmark (that work is being done over in GRC's less webby grc.spinrite.dev NNTP newsgroup. Once ReadSpeed is as ready as we can make it, it'll be released here for wider testing, which will finalize its technology. Then that tech will be moved into SpinRite and we'll have the first v6.1 beta. No idea when... but it has all of my attention.

 

[StevePearson]

What's so cool is that, as we've seen, it turns out that SpinRite is also able to repair SSD's! They suffer from different, but closely related, troubles due to their having so much data crammed into such a small space. Like “spinners”, they make extensive use of on-the-fly error correction.

Hey Steve, I noticed your plan to implement Beyond Recall for a secure wipe of systems through the use of cryptography. Will the wipe technology address concerns with remenant data on SSD's that are hidden due to the flash transition layer retiring an old storage space, or just be able to see what a traditional Operating System can see? Thanks.

 

[Adam-F]

I'm looking forward to using the up and coming versions of SpinRite on my large TeraByte drives. I also have a few questions regarding the development.

What is ReadSpeed?

So SpinRite 8.0 will be bootable on any Windows, Mac, Linux or other x86/x64 hardware platforms, but what about when Apple moves to ARM based hardware, will that be supported too?

Also will USB versions 3.0, 3.1 & 4.0 be supported in the future? and finally, will the bootable ISO image be able to be used on a Multi-boot USB drive enviroment?

 

[PHolder]

What is ReadSpeed?

https://forums.grc.com/pages/About-ReadSpeed/

 

[PHolder]

when Apple moves to ARM based hardware

I asked this question on the GRC newsgroups, and the answer is basically "Steve is unlikely to code in ARM machine language, but only time will tell."

 

[PHolder]

Beyond Recall for a secure wipe of systems

data on SSD's that are hidden due to the flash transition

If the drive has already "given up" on sectors that had data that failed, there is nothing any code external to the SSD is going to be able to do to clear whatever remains. If the contents are that important (top secret++) you should NEVER assume that a software solution is sufficient. Wipe it securely with software, then incinerate it or similar... it's the only way to be sure.

Most drive manufacturers with any reputation have a separate software utility for their higher end (pro level or enterprise level) drives that can use electricity to zap all the blocks in the SSD to an empty state.

 

[linuxkidd]

Hi Steve,
I wanted to put a vote in for expediting UEFI support. I know you have this on your roadmap based on updates you've shared on Security Now... but I wanted to share that I personally, have not had a machine that normally boots in CSM ( BIOS ) mode for many years ( maybe 10 years? ). I realize I started on the edge booting to UEFI mode that far back, but new computers have been sold in UEFI mode for the past few years too. I also understand that SpinRite is typically "needed" more on older devices / older systems... and using a Virtual environment for scanning is a workaround.. but when it comes to ease of use, nothing really beats native UEFI support for on-device, native scanning.

Further, there's only one computer in my collection ( out of my current set of 10 ) that has SATA connected devices... and that's my 192TB server. Everything else is running NVMe exclusively. Has there been any testing on NVMe devices? I don't recall hearing you mention it on the podcast.

I do want to thank you for all your work on the podcast, health research, your myriad of free tools, SQRL, SpinRite, et al. I look forward to the podcast each and every week to stay abreast of current events and benefit from your analysis and insights. Please do keep up the amazing work!

All the best,
Michael J. Kidd
aka linuxkidd

 

[Adam-F]

https://forums.grc.com/pages/About-ReadSpeed/

This was a very interesting article. Thanks for posting it in here.

 

[AlanD]

Further, there's only one computer in my collection ( out of my current set of 10 ) that has SATA connected devices... and that's my 192TB server. Everything else is running NVMe exclusively. Has there been any testing on NVMe devices? I don't recall hearing you mention it on the podcast.

All the testing to date has been to get SpinRite working through AHCI rather than IDE interfaces. Although some of the utilities have detected NVMe drives, 6.1 will not support them directly. It is likely that it will support M.2 drives connected as SATA, but not if they are PCI-e

 

[Raymond Day]

Found this forum from link Steve did on Twitter. Know about it but did not know the URL.

Any way looking forward to the new SpinRite too. I got some big hard drives waiting for it. 3 TB and ones. The old one can't do this size drive. What will be the limit size of the hard drives for this new SpinRite. I seen they have 14 TB drives now and I think will have 20TB or maybe they all ready do.

-Raymond Day

 

[linuxkidd]

All the testing to date has been to get SpinRite working through AHCI rather than IDE interfaces. Although some of the utilities have detected NVMe drives, 6.1 will not support them directly. It is likely that it will support M.2 drives connected as SATA, but not if they are PCI-e

Right, I was specifically talking about PCIe interfaced NVMe devices. M.2 SATA should be... SATA, so that I would expect to work with the AHCI interface Steve is working on (practically done with).

Just wanted to put my $0.02 in for sooner than later support of these newer, now practically ubiquitous technologies.

 

[AlanD]

What will be the limit size of the hard drives for this new SpinRite. I seen they have 14 TB drives now and I think will have 20TB or maybe they all ready do.

-Raymond Day

I don't think it has been specified, but from what I have seen, it will probably be 256TB as 48bit BIOS addressing cannot handle more than that.

 

[Derek]

Looking forward to the new updates for Spinrite Steve. I’m excited!!

 

[Derek]

If you need beta testers for Spinrite Steve let me know I’m interested. My current version 6.0 will not work on my large capacity HDs.