FYI SpinRite's Development Roadmap

[DanR]

Steve plans to tackle UEFI boot capability immediately after SpinRite 6.1 is released. Steve's immediate goal is to get SR 6.1 out the door to address most of the major issues with SR 6.0.

Then he will begin working on adding UEFI boot, full USB compatibility, and NVMe support, for subsequent releases of ReadSpeed and Spin Rite.

 

[LikesCookies]

SR 7.0 will add UEFI, as well as USB, compatibility to SR 6.1's BIOS compatibility.

Right now, SR 6.0 handles my USB drives without issue. Is SR 6.1 not going to work with USB drives and I'll have to get SR 7.0 in order to get that ability again?

 

[Barry Wallis]

Right now, SR 6.0 handles my USB drives without issue. Is SR 6.1 not going to work with USB drives and I'll have to get SR 7.0 in order to get that ability again?

Nope, SpinRite should continue to work just fine on drives it currently works on. SR 7 will increase its USB compatibility. I can't wait since all my devices ar MS Surfaces and require UEFI support.

 

[DanR]

Right now, SR 6.0 handles my USB drives without issue. Is SR 6.1 not going to work with USB drives and I'll have to get SR 7.0 in order to get that ability again?

Barry is correct. SR 6.1 will work with USB HDD's pretty much just as SR 6.0 does now. The drive must be connected to the PC before power-up so the Bios - and SR 6.1 - can detect it. SR 6.1 however will be faster than SR 6.0.

I perceive full USB functionality will include things like: USB keyboards will not lose responsiveness when SR's screen saver kicks in. Major USB issues on Macs will be resolved. USB HDD's can be detected and benchmarked as AHCI and IDE drives are now. And SR will perform even better with USB HDD's.

 

[PHolder]

The drive must be connected to the PC before power-up so the Bios

I don't know that every BIOS will work this way, and in particular I don't know if UEFI will work this way at all (even with CSM mode active), but of course SpinRite needs version 7 for UEFI anyway.

 

[DanR]

I don't that every BIOS will work this way, and in particular I don't know if UEFI will work this way at all (even with CSM mode active), but of course SpinRite needs version 7 for UEFI anyway.

UEFI is a whole new paradigm - NO Bios. I suspect Steve does not how that is going to work out yet. It is currently planned for SR 7.

Meanwhile: SR 6.1 is an enhanced version of 6.0, which eliminates 6.0's constraint to work thru the Bios. Thus 6.1 will have 6.0's very limited USB capability - which means 6.1 can only see what the Bios sees. And the Bios will only see a USB HDD if it is detected on power-up. That is, no "hot swapping" of USB HDD's.

When Steve gets full USB compatibility via his USB drivers (SR 7.x), then maybe hot swapping is a possibility? Time will tell.

 

[PHolder]

the Bios will only see a USB HDD if it is detected on power-up

That was my point. I don't think all BIOSes (in whatever form they take, including the BIOS Compatibility Support Module of UEFI) will support recognizing USB devices at boot. Additionally, this may work with USB 2.0 (or heaven forbid 1.1) but may NOT work with USB 3.x.

 

[DanR]

Yup. A lot of unknowns to be sure. I was looking at this from the standpoint of 6.0 (not the best viewpoint). But you have a point. There may be newer nuances for which current rules don't quite apply. Steve may have some interesting challenges ahead of him.

Edit 12/18: I have a LT with USB 3.0 ports. An InitDisk-ed USB stick boots fine from those 3.0 ports. But there are systems where USB is not recognized. IIRC one or two have been mentioned in the spinrite.dev news group.

 

[moo]

Hello. Valid 6.0 license owner of SpinRite. Would someone be willing to share with me how to obtain the beta SpinRite software 6.1 with UEFI support? I'm in a major pinch right now, and don't see an easy way to obtain it through the newsgroups (I don't really understand that system). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[PHolder]

Would someone be willing to share with me how to obtain the beta SpinRite software 6.1 with UEFI support

I would: the secret access code is: wait!

Unfortunately it doesn't exist yet. What does exist is a beta version of a disk speed test, and that should be released in the next week or so. Check back here in the new year, or stay tuned to Security Now.

You can never predict Steve and what will come up with issues as he develops and tests, but I wouldn't count on seeing a SR6.1 release any time before, say, June 2021 at the earliest.

Also, 6.1 will not have UEFI support. That will be 7.0, and that won't get released for at least a couple years if things go as they have been.

 

[Mike in Cambridge]

I'm speaking here as a purchaser of SpinRrite ver 6.0. I purchased my copy to support the Security Now podcast and on a limited number of occasions have used SpinRrite to refresh older personal drives (80-160GB in size), that had not actually failed; but were showing increased temperature in operation together with gradual decreases in performance.

As others have said, Steve makes no explicit commitment to update SpinRite at purchase nor should he have to. Unfortunately technology has moved on in leaps and bounds.

I was a coder in my younger days and I found the assembly code modules I used in my coding to be effectively faultless.
I did not write in Assembler though. Coding is hard.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with Spinrite in my experience and I assume that to get to 6.0 from earlier versions required a lot of specialist work. I feel now that we need a broad timeline from Steve as to when we as customers can expect 6.1 (if Practicable) and in the longer term Ver 7.0 and later.

 

[Mervyn Haynes]

I feel now that we need a broad timeline from Steve as to when we as customers can expect 6.1 (if Practicable) and in the longer term Ver 7.0 and later.

Have you read the beginning of this thread? It explains what you have asked.

 

[PHolder]

To paraphrase @Steve: It takes as long as it takes--quality matters more than speed. More specifically, read his own words: https://www.grc.com/miscfiles/GRC-Development-Roadmap.pdf

 

[Steve]

Anyone who has participated in the development work on SpinRite's new drivers over in the GRC Newsgroups should come away with a clear sense for several things:

I'm working toward the next SpinRite about as hard and diligently as is humanly possible -- seven days a week, never taking a day off, about 12 hours per day. Anyone who doesn't know me, or who hasn't been participating there, might take this as a complaint. But they would be wrong. I'm doing this by choice and because I truly love the work. On the first date with the incredibly tolerant woman with whom I'm now living, I said: “I only need one thing from you: I need you to let me work. If you will let me work, I'll be glad to have you around. But no relationship that prevents me from working will succeed."

A number of people who have been observing the process have kindly commented that they now understand, having witnessed it for themselves firsthand, why the results of my efforts always stand apart from what this industry typically produces -- with its constant patch cycles and bug fixes. In today's heterogeneous computing world it's surprisingly difficult to produce complex low-level hardware-interacting code that works universally for everyone. But so far, albeit at great expense of time and effort, we are achieving that. And despite the tremendous investment of time and effort, I'm giving it away -- at no charge -- even to people who purchased SpinRite v6.0 sixteen years ago in 2004. People respond to that, saying “I'll gladly pay for it if I can have it now!” But I don't have it now to sell, even for a gazillion dollars.

Mike asks for a broad timeline for SpinRite v6.1. Elsewhere, Paul (@PHolder) mused to someone else that they shouldn't expect to see SpinRite v6.1 before the summer of 2021. That seems quite far off, so I hope he's proven wrong. And I'll be doing everything I can, every single day between now and v6.1's release to get it done. But Paul is also correct in observing that I do not work to a schedule because I cannot work to a schedule. Externally imposed “schedules” ARE the reason why so much of today's software is crap. Users want it both ways: They want high quality software, and they want it now. The high quality software requirement I can meet. But “now” = “as soon as it's done” and I truly have no idea when that will be. But it will be as soon as possible.

 

[PHolder]

Elsewhere, Paul (@PHolder) mused to someone else that they shouldn't expect to see SpinRite v6.1 before the summer of 2021. That seems quite far off, so I hope he's proven wrong.

I know you know @Steve that I meant that in no disrespect. I know how hard medium quality software is to make, so I also know that high quality software always takes longer that you plan for. I wanted to give you plenty of margin for the unexpected, and not to say it was in any way happening too slowly.

 

[Barry Wallis]

Thanks for the update @Steve (although its nothing I didn't already surmise). I understand the urge to program and the fun of solving problems (I've had that urge since I was old enough to ask my father for a sample 1040 instruction sheet because it was an algorithm for paying your taxes). I retired on January 1, 2020 and I still program most days for the sheer joy of it.

 

[Steve]

@Barry Wallis : It wasn't long into that first date, when Lorrie asked: “So what are your plans for retirement?” It wasn't until after I answered honestly that I learned it was a bit of a trick question... because, in her view, it had only one correct answer. Without hesitation I replied “Oh... I'm never going to retire. I'm having way too much fun working, and what would I do?” It turned out that was the one right answer.

 

[Barry Wallis]

@Steve: I love that story. Unfortunately, my career path careened from programming into technology leadership that required my other skills. And while I didn't love my job once I stopped programming, I really enjoyed many of the people I worked with. Plus, it allowed me to continue working at the same company for over 20 years and retire without any monetary concerns. My wife understood before we got married that she would always have to share me with a computer. We have been married for more than 42 years and I still program every day.

 

[Steve]

@Barry Wallis : Your story is certainly as good as mine!

 

[Terry]

But it will be as soon as possible.

I'm still waiting on Project X.