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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.

    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.

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BobRoss

Member
Dec 12, 2021
7
0
I have a 2.5" drive that stopped booting in a laptop. I removed it to run Spinrite, I have run level2 and a level4 it passed both. BUT it will not mount so I can get the data off.

Thoughts on what to do next??

Bob Ross
 
More info is needed.

First question: How did you run SpinRite on it?

Second question: How are you attempting to mount it now?
 
Guys thanks for the quick responses.

So I removed the the 1TB drive from the Dell laptop. I created a Spinrite thumb drive and got a different laptop to boot from it (that was a pain), I used a Sabrent SATA dual bay box. Spinrite could see the drive and ran. I could see data flying buy with lots of real English words. When finished and I boot into Windows 10, plug the "bad" drive back in, it's not there. I can hear it spinning but it does not mount.
 
Can Disk Management see the drive? Does it show as "Not formatted" or "Not initialised"? It may be that the partition table is corrupt.
 
I'm a Mac guy.. But I did find Disk Management, And the drive is just not there - Got disk 0 with all the windows stuff and the "E" the empty DVD but nothing else. The drive is spinning it's just not there
 
Using the DOS boot disk that you used to boot SpinRite. You should be able to see the drive in the system if SpinRite can. The DOS command you want is "DIR" (case doesn't matter, but I just uppercase DOS commands out of habit.) See if you can see the drive from DOS. If it's the "primary" device on that machine, you should try "DIR C:" . If it can see the drive in DOS but not in Windows, that would be very strange, but I just don't understand how you can manage to get SpinRite to work and not anything else.

When you ran SpinRite, did it struggle at all? Was there another drive in the machine? If so, perhaps you actually ran SpinRite on the other drive?
 
If you have plugged it back in, have you checked whether it is properly seated. Perhaps one of the connections is not tight?
 
PHolder said:
Using the DOS boot disk that you used to boot SpinRite. You should be able to see the drive in the system if SpinRite can. The DOS command you want is "DIR" (case doesn't matter, but I just uppercase DOS commands out of habit.) See if you can see the drive from DOS. If it's the "primary" device on that machine, you should try "DIR C:" . If it can see the drive in DOS but not in Windows, that would be very strange, but I just don't understand how you can manage to get SpinRite to work and not anything else.

When you ran SpinRite, did it struggle at all? Was there another drive in the machine? If so, perhaps you actually ran SpinRite on the other drive?
Click to expand...
The machine does not have DOS - Spinrite has freedos, but I don't know how to get to the DOS prompt in Spinrite. I need a 10 year old PC!!
 
BobRoss said:
I don't know how to get to the DOS prompt in Spinrite.
Click to expand...
Well SpinRite runs in DOS. If you exit SpinRite, where do you end up? It should be a DOS prompt. (I admit it's been many years since I last ran the "official" SpinRite USB I have, so I can't be certain.)

In any case, another choice is to use ReadSpeed to write a USB with that tool on it, and it will allow you to abort the run and exit to DOS, or to run it and then exit to DOS. You can then copy your copy of SpinRite onto that USB and have a dual purpose USB device that can also get you to a DOS prompt to explore around.
 
Good morning all,

First, thanks for the help.

I got ReadSpeed downloaded and running and I got to the DOS prompt, YEA. (yes SpinRite does not get you to DOS)

When I run the command DIR, I get the contents of the thumb drive. what is the command for a list of all the drives?
 
BobRoss said:
what is the command for a list of all the drives?
Click to expand...
There isn't one, unfortunately. You can change the current drive by putting in it's name. So "A:" to switch to drive A (usually a floppy drive, who even has one ;) or "C:" to switch to drive C. You can also look from one drive to another... so "DIR C:" will show the contents of the C drive. Another command you might need is how to navigate into a directory. To go into the Windows directory on drive C you might do:
Code: 
C:
DIR
{you see there is a folder called Windows}
CD Windows
DIR
{now you see the contents of the Windows folder}
CD ..    {goes back up one level}
 
@BobRoss I'll admit to joining this thread late and skimming it. So, hopefully my attempt to help won't actually hurt. If you were able to run a level 4 scan on the suspect hdd, that means two things. 1) The computer and bios that you ran the scan on can see and talk to the HDD. 2) If it passed a level 4 scan, that means all the sectors were read / inverted / written / read / inverted / written properly. It DOESN'T mean that all the data on the HDD is "good", IE what windows expects it to be. So, on THAT PC, the one where you ran the Spinrite scan, can you boot Windows, attach the questionable drive via the drive bay, which I presume is USB, and see the drive in Windows Explorer. If you can, right click on the drive in Explorer, go to properties, then tools, then Error Checking, Check Now. You may have to enter an admin password. UNCHECK the box that says automatically fix errors. This will run a CHKDISK on the unit, but NOT make any changes to it. If the file system checks out, you may have lost the boot sector, which would need repair in that case. At least, this is the way things work on Windows 7. If you can do these tests, let us know what happens.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. :cool: Ron
 
Since it worked on another laptop, I would suspect the one it came from may be the issue. Have you tried another drive in it, and see if it shows up?
 
It almost sounds like it was quick formatted or the partitions removed or damaged FAT. In which case the drive is physically ok, spinrite would run and you would see the data flying by as it reads the sectors which still contain the data. But then trying to access the drive though DOS you would not get a drive letter to access it. Look into the DISKPART and BOOTREC commands for DOS as from there you can see the partitions and try to fix the boot records.
 
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