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DNS Benchmark v2 is Finished and Available! Guest:
That's right. It took an entire year, but the result far more accurate and feature laden than we originally planned. The world now has a universal, multi-protocol, super-accurate, DNS resolver performance-measuring tool. This major second version is not free. But the deal is, purchase it once for $9.95 and you own it — and it's entire future — without ever being asked to pay anything more. For an overview list of features and more, please see The DNS Benchmark page at GRC. If you decide to make it your own, thanks in advance. It's a piece of work I'm proud to offer for sale. And if you should have any questions, many of the people who have been using and testing it throughout the past year often hang out here.
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Be sure to checkout “Tips & Tricks” Dear Guest Visitor → Once you register and log-in please checkout the “Tips & Tricks” page for some very handy tips!
/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.)
I am pretty sure that scanning multiple drives in parallel is one of Steve's aim in SR7. How practical that is, remains to be seen.
Completely agree. But likely not SR 7.0 as that will have UEFI booting and native USB, NVMe driver support - urgently needed to address the major shortcomings of SpinRite 6.1. But a future SR 7.x version could potentially deliver on such a multi-tasking feature.
When you say in parallel, do you mean scanning drives in RAID? I thought that wasn’t possible. Hey AlanD, what’s shakin’
Nope! Not RAID.
I am talking multitasking with ordinary non-RAID drives. I perceive that is what AlanD is also talking about.
SpinRite 6.1, being a DOS app, has NO multitasking capability whatsoever.
SpinRite 7x, being a pure 32 bit app, will be able to mujltirask and in theory be able to scan two or more non-RAID drives at a time. That however is a long ways into the future.
Sorry, don't get time to visit the forum as often as I would like :-(
So, yes, I meant test multiple individual drives all attached to the same system, all at the same time
And, seeing as were on the wish list wagon…. I will also add, continuing the scenario above, that each drive can be tested at its own Spinrite level.
E.g., let’s say 2 HDDs and 1 SSD are all attached to the same PC at the same time, and assume that Spintrite can test them all at the same time. It might be nice to set Spinrite level 1 for one HHD, Sprite level 4 for the other HDD and Spinrite level 3 for the SSD.
I’m sure there are more real world examples that could be devised but I hope I get the intent of the idea across.
So, yes, I meant test multiple individual drives all attached to the same system, all at the same time
And, seeing as were on the wish list wagon…. I will also add, continuing the scenario above, that each drive can be tested at its own Spinrite level.
E.g., let’s say 2 HDDs and 1 SSD are all attached to the same PC at the same time, and assume that Spintrite can test them all at the same time. It might be nice to set Spinrite level 1 for one HHD, Sprite level 4 for the other HDD and Spinrite level 3 for the SSD.
I’m sure there are more real world examples that could be devised but I hope I get the intent of the idea across.
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@barcleyb "Test Multiple Drives In Parallel"
Compare to https://www.dposoft.net/ "Multiple hard drives support"
and https://www.hdsentinel.com/ "multiple hard disks / SSDs / hybrid
drives (SSHD) in your computer (IDE / Serial ATA (S-ATA, e-SATA) /
NVMe / SCSI / SAS / USB hard disks) or in an external enclosure".
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Interesting, the HDD Regenerator webpage says it supports multiple drives but, unless I missed something, doesn’t specify if it’s in parallel.
From what I’m reading HDS is more for monitoring than repair, but good that it can watch all drives attached to a system.
Thanks for the links @peterblaise
From what I’m reading HDS is more for monitoring than repair, but good that it can watch all drives attached to a system.
Thanks for the links @peterblaise
Yes, both current fee ( paid ) versions of HDD Regenerator and HD
Sentinel Pro can do the equivalent of SpinRite 6.1 Level 5 on multiple
drives ( except the boot drive ) in parallel at the same time when the
drives are attached by any method to a working Windows system.
Sentinel Pro can do the equivalent of SpinRite 6.1 Level 5 on multiple
drives ( except the boot drive ) in parallel at the same time when the
drives are attached by any method to a working Windows system.
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What do you mean by "... What would be the differentiating factor for
HD Sentinel Pro ? ..." - please explain.
Note, HD Sentinel is free, only the Pro adds paid features, so one can
'try' the features.
HDD Regenerator has a free demo version that looks and examples,
but the functional version is fee-based.
HD Sentinel Pro ? ..." - please explain.
Note, HD Sentinel is free, only the Pro adds paid features, so one can
'try' the features.
HDD Regenerator has a free demo version that looks and examples,
but the functional version is fee-based.
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Those of you dreaming of parallel drive testing want to consider some possible downsides, and maybe you'd really rather have multiple sequential (as in a queue that can run unattended.) The risks, as I see them, are two fold. First, since computers are usually only well tested when things go "right", it's possible that when a drive has an issue, it exercises a hidden bug in the firmware and/or driver(s) and so running multiple drives at the same time might be a little more risky for both drives. A second issue is that depending on the internal design of your machine, you'd end up sharing bandwidth between the drives in such a way that it ultimately would be slower for both drives to be exercised in parallel than it would if done sequentially.
hi peterblaise, sorry my delay, Yes, I'd just like to know what the difference is, what Spinrite can do that Hard Disk Sentinel can't.
HDD Regenerator I never got around to using it.
"... like to know what the difference is, what Spinrite can do that Hard
Disk Sentinel can't. HDD Regenerator I never got around to using it ..."
Sounds like a plan.
HD Sentinel is freely available and only the paid-for version adds
writing and recovery, otherwise, it's gives warnings and let's the
drive self-recover if possible.
HDD Regenerator has a demo that reports without fixing anything.
SpinRite offers a refund if one is not satisfied - no free sample trial
or demo - but v5, v6, and v6.1 are indluded together, each has their
strengths.
Everyone has their own criteria of what they are looking for.
SpinRite's targets are:
Comparing to other tools that also have other criteria can expand
into an apples versus oranges quagmire.
I use all 3 competitors, and all 3 SpinRites, differently.
Of course I do.
As well as ddrescue, and many, many other analysis and recovery
tools.
Is it time to download some and try them?
Disk Sentinel can't. HDD Regenerator I never got around to using it ..."
Sounds like a plan.
HD Sentinel is freely available and only the paid-for version adds
writing and recovery, otherwise, it's gives warnings and let's the
drive self-recover if possible.
HDD Regenerator has a demo that reports without fixing anything.
SpinRite offers a refund if one is not satisfied - no free sample trial
or demo - but v5, v6, and v6.1 are indluded together, each has their
strengths.
Everyone has their own criteria of what they are looking for.
SpinRite's targets are:
data recovery in place
drive maintenance
Comparing to other tools that also have other criteria can expand
into an apples versus oranges quagmire.
I use all 3 competitors, and all 3 SpinRites, differently.
Of course I do.
As well as ddrescue, and many, many other analysis and recovery
tools.
Is it time to download some and try them?
I would disagree with that. Back in the days of parallel buses such as PATA and parallel SCSI, you would have a point. A bad drive with a firmware bug could hang up your bus and keep you from accessing the other drives.
But today, it's one drive per bus, with the major exception of USB. Both SATA and NVMe drives have a dedicated physical connection to your PC that isn't shared with other devices. If a drive messes up, it can't affect any other drives. Even most external USB drives are directly connected to a port on the PC and don't go through an USB hub.
As for sharing data paths and reducing bandwidth, it shouldn't be an issue with modern PCs. The dedicated physical connection per drive means there's no sharing of bandwidth. The only place where there might be an issue is inside the PC itself. All the PCIe, SATA, and USB connections all have to share access to the RAM memory inside your PC. But these days memory subsystems inside PCs have enough bandwidth that drives don't usually max out its bandwidth. Maybe there would be a memory bandwidth issue if you wanted to test multiple PCIe 5 SSDs, but even then many PCs can handle it.
You seem to have some misconceptions about the reality of PCs on the marker. Yes, in theory there are multiple paths for data, but most lower end motherboards share them in some way. Sure there are higher end motherboards that are better designed, but that is not what most people buy. (And in this case by most people, I mean people who build their own DIY PC, because anything else was already hugely compromised to meet a price.) Steve already struggles to support some of the crappy designs of shared IDE and SATA controllers from companies like Marvell, that motherboard makers use so they can meet a spec which says they have, say, 6 SATA ports on a motherboard. USB is always shared, so far as I know there are no purchasable motherboards which have one controller per port. NVMe is shared because it's on the PCI bus, which is shared across the entire machine... and frequently even multiplex between the north and south bridge because the CPU only has so many lanes and yet they want to claim to have more I/O per machine than the CPU can support. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to learn the actual specs of their own actual gear, but don't be surprised when the marketing is more hype than the reality.
AHCI allows a drive to be taken off line and
replaced with another without rebooting.
So testing any number of SATA drives
simultaneously is quite doable, even allowing
swapping drives that finish sooner, starting
another drive, while a large, slow, drive with
maybe tons of data recovery can just churn on.
Windows tools - dispkart, chkdsk - plus the
additional tools suggested in this thread, all
work this way right now.
replaced with another without rebooting.
So testing any number of SATA drives
simultaneously is quite doable, even allowing
swapping drives that finish sooner, starting
another drive, while a large, slow, drive with
maybe tons of data recovery can just churn on.
Windows tools - dispkart, chkdsk - plus the
additional tools suggested in this thread, all
work this way right now.
That has nothing to do with the [perceived] risk of hitting a not well tested hardware/firmware/software combination. When I was testing SpinRite 6.1 one of my drives would hang the entire bus when it hit an error.
Correct, sometimes a bad drive is just a bad drive, and users must
make that decision without on-screen support from any program.
SpinRite mentions some conditions.
We all might know some from our own experience - noisy drives,
grungy contacts, @Steve Gibson even opened a drive and put a
fingerprint on a platter to induce failure during testing.
Enve a drive that hangs the computer ain't gonna show up as a
neat message in any drive test program.
The user has to be savvy.
That's why I suggest folks never toss a bad drive, but keep it as a
test reference.
The more experience we have, the more we can make our own
assessments.
- - - - -
The AHCI reference addresses expanded conditions where drives
can be tested in parallel under Windows, where AHCI allows
hot-swapping one drive while other drives continue to test.
- - - - -
Long thread, many branches, good references, good discussion.
make that decision without on-screen support from any program.
SpinRite mentions some conditions.
We all might know some from our own experience - noisy drives,
grungy contacts, @Steve Gibson even opened a drive and put a
fingerprint on a platter to induce failure during testing.
Enve a drive that hangs the computer ain't gonna show up as a
neat message in any drive test program.
The user has to be savvy.
That's why I suggest folks never toss a bad drive, but keep it as a
test reference.
The more experience we have, the more we can make our own
assessments.
- - - - -
The AHCI reference addresses expanded conditions where drives
can be tested in parallel under Windows, where AHCI allows
hot-swapping one drive while other drives continue to test.
- - - - -
Long thread, many branches, good references, good discussion.
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