FYI Tracking My Work & Progress

[Steve]

Everyone...

There is so much anticipation of SpinRite's and then Beyond Recall's availability that I've decided to create a work tracker for those who are interested in knowing what's going on from day to day. Although I'm unable to predict or guess when anything will happen, at least I can share where I am along the way. I'll use my main Blog for the announcement of significant milestones, and this work and progress tracking thread for more granular status updates.

I've decided not to make this tracking thread interactive because I'm afraid that it would be a huge distraction for me (I would feel an obligation to reply to posts here) that would retard my progress. So I'm going to keep this thread closed to general posting. This also means that those who wish to receive updates on my progress may use the forum's “Watch” feature for this thread without getting “spammed” by other reactions here.

 

[Steve]

Working to get the first test release of “ReadSpeed” finished and ready for alpha testing:​

While initially working on SpinRite v6.1 back in 2013, I developed the low-level hardware drivers for non-AHCI-mode IDE/ATA drives. Then, after SQRL was solidly completed, I returned to work on SpinRite and wrote drivers for AHCI-mode SATA drives. Working with the gang of terrific testers and troubleshooters over in GRC's NNTP newsgroup forums, we first got the new AHCI drivers solidly working on every piece of hardware that anyone had. Then I added read benchmarking as a means to make testing this stuff more interesting. Once that was finished, I returned to the 7-year old code from 2013, updated and verified it and then added the same sort of benchmarking to it. Also along the way, somewhere this year, I developed our own USB formatting capability since all of the next-generation products would be needing a robust ability to prepare a bootable USB device.

The two modes of hardware controller operation (non-AHCI and AHCI) are very different from one another, so I'm currently working to merge the two driver types into a single solution, while also creating a solid foundation that SpinRite and Beyond Recall will need. I suspect that I'm probably a few days away from having a fully amalgamated candidate “ReadSpeed” benchmark ready for its final round of testing, which we'll again be doing over in GRC's NNTP grc.spinrite.dev newsgroup.

Once that's finished, we'll have the “ReadSpeed” (RS.EXE) DOS program that needs to be run to perform benchmarks on everyone's machines. So then a custom version of the “InitDisk” utility will be created to automatically prepare any USB thumb drive for ReadSpeed. It will format it, install FreeDOS, and preload the various DOS programs — including RS.EXE.

Then we'll have a Windows utility that will prepare any USB drive. When that USB drive is booted, its users will be able to run ReadSpeed and a handful of other interesting system level utilities.

Onward!

 

[Steve]

ReadSpeed is at release #1!​

It's Christmas Eve, and I have just posted the first release of ReadSpeed to GRC's new ReadSpeed page here: https://www.grc.com/readspeed.htm. The only thing left for me to work on for that page is the benchmark demo video. The one that's currently showing is not the one whose results are shown above it, and I'll be adding a voice-over in the next day or two to describe and point out items of interest as the benchmark proceeds.

But... Thanks to a great deal of work and help from the many people who hang out over in GRC's NNTP text-only newsgroups, this code has been quite well tested and pounded on. So the next question to answer is... how well does it do for everyone else?

Does it work for you? Download the ReadSpeed for Windows prep tool. Give it a USB drive whose contents you don't need. It'll wipe it and install a bootable DOS and ReadSpeed for DOS. Then boot it and have fun!!

The ReadSpeed forums are now open here... So come on over and share you results!!

Merry Christmas!!

 

[Steve]

I'm at work on the SpinRite v6.1 code!​

Yes, at long last it's finally true.

10 days after ReadSpeed's release, the shakedown test of the benchmark's new hardware drivers has been a tremendous success. We have identified only one problem with a system in Denmark using an old Asrock motherboard. I've located and purchased one of them in Germany. So when it arrives, I'll see what needs to be done to get the drivers running on it, too. But aside from that one problem, as far as we know, this new technology in ReadSpeed is ready for SpinRite's use.

So, today, Sunday January 3rd, 2021, I successfully assembled SpinRite's 31 assembly language source code files and created a working DOS executable. Now I begin the work of incorporating the new drivers into SpinRite.

That work has begun.