Old Dell latitude laptops (D610/D410) load up and run Spinrite 6.1 without any issue, however no USB connected drives are recognised (including after cold reboot with drive(s) connected). Any suggestions as to how to make usb devices show on Spinrite device screen?
-
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.
/Steve. -
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.)
Unfortunately, the system BIOS is the limiting factor here. On Dell machines the BIOS typically limits visibility to just the USB boot drive. 
Please see this article for more info: https://forums.grc.com/threads/usb-support-in-spinrite-6-1.1479/
Please see this article for more info: https://forums.grc.com/threads/usb-support-in-spinrite-6-1.1479/
Last edited:
We can have SpinRite for Windows build a
SATA hard drive as the boot drive if we put
the SATA hard drive in a USB adapter.
Then remove the original Windows boot
SATA drive, swap the SpinRite SATA drive
into the boot drive, boot from it, and see if
SpinRite as run from that now internal SATA
boot drive then 'sees' ONE USB drive to test.
- - - - -
Does the computer have a CD drive, or
diskette drive?
Those are alternative SpinRite boot drives
that may leave ONE USB drive available
for SpinRite to test.
SATA hard drive as the boot drive if we put
the SATA hard drive in a USB adapter.
Then remove the original Windows boot
SATA drive, swap the SpinRite SATA drive
into the boot drive, boot from it, and see if
SpinRite as run from that now internal SATA
boot drive then 'sees' ONE USB drive to test.
- - - - -
Does the computer have a CD drive, or
diskette drive?
Those are alternative SpinRite boot drives
that may leave ONE USB drive available
for SpinRite to test.
. . . aanndd if the USB drive you want to check
is a SATA drive inside a USB cabinet, simply
remove the drive and install the drive
internally as the prime SATA drive, then boot
from a SpinRite USB drive and check the
then-internal SATA drive.
So, what kind of USB drive are you checking?
Make and model?
is a SATA drive inside a USB cabinet, simply
remove the drive and install the drive
internally as the prime SATA drive, then boot
from a SpinRite USB drive and check the
then-internal SATA drive.
So, what kind of USB drive are you checking?
Make and model?
Check whether your machines have eSATA ports (many older Dell PCs do). If so you may be able to use a SATA to eSATA cable or hard disk enclosure to mount your disk. I have a StarTech external disk caddy with SATA and USB3 ports that I use for this purpose on older Dell PCs. The SATA connection runs a lot quicker than over a USB2 connection as well.
... and if the USB drive is ONLY a USB drive,
you may need to move on to another
computer to run a SpinRite test of it.
An alternative mini-SpinRite-like test under
Windows is free ValiDrive from:
https://www.grc.com/validrive.htm
you may need to move on to another
computer to run a SpinRite test of it.
An alternative mini-SpinRite-like test under
Windows is free ValiDrive from:
https://www.grc.com/validrive.htm
Similar threads
- Contains 1 staff post(s)
- Contains 2 staff post(s)