Validrive instructions

  • DNS Benchmark v2 Release 5 with Consultant License
    Guest:
    If you own any earlier release of our DNS Benchmark you may immediately download its release #5 replacement. Running an earlier release will detect the new release and help you upgrade.

    Although this release is cosmetic, appearance matters and affects ease of use. The biggest change, as seen in the image above, is that the DNS Benchmark now has a traditional Windows application menu to more fully expose its many features. This release is also "Consultant License Aware" and GRC will now issue a Consultant version when owners have previously purchased four "Personal Use" licenses. If you have previously purchased four DNSB licenses, or if you wish to upgrade your "Personal Use" license to Consultant, GRC's purchase process will direct you through that process.
    /Steve.
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    Dear Guest Visitor → Once you register and log-in please checkout the “Tips & Tricks” page for some very handy tips!

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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.

    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.

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Adam P

New member
Oct 12, 2023
2
0
My reading of the instructions for Validrive would lead me to believe that the random 4k blobs are written and read to their various locations without regard for whatever data might be there already, but there doesn't seem to be an explicit statement about whether or not this is safe to run on a drive which has already been put into use. Will this utility scatter corruption through existing files or not?
 
I don't know if anyone has tried this yet, but I ran ValiDrive on a 1TB Kingston flash drive- mine tested as valid. The entire device was encrypted before the test, and has decrypted fine since. Of the few tested flash drives so far all were valid. Two dead flash drives which Windows no longer recognizes of cause did not run. I did see some large differences between read and write timings, but that has been explained. Perhaps an odd test case, I ran ValiDrive against an Apricorn 128GB Secure Key (after unlocking it) and it passed. Another great utility, thanks Steve!