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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.)

Would a Sticky thread be useful here? Suggestions?

#1

L

lovecakeboy

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering whether it would be useful to have a "sticky" thread at the top of this forum (or somewhere!), that new contributors can refer to, to get them up to speed? I was thinking, maybe tips, a short glossary of terms, and maybe a brief summary of some of the emerging findings?

Possible candidate topics that occur to me are:
  • how to post benchmarks using the "CODE" feature
  • what Spinrite level 2 and 3 passes actually entail - these are often referred to, but many people will be in the dark!
  • the fact that non-written areas of SSDs apparently return results without reading the drive, so the Readspeed results don't reflect actual reads; though they do give a useful indication of the maximum throughput of the SATA link?
  • and maybe a brief summary of how level 2 and 3 passes may benefit drives, the pros and cons, and the non-Spinrite ways of nudging drives to better health and performance (eg TRIM etc)?
What do y'all think? And please do suggest other items / topics that may be useful? Thanks!


#2

G

Graham

I didn't know how do use the the code feature until @rfrazier kindly posted how to do it.

The other item I don't know how do is how to make multiple replies to different posts in one reply/post.

A guide would be useful (y).

A sticky thread is a good idea or alternately their is the https://forums.grc.com/pages/tips/ page where Forum hints and tips are collected where a message to @Steve to add suggest items.


#3

rfrazier

rfrazier

Graham said:
I didn't know how do use the the code feature until @rfrazier kindly posted how to do it.

The other item I don't know how do is how to make multiple replies to different posts in one reply/post.
Click to expand...

@Graham You wish is granted. Thanks for the nod. To reply to multiple posts, put your text cursor in the new post box at the bottom of a thread. Scroll up and highlight the text you want to copy like I did with yours above. A "reply" button will appear near what you highlighted. Click that. It will quote the text and put you back in the post box. Type your reply. Hit Enter to make a blank line. Leave your text cursor in the post box. Then scroll back up and highlight the next text you want to copy. Click the "reply" button that pops up. That text will now be quoted and you will be back in the post box. Type your reply. Continue as needed. I don't know if you can reply to different threads at the same time, and I don't know how to reply to text that comes from 2 different pages at the same time. PS, I didn't know how to do the multi reply either until someone else told me. Good luck.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. :cool: Ron


#4

Steve

Steve

lovecakeboy said:
I'm wondering whether it would be useful to have a "sticky" thread at the top of this forum (or somewhere!), that new contributors can refer to, to get them up to speed? I was thinking, maybe tips, a short glossary of terms, and maybe a brief summary of some of the emerging findings?
Click to expand...
I think that would be great. If you'll create and write such a posting & thread, I (or one of the other moderators) will gladly pin it to the top of the forum. And once you have that, you'll be able to edit that pinned posting to keep it current. :)


#5

P

PHolder

I captured and annotated a couple of useful pictures that whoever writes something can include if desired:

PHolder2021Jan07MarkingACodeBlock.png

This one shows where to locate the code blocks.



PHolder2021Jan07AddingMissingSpaceAndViewingBBCodeAndPreviewMode.png

This one has three things. It shows how there is frequently a space missing at the beginning of a ReadSpeed line in the editor (the XenForo editor seems to hate extra spaces at the beginning of a line and will work diligently to remove them, thus causing slightly misaligned columns.) Also it shows where the option to toggle BB code is, which can be useful when cleaning up some edits. It also points out the Preview button, which is quite useful to see if you got the result you intended.


#6

L

lovecakeboy

Steve said:
I think that would be great. If you'll create and write such a posting & thread, I (or one of the other moderators) will gladly pin it to the top of the forum. And once you have that, you'll be able to edit that pinned posting to keep it current. :)
Click to expand...


Thanks, I'm afraid I have very limited screen time for the forseeable future, so it wouldn't be right for me to commit to maintaining anything. I appreciate the invitation though!

But I would like to continue to offer my perspective as a neophyte, and also as someone with limited technical knowledge! So, having thought about what might be useful, may I suggest the following:
  1. A "How to post your results" Sticky post, at the top of the "Readspeed results" forum. @PHolder, thanks for your suggestion, that looks really good! Would you be up for drafting this post?
  2. A "Glossary of terms" sort of thing, Sticky post in the main ReadSpeed forum, eg. under the current "About ReadSpeed" post. What Level 2 and Level 3 of Spinrite do; maybe run down the whole 1-5 levels? Brief explainers of SATA, IDE, AHCI, DOS maybe?
  3. A "What we (think we) know so far" sort of thing, again on the main page: here, the fact that non-written areas of SSDs apparently return results without reading the drive; a brief summary of how level 2 and 3 passes may benefit drives, the pros and cons, and the non-Spinrite ways of nudging drives to better health and performance (eg TRIM etc)?
If I start drafts of these potential Sticky posts in this thread (it seems to be the busiest place), then we can all contribute ideas, and the moderators / @Steve can see how they look / edit / decide on the final version, and post the Sticky?

How does that sound?

I'll create a thread for drafts of the "How to post" Sticky as an example?


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