spinrite v6

[Will Rickards]

Anybody use spinrite?
I tried using it on my Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R motherboard with the F7 bios version (this is an Award BIOS). I had to disable AHCI mode and set the SATA mode to disabled so it emulates PATA. This is just so FreeDOS can boot off the CD.

But it gave me an error that basically indicates there is a problem with the BIOS.

The error reads:
SpinRite Critical Error
SpinRite's final verification of its ability to safely read and write to this drive has failed! Due to some harware or firmware (BIOS) trouble, SpinRite's access to this drive could result in serious data corruption. Please see our web site for possible causes and cures. Update you BIOS?
Press ESC to abort further use of SpinRite.

Yes hardware is spelled harware in the error message.

Anybody get this and solved it?


What I'm trying to do is find a program that would stress the hard drive to see if the bad sectors come back. The drive had bad sectors but samsung's utility seems to have removed them. So I want to stress test it before trusting it to put my backups on.

Also anybody know of a program like DBAN that works from windows?
I want to secure erase some hard drives.

 

[Will Rickards]

So I found out that you can run spinrite in a VM.
You just have to use the ISO as the installation media and give it full control of the hard drive you want to scan, which obviously isn't the boot drive.
It is running now.

 

[ddrueding]

That is a neat idea Will.

 

[MaxBurn]

Interesting. I do use spinrite too but it's about one of the last tools I reach for.

 

[LOST6200]

Steven Guibison is sitll alive?

 

[mubs]

Any reason he shouldn't be? IIRC, he should be about 50 now.

 

[LiamC]

Why don't you just update the BIOS? THe latest versiuon (which I've been using for nearly a year) is F13i

Also, have you tried Eraser for secure erase?

 

[Stereodude]

What are you guys using Spinrite for anyhow?

 

[Will Rickards]

Where do you find this F13j?
The only thing I found was F8j found at taiwan site here or at the us site here

But I didn't update to F8j because it is listed as a beta BIOS and the only other update is a CPU ID change. I don't need beta bugs or CPU identifier updates. I wish there was some sort of change list so I could decide. But I've hosed a system doing a bios flash before so I don't do them without cause.

Anyway Spinrite finally finished with the drive at level 4. No problems found. I'm going to put it back in use as my backup image storage drive and just check it periodically for bad sectors.

 

[Will Rickards]

What are you guys using Spinrite for anyhow?

I tried it before to recover data from a bad drive. In that case I think the drive head arm was getting stuck and it didn't work effectively. Should have tried getdataback. But that drive was a case for a recovery company. They decided not to pursue that route.

This time I just wanted to stress the drive to see if the bad sectors came back after low level formatting with samsung's tool. I also tried to use dban on it (in a VM like spinrite) but the computer hung after 1 round for some reason.

 

[Will Rickards]

Also, have you tried Eraser for secure erase?

Nope. Have a link? does it run from windows?

 

[Will Rickards]

Steven Guibison is sitll alive?

Yes although spinrite development really isn't.
He hosts an online podcast with Leo Laporte called security now.

 

[LiamC]

http://www.heidi.ie/node/6

I'll check on the BIOS, F8 could indeed be the latest and F13 on another GB board.

 

[Mercutio]

I've found legacy mode SATA stuff is really flakey and bad. When I want to do low level stuff I keep a SATA-to-PATA converter on hand and use an IDE DVD drive.

 

[ddrueding]

I've always worried about doing low-level stuff with an adapter in place. You haven't had issues?

 

[Mercutio]

I haven't had many. I have more problems with using SATA optical drives in DOS than anything else.

What are you guys using Spinrite for anyhow?

Well, it's another layer of error checking. If I'm not sure that what the manufacturer's tool is telling me is accurate, or is giving me results different from my observation, I'll put the drive through Spinrite.

 

[LOST6200]

Any reason he shouldn't be? IIRC, he should be about 50 now.

Wohoa. I tlhohgt he was 60's already in the goldern SR days.

 

[mubs]

I stand corrected. He's 54 now.