Are there still any kind of plans to do a KNOW HOW episode on building a dedicated Spinrite box? ...

[G+_Ronald Stepp]

Are there still any kind of plans to do a KNOW HOW episode on building a dedicated Spinrite box?  Just wondering, it was, I think, mentioned by Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ when he was guest hosting Security Now.

[G+_Steve C]

It's Freedos so just take any old PC and run Spinrite on it.  Don't need no stinkin' plans!

[G+_Eddie Foy]

FreeDOS has had issues at times with the larger drives.

Its best to use true MS DOS.

(and yeah, really don't see a need for a segment on building a bare bones system.)

[G+_Jeff Gros]

Padre recently said he was planning it, but that it takes weeks to test these things to make sure that they run smoothly when its on the air.

 

https://plus.google.com/+JohnMink/posts/ei3oXfWRA6i

 

Personally, I'm still interested in what Padre's approach is. The key point was that Padre suggested building a unit which was both low in cost and small in size.

 

Many people don't have the luxury of an old machine to run spinrite on. Myself, I've got multiple machines but I don't want to tie them up running spinrite for a month.

 

Also there are space concerns. I wouldn't mind an extra machine if it was the size of an Intel Compute Stick or NUC, or whatever. Then I could just toggle my KVM back and forth to check on it once in a while.

 

Then there's the question of what the best way to interface with the drive is. The machine might have USB 3.0 to interface with an external SATA3 dock or the like. Or perhaps there is a better solution? What about connecting to parallel drives (I've still got those)? While I'm on the subject of parallel drives has anyone found USB 3.0 dock for parallel drives? I want one but cannot seem to find it.

 

It's the balance between cost, size and speed that piques my interest.

 

And yes, half my machines refuse to work with FreeDos. I'll be glad when Steve finally jumps back on spinrite. I think this SQRL thing took quite longer than he imagined.

[G+_Jeff Brand]

Do you mean one of these? http://www.startech.com/HDD/Docking/~UNIDOCK3U

[G+_Eddie Foy]

SQRL was a 2 year project.  Spinrite is gonna be a decade.

[G+_Ronald Stepp]

Jeff Brand sure, if drives in that showed up when you booted into a pre UEFI BIOS.  Also, if it made taking the drive out of an enclosure like WD and the rest made.  That was my other question, how to easily access drives inside them without dynamiting them open.

[G+_Ronald Stepp]

Eddie Foy I didn't know you could pick the DOS that spinrite starts up in.

[G+_Eddie Foy]

Ronald Stepp   Yup.  Its just a 173K DOS program.  Just make a boot floppy in DOS (sys a:) and copy spinrite.exe over.  (did this just the other day)

[G+_Ronald Stepp]

Eddie Foy   DOH!

[G+_Jeff Brand]

Ronald Stepp , yes you would need to make sure the BIOS supported it. SpinRite over USB isn't the most useful experience, either.

 

There are external enclosures with eSATA as well as USB so perhaps there's a PATA to eSATA enclosure out there. The Thermaltake BlacX series of enclosures is one of the most promising places to start looking.

 

As far as extracting a drive from an enclosure, it's usually possible with some careful exploration/prying and the occasional cutting through a warranty label to find a crucial screw. I haven't needed dynamite, yet.

[G+_Eddie Foy]

Considering the use is typically for older drives, I'd opt to have a PATA option too.

(yes SR on USB is a dog, but does run)

[G+_Jeff Gros]

Thanks for the link Jeff. I don't know why I wasn't finding these things on amazon before. My search terms must have been just wrong enough.

 

I'll think I'll go with this:

 

http://www.amazon.com/5-25-INCH-Converter-Activity-USB-DSC9-Packaging/dp/B00DQJME7Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437329896&sr=8-1&keywords=ide+to+usb+3

 

Looks like it will cover all the bases.

[G+_Stephen Hart]

Part of it is that some motherboards can't run spinrite on drives that are 1 TB or larger :(

[G+_Ronald Stepp]

So yeah, all that being said, isn't that even a better reason to DO an episode on building a spinrite box?  Because the guys at Twit would be able to share those kinds of insights???

 

If it were super easy, I'd just DO it myself.