Spinrite 6 searching for media that isn't there

sWiZzLe

sWiZzLe

sWiZzLe

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Just been trying to use this, i remember trying previous versions in the past but it never recognised any of my drives.

So finally a version that sees my drive, only problem is, after detecting and informing me that it is running 'Far Too Hot' or 1 degree to hot to be precise, it then proceeds to look for other media - (i left it for about an hour) but, the only drive in the computer is the one its already found.

Can i somehow tell it to just stop at the first drive it finds?
 
yes, from the options you can select the drives to work on before giving it the actual Go.
the space bar ticks/un-ticks the selected drives/partitions you would like Spinrite 6 to work on.
I never had that problem to me it works fine.

I have taken a shot hope this is what you're looking for:
function 2: scan/repair/fix errors

hpim1868vr7.jpg


then tick/select the partition/drive using the spacebar

hpim1869pf5.jpg


in this case, on this machine I only have 1 hard drive connected and full of data ready to be backed up.

do you have the .pdf manual that came with the software? I must have it somewhere if you don't find it.
 
I get a warning screen, then 3 options:

2: Recover data, 4: Repair drive, or press Enter for more options

When i selected 4 it said 'Discovering Mass Storage Media', then quickly gave me the 'SMART - Your drive is running too hot warning' then it went back to 'Discovering Mass Storage Media' and after an hour I restarted the pc.

Then i tried option 3 and it just went straight to 'Discovering Mass Storage Media' :(

Gonna see if i can find Spinrite 5
 
mmm.. I don't remember option 3
anyway, I would go for option 4 as it is maintenance/health check in your case, although option 2 can also be run to optimize and fix errors along the way, it doesn't do any harm to your data so really it's kind of up to you decide which one you want to run, it's like when you have half an headache and you decide to have a hot drink and take the paracetamol tablet may be later.. you know what's the problem really so you can directly go to option 2 if 4 fails to load for some reason, option 4 is maintenance or health check
I'm off to Sainsbury's right now, later I will try and boot again in Spinrite 6 and check out those screens you say and will post more.
I never encountered that overheating stuff inside Spinrite but if you can enter the bios of your pc and check hardware temperature you should be able to determine whether the CPU is also high in temperature.
One thing I can tell is that when a computer is too hot from the start is a signthat the processor is working like crazy to get the pc running, if Spinrite says it's your drive doing this then there is something not good and if hardware CPU temp is ok then it's the drive trying to sort itself out thus generating heat.
 
stick with ver 6, the guy who built it knows what he's doing, he won't make something less useful than the previous ver.
the a-b drive is the reserved drive letter for floppy drives as in the past DOS required floppy discs to operate and there was need sometimes to use 2 different floppy drives at the same time and they also were in diffeent format one from the other.
it may show just as a standard thing but does not mean you have them, say you stick in an USB external floppy and there you need letter a:
 
The overheating isn't that surprising seeing I have a shuttle with 2 drives sat closely together (although they are not currently inside the computer), and I am in Rwanda, which isn't that hot but has been pretty hot lately.

On the bright side i've just found a squished the giant mosquito thats been biting the hell out of my all evening! I can now look forward to my 16th bout of malaria in about 2 weeks time :rolleyes:

Do you get the 'Discovering Mass Storage Media' page? If so how long does it appear for?
 
wow be careful with those mosquito flies, must be hot over there!! I've heard malaria condition lasts for life.

I think I found your answer only at the end after trying various options, just reading from grc.com (I should have done it before):

SATA Operation with SpinRite
Summary:
SpinRite performs full maintenance and data recovery operations upon all SATA drives. But some default SATA configurations can limit SpinRite's ability to also obtain and display the drive's SMART data. While this does not limit the strength of SpinRite's maintenance and data recovery, SpinRite's on-the-fly interpretation of "raw" SMART data often provides useful, detailed and sensitive feedback about the current operating condition of SMART-capable drives. So, it's an added bonus when it's available.

In situations where SpinRite is not obtaining and reporting an SATA drive's SMART data, altering an SATA motherboard's settings can often allow SpinRite to obtain a lower-level "hardware register connection" to SATA drives. This is what's necessary for SpinRite to obtain SMART data from SATA drives when it otherwise would not be able to.
What to do:
The BIOS of most SATA motherboards contains SATA configuration options that can be used to cause the hardware registers of new SATA drives to "appear" in the locations occupied by traditional parallel IDE/ATA (PATA) drives. These options are typically called "Legacy" or "Compatibility" mode. These options have been created to support older operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows 9x family, which are incompatible with SATA drives unless they are "mapped" into the traditional IDE hardware locations.

Although this is the first thing we will be fixing with the v6.1 release of SpinRite, the first v6.0 release of SpinRite has the same limitation as earlier versions of Windows and other operating systems.

Note that while your motherboard is configured in "Legacy" or "Compatibility" mode one or more of your SATA drives will replace any IDE/ATA drives that have been "mapped over" for the sake of compatibility. Your motherboard's mode will determine which drives are visible to SpinRite.
Otherwise:
If SpinRite is not showing SMART data for your SATA drive(s) and your motherboard's BIOS does not offer any SATA compatibility options, or if you're using an add-on SATA controller which is not showing SMART data, there is not currently any way to force SpinRite to access SMART data of drives at non-standard hardware locations. As mentioned above, all of SpinRite's maintenance and data recovery operations will work even so, but SpinRite's continuous on-the-fly SMART polling will not be available for those drives.

Since this is a rapidly growing problem for SpinRite, due to the market's rapid success and uptake of of SATA drives, we are considering the development and release of v6.1, which will cure this problem, sooner rather than later. The upgrade to v6.1 (and any other "dot releases") of SpinRite will be no-charge and all registered owners of SpinRite will be informed as soon as v6.1 is available. This is not something we have started work on, but it has a high and growing priority.


unfortunately Sata users are not covered just yet, sorry, but at least the software gives a lifetime free subscription to obtain the new upgrades so given the circumstances Steve will come up soon with 6.1 ver as he knows how widely diffuse are Satas right now.
 
Hi, thanks for that. Sorry for the delayed reply, I had the weekend off in the city (Kigali), i was 30 yesterday :eek:

Hopefully i will get my new hard disk soon, so I'll just put the noisy one, to one side and patiently wait for an update.

I don't think the malaria strain in Rwanda is the one the stays with you for life, its quite weak - It just makes you spaced out and tired, kind of like being stoned, with the occasional hallucination :p i just can't give bloody any more apparently.
 
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