Does SpinRite work with Vista?

[rexanwt617]

My Dell Desktop (running Vista) can NOT launch "SpinRite_6.0" when trying to BOOT with my SpinRite CD. It will give the following error, and then just sit there, NOT trying to do anything :
- InitDiskError reading partition table drive 01 sector 0Error reading partition table drive 01 sector 0Error reading partition table drive 01 sector 0Error reading partition table drive 01 sector 0
Invalid Opcode at 0027 0804 0293 0073 0000 0000 B800 0141 2800 2401 FFF0 76F0 51E2
My Dell Desktop (bought from Dell 18 mo. ago) has:
- Vista Home Premium, SP1
- 2 GB Ram

Note: The same SpinRite CD "DOES" Boot our other 2 home computers.
1) is a Dell XPS-2 Desktop (4-1/2 yr. old)
- XP-pro, SP3
- 1-1/2 GB ram

2) is a Dell Laptop (purchased 2 yr. ago)
- XP-Media-Centre, SP3
- 2 GB ram

The following is EXACTLY what shows on the screen, (of the Vista computer),
as it TRIES to Bootup-and-start-SpinRite :
FreeDOS Kernel version 1.1.32a (Build 2032a)[Sep 24 2003 21:58:48]
Kernel compatibility 7.10 - WATCOMC - FAT32 support
(C) Copyright 1995 - 2003 Pasquale J. Villani and The FreeDOS Project. All Rights Reserved. This is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
- InitDiskError reading partition table drive 01 sector 0Error reading partition table drive 01
sector 0Error reading partition table drive 01 sector 0Error reading partition table drive 01
sector 0
Invalid Opcode at 0027 0804 0293 0073 0000 0000 B800 0141 2800 2401 FFF0 76F0 51E2


Does anyone know what the problem could be?
.
.

[tokenuser]

Can we assume that the reason you want to run Spinrite is because the hard drive has failed on the Dell?

The CD is booting, it is running (and it does it independently of the OS), but it is failing to recognise the drive.

This is not a problem with Spinrite, but a problem with the drive you are trying to fix.

Sorry - I suspect you are SOL. Spinrite is not a univeral panacea (ie it does not fix all hard drive problems).

[rexanwt617]

Thanks for the response, tokenuser.
No, the Vista desktop IS working great (including the hard drive); I just wanted to try booting to the CD before a disaster. On this Vista machine, I have tried a couple of other bootable-CDs, like the Vista-install-disk, also Dell's-Driver/Util-bootable-CD, also GAG(Graphical Boot Manager)-bootable-CD ........ and they all work great (for booting to them instead of the "hard drive").
..... it sure is strange.

Good disaster prevention!! If you can backup your spinwrite, do so at a slower and at a higher speed to see if one of those disks work. DEll had some flaky cd/dvdroms for a while.

[rexanwt617]

Originally Posted by computoman

Good disaster prevention!! If you can backup your spinwrite, do so at a slower and at a higher speed to see if one of those disks work. Dell had some flaky cd/dvdroms for a while.

I haven't tried yet, to burn another copy (or 2) of my SPINRITE software (at a different speed), but you did give me an idea.
My Dell-Vista-Desktop has 2 DVD drives (1 is a burner & 1 is not). I had only tried to boot with the top (non-burner) drive, so now I also tried the bottom (burner) drive; unfortunately it behaved exactly as the other DVD drive ....... no luck.
recall: This same SPINRITE-Bootable CD, boots beautifully in both of my other 2 DELL computers ...... 1) is a 4-1/2 yr. old desktop and 2) is a 2 yr. old laptop.
(I described those 2 machines in greater detail, in my original post above.)

[tokenuser]

Burn another disc - but do it from the Dell you are having problems with. Many machines will read their own discs, but fail on other machines.
Another option that will read without issue, is to set up a USB (thumb) drive with a copy on there, and make sure each machine is bootable via USB (a BIOS setting). In someways this is more convenient than keeping a CD around.

[tehboris]

I would bet your Dell has it's disk controller set to 'RAID mode'. It's not literally called RAID mode, but it allows for it to be added. I have to deal with this allot at work where we install XP then it just gets stuck in a reboot cycle until I change the 'RAID mode' to off in the BIOS. Unfortunately it's not literally an 'off' switch in the BIOS. It's actually a setting that sets the disk controller operation mode.

Your going have to dig in the BIOS and find an option that talks about disk controller emulation or disk operating mode and mentions SATA and RAID and change it until it works.

Quick google found this: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7807978

That might be the correct option (change it from AHCI to SATA), but with out a Dell in front of me I can't be sure.

[rexanwt617]

Originally Posted by tehBoris

I would bet your Dell has it's disk controller set to 'RAID mode'. It's not literally called RAID mode, but it allows for it to be added. I have to deal with this allot at work where we install XP then it just gets stuck in a reboot cycle until I change the 'RAID mode' to off in the BIOS. Unfortunately it's not literally an 'off' switch in the BIOS. It's actually a setting that sets the disk controller operation mode.
Your going have to dig in the BIOS and find an option that talks about disk controller emulation or disk operating mode and mentions SATA and RAID and change it until it works.
Quick google found this: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7807978
That might be the correct option (change it from AHCI to SATA), but with out a Dell in front of me I can't be sure.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Sorry, tokenuser, I didn't have a chance to try your advice.

But, there's great news. tehboris, it looks like what you suggested is exactly what my "1-1/2 yr. old Vista / Dell desktop" needed !!!
I am attaching 2 *.jpg files. The first one shows that the RAID was, "ON", & when I changed it to "RAID Autodetect / ATA", then my SpinRite CD, would BOOT and run SpinRite as it should.
The second "*.jpg" that I'm attaching, shows quite a serious warning, if I proceed in changing this setting (in the BIOS), .... that's why I'm only using this new "SATA setting" for booting-to-SpinRite, and NOT for BOOTING the normal way --> "to the Hard Drive".

Thanks again.

[tehboris]

That warning is there in case you where using a RAID configuration. By chanign that option you are potently braking any RAID that was set up and hence making any data on the RAID'ed drive unusable unless you put them back in the RAID.