Spinrite & FAT32 Ext. Drive Question?

[Birdman]

Does anyone know if Spinrite v6.0 work with FAT32 External Hard Drives?

After loading Sprinrite and powering on my Simpletech 320GB drive.....Spinrite FREEZES and I can't access the menu anymore.

Am I doing something wrong here or might this be a settings issue?

Thanks.

[DCM]

I would try tech support. They give very fast and excellent tech help.

[DottieGirl]

{QUOTE-> Does anyone know if Spinrite v6.0 work with FAT32 External Hard Drives?

After loading Sprinrite and powering on my Simpletech 320GB drive.....Spinrite FREEZES and I can't access the menu anymore.

Am I doing something wrong here or might this be a settings issue?

Thanks. <-QUOTE}
I just had the same problem. I wrote the GRC tech support and they wrote back within the hour, on a Saturday morning, no less. Now THAT is tech support. The guy gave me a detailed explanation, which I will post here:
{QUOTE->
The problem is most likely caused by an interaction with your USB keyboard and FreeDOS.

So, run MS-DOS instead . . .

From within WinXP you insert a blank (or erasable) floppy diskette into the A: drive, you can then right-click on the A: drive in explorer and choose format. In the format dialog box there should be an option to "Make Disk Bootable" or possibly "Create MS-DOS Boot Disk". Choose the option you see and you will then have a bootable DOS diskette.

Once created, copy the SPINRITE.EXE file you already have. Then after you boot clean and get to the A: prompt, type
spinrite
to start the program manually.

Or, you can get an ISO image of a "Windows 98 SE Boot CD" here . . .

<http://www.allbootdisks.com/downloads/ISO/AllBootDisks_ISO_Image_Downloads25/Win98_bootdisk.iso>

Once created, boot with the above CD and then once at the DOS prompt put in the SpinRite CD and type
spinrite
at the DOS prompt to start SpinRite manually.

The A: prompt is a pseudo prompt. During the boot process, just above the A: prompt, there is probably a listing for the CD-ROM drives. Which ever letter it shows (in my case it shows F:), that is the drive you need to switch to first, then put in the SpinRite CD and type SpinRite at that prompt.

SpinRite normally uses the built-in motherboard BIOS to handle all its keystrokes. But in order to get the "on-the-fly" screen switching and the multi-tasking effect under DOS -- while SpinRite is actually running -- SpinRite accesses the system's keyboard hardware directly instead of through the BIOS.

Frankly, what's amazing is that you're a part of a very small few who is having any trouble like this. SpinRite has always worked this way . . . so it must be that MOST systems are able to "simulate" the operation of the keyboard's hardware, even though it's a USB keyboard and NOTHING like an original serial keyboard.

We have seen the motherboard BIOS's often have an option for "Legacy USB Keyboard" operation. If yours does, and if that's not already set as the active mode, you might try setting that to ON/ENABLED and seeing whether the trouble is cured. Other than that, for the time being at least, there's nothing more we can suggest. If we run across any other people who have this trouble I'll definitely need to fix it when we're working on SpinRite v6.1 . . . but that's still a ways off, and we have no estimated release date.

If this makes SpinRite unusable for you, we will CERTAINLY understand and will gladly refund your purchase price. But it you can manage to fix the trouble with the USB/Keyboard motherboard settings or by even temporarily using a more standard PS/2 keyboard that would be best.

Also, we do offer a free eMail service <http://www.grcmail.com/mail.htm> to which Steve sends periodic updates and news of important events. You can easily add, remove, or edit your "custom profile" to specify which sorts of eMail you wish to receive.

Thank you for your cooperation, time and patience. <-QUOTE}