Gigabyte EP45-UD3R F9 BIOS doesn't like SpinRite 6?

[Papageno]

I figured I'd do a little preventive maintenance on one of my hard drives, so I fired up SpinRite 6 from the CD, and what do you know, even though it detects the drive I tried to check just fine, when it comes to the actual checking, it tells me it cannot do it safely and won't proceed. SpinRite's tech support tells me there are some motherboards whose BIOS is messed up and won't work with it. Info here:

http://www.grc.com/sr/kb/badbios.htm

So has anyone managed to use SpinRite 6 with this motherboard, and if so, what BIOS were you running at the time? F9 is the latest version on Gigabyte's site, and I don't know if there are plans for further BIOS versions.

 

[vailr]

Latest bios is:
GA EP45-UD3R bios F11:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...Type=BIOS&FileID=14980

Please post your results, if SpinRite works with this F11 bios version.
Also: SpinRite 6.0 won't be able to work if the HD controller is configured (in the bios setup) for AHCI or Raid mode.
Must be set for the default IDE mode.

 

[elconejito]

Originally posted by: vailr
Latest bios is:
GA EP45-UD3R bios F11:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...Type=BIOS&FileID=14980

Please post your results, if SpinRite works with this F11 bios version.
Also: SpinRite 6.0 won't be able to work if the HD controller is configured (in the bios setup) for AHCI or Raid mode.
Must be set for the default IDE mode.

That would explain why it doesn't work with mine. I figured it was because I was trying to use it on the eSATA connection which is attached to the Gigabyte SATA ports, not the intel ones.

When I get a chance, I'll give this a shot.

 

[vailr]

Tested as working normally (GA EP45-UD3R bios F11).

 

[elconejito]

Did a test yesterday.

With AHCI on, it hangs when trying to boot from spinrite CD.
With both Intel & Gigabyte controllers in IDE mode, it boots just fine, but sits on the "detecting storage devices" (or whatever it is that it says) screen. I let it sit there for a while thinking maybe it would take long because of the size of the drives (640GB, 640GB, 1TB). But after 30minutes I gave up and put the system back into AHCI and went booted into vista.

I forgot to check which version of BIOS I'm running...

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: elconejito
Did a test yesterday.

With AHCI on, it hangs when trying to boot from spinrite CD.
With both Intel & Gigabyte controllers in IDE mode, it boots just fine, but sits on the "detecting storage devices" (or whatever it is that it says) screen. I let it sit there for a while thinking maybe it would take long because of the size of the drives (640GB, 640GB, 1TB). But after 30minutes I gave up and put the system back into AHCI and went booted into vista.

I forgot to check which version of BIOS I'm running...

Is your optical drive bootable for other bootable discs?
If not: the optical drive probably needs to be identified in the bios "boot drive order" by exact brand and model #. The default optical drive listing shows only the generic name.
I used the "boot from floppy" method & worked normally.

 

[elconejito]

Yeah, it boots just fine from other bootable CDs. When I first tried it I actually burned another disc thinking I had a coaster (that worked in other machines , LOL). And once I set it to IDE instead of AHCI it booted... just didn't detect the drives.

I'll have the desktop on later today, I'll check the BIOS version then.

 

[Papageno]

Well, I'm the OP, and I recently updated to the F11 BIOS, and still no luck. Spinrite 6 still gives me the same error. It detects the drives fine (although it has an issue with a 500 MB drive I made two partitions out of, so I told it not to check that one), but then it gives me this message:

SPINRITE CRITICAL ERROR
SpinRite's final verification of its ability to safely read and write to this drive has failed! Sue to some hardware or firmware (BIOS) trouble, SpinRite's access to this drive could result in serious data corruption. Please see our website for possible causes and cures. Update your BIOS?
Press ESC to abort further use of SpinRite


I've had some other mysterious issues since getting my new system back in March or so, and the only common thread seems to be this motherboard. I'm thinking I need to RMA it, as much of an incredible PITA as that would be. I should have stuck with ASUS per my first instinct. I've never had a problem with their boards.