Alpha 29 is now available. Steve says this is basically the final release code for the DOS version, minus the integrated FAQ and a Windows app that will be part of the final release. I have been using it since Alpha 6 with zero issues on a variety of drives. Steve's Beta will likely be final from the sound of it.
There's been a lot of people testing it, and Steve has spent a ridiculous amount of time and money buying old hardware to test compatibility issues. For instance, there was a 14 year old AMD mobo that refused to work properly with Spinrite that one of the testers reported, and Steve had to find one on Ebay to figure it out. Turned out to be a flaw in that AMD chipset and he had to write a workaround just for that chipset.
From his show notes for the last Security Now podcast:
It is with no small amount of pride, a feeling of accomplishment and some pent up relief, that I can finally assert that, as far as I know, the work on the business end of SpinRite 6.1 – its DOS executable – is finished. There are presently no remaining known bugs, great or small. Last
Sunday afternoon I announced the availability of the 29th alpha release to GRC’s 696 registered
SpinRite 6 owners who have been testing 6.1, and I suggested for the first time that the code we
all now have likely would and certainly could, with few changes, be moved into beta status to
soon become SpinRite 6.1’s shipping code.
6.1 contains a great many new features, one of them being an integrated FAQ which explains
the choice of SpinRite’s five redefined operating levels, its many command-line options, and
other useful tidbits. So, while the dust settles on this latest alpha, I’m currently writing that FAQ.
That’ll give some time for any testers who may have become bored with the seemingly endless
interim development releases to give this proposed-final code one last check.
Once we have the finished DOS code, that code, along with the very first work I did to create
GRC’s InitDisk USB drive prep utility, will be integrated into an updated SpinRite Windows app
and then we’ll have v6.1.
Any new purchasers of SpinRite will automatically be receiving 6.1. But, since I want to let this
new code breathe a bit, I plan to hold off on announcing it to all of SpinRite’s past purchasers
until it’s had a bit more time among a wider audience. So, as soon as the official upgrade path is
established, I’ll be inviting all of this podcast’s listeners, many of whom have previously
purchased SpinRite, to update to v6.1. Then, once it appears that it’s going to be clear sailing,
I’ll begin the process of informing everyone who owns 6.0.
So, no new action needs to be taken by anyone who hasn’t already jumped onto testing the
pre-release code. I just wanted to note that the project had achieved a significant milestone