Will SpinRite become relevant again?

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Keatah, Jun 3, 2013.

  1. Acadia

    Acadia Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2002
    Posts:
    4,325
    Location:
    US
  2. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2009
    Posts:
    8,627
    Programming in assembler does make really tiny code - I've done programming in assembly on the Commodore 64 and Amiga 500 many years ago.

    But what's the point if you can't actually create anything useful.
     
  3. HAN

    HAN Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2005
    Posts:
    2,098
    Location:
    USA
  4. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2009
    Posts:
    8,627
    Thanks for the link.

    v7 sounds promising as it will hopefully have drive cloning. This makes sense as unless damage to a drive is very minor, you really shouldn't use a damage driver anymore after recovering any data you need from it. So it's much better to attempt to recover the unreadable data to a new driver rather than the faulty drive.

    I have been using Easus Disk Copy lately to clone failing hard drives which won't boot or have serious Windows problems, and usually the cloned drive is bootable and Windows works fine. Disk Copy has the option to ignore all read errors and continue with the clone - unlike most cloning software which stop working when they encounter errors. Being able to that from SpinRite would be great, as long as you can set it to not spend too long trying to recover unreadable data - as I really don't want it to spend days cloning a drive.
     
  5. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2007
    Posts:
    2,976
    Diskfresh of PuranSoftware does the exact same thing with SpinRite.
    ps. I never understood why people use such tools.

    Panagiotis
     
  6. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2009
    Posts:
    8,627
    No it different - it is designed to refresh readable data on a hard drive by rewriting it, but it is not designed to try and recover unreadable data.
     
  7. The Shadow

    The Shadow Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2012
    Posts:
    814
    Location:
    USA
    Imho, HDD Regenerator is a relevant (and excellent) alternative to SpinRite. :thumb:
     
  8. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2009
    Posts:
    8,627
    Yes it is. It's faster than SpinRite because it doesn't try as many times to read a bad sector. However you can use command line arguments to get SpinRite to reduce the number of retries.
     
  9. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2007
    Posts:
    2,976
    Unreadable data cannot be recovered by any program. All these apps Spinrite, HDDregenarator, etc. try to read the data from a damaged sector and rewrite it, this forces the sparing meccanism of the hdd's firmware to map out the bad sector and replace it with a spare one so your disk then appears errors free. But a bad sector that is unreadable cannot be recovered.

    Panagiotis
     
  10. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2009
    Posts:
    8,627
    Actually this is no the case. Unreadable data sometimes can be recovered by repeatedly reading the bad data. This is what SpinRite and HDD Regenerator do, sometimes with success and sometimes not. But the fact remains that are cable of reading data which would normally not be readable.

    Of course if a sector is physically damaged, it can not be repaired - but, sometimes the data can be recovered.
     
  11. ws_Identity

    ws_Identity Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2013
    Posts:
    1
    Location:
    Australia
    I've actually just bought SpinRite and have to say, as a professional software engineer this is a bit disappointing! If he coded in something else other than assembly, perhaps he would have got something out the door since 1994, and not have to do a complete rewrite every time! Obviously he's a Real Programmer!

    Edit: I just want to clarify, I'm not disappointed with the actual software. It's still running, so the jury is still out. AND he offers a no questions asked refund policy, so if it does the job I have no complaints at all.
     
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2013
  12. claykin

    claykin Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2007
    Posts:
    132
    6.1 is coming soon. Many fixes and improvements in store. And 6.1 will run on Mac hardware so no need for Mac users to remove and run their disks on a PC.
     
  13. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2006
    Posts:
    1,336
    Location:
    France
    Will 6.1 version be free for V6 registered users ?
     
  14. Blueshoes

    Blueshoes Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 13, 2010
    Posts:
    226
    Yes, Free to 6.0 users.
     
  15. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2006
    Posts:
    1,336
    Location:
    France
    Great, thanks.
     
  16. ACWC

    ACWC Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2013
    Posts:
    1
    Location:
    01
    Hello,

    I've just read all the posts here on SpinRite.
    Most of you seem to be dated in your view.
    Lets get up to date:
    https://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm
    and then carry on this discussion.
    SpinRite IS currently being rewritten and will be vastly faster. Awesome!

    I do data recovery professionally and have found it excellent.

    There have been a number of SSD's recovered aswell.

    Regards
     
  17. Keatah

    Keatah Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2011
    Posts:
    1,029
    There is a time and place for spinrite and cousins. My beef is that people tend to blindly apply it and grind a disk to all hell. Hmm..that didn't work, how about this? ..with no rhyme or reason why they're using it.

    IMHO: The most important things that need updating in SR are:
    1- user interface (though I like the old-school charm of 100% text)
    2- capability to handle large disks
    3- disk interfaces, more compatibility
     
  18. claykin

    claykin Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2007
    Posts:
    132
    True, just be certain to only run Spinrite in Level 1 or 2 on an SSD. Or you will significantly reduce the life of your SSD.

    V6.1 will incorporate SSD detection and notification to only use Level 1 and 2.

    And yes, Spinrite Level 1 and 2 have been known to successfully recover SSD's.
     
  19. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2006
    Posts:
    1,336
    Location:
    France
    Any ETA on this new version ?
    Thanks.
     
  20. HAN

    HAN Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2005
    Posts:
    2,098
    Location:
    USA
    In Security Now 422, Steve said that he has finished with some of the new features for Spinrite 6.1. After a short hiatus, he will go back to Spinrite to add AHCI compatibility (which it desperately needs !) . Hopefully it will then be ready for release.

    FYI... He said the new version could run as fast as 1TB for every 1.5 hours. Amazing! Huge speed improvement!
     
  21. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2009
    Posts:
    8,627
    Sound promising. It looks like Steve has finally found someone to continue the development of SpinRite.
     
  22. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,115
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    In my brief experience with the old version it was something like 1 TB every million years.
     
  23. claykin

    claykin Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2007
    Posts:
    132
    That person is Steve. Its more like he found time and the inspiration to work on Spinrite again.
     
  24. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2009
    Posts:
    8,627
    As I have already posted in the thread it is believed by some that Steve did not write SpinRite. This would explain the many years without updates.
     
  25. claykin

    claykin Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2007
    Posts:
    132
    could would be more correct. There's many other possible reasons why he waited.

    There's always a conspiracy theory if you look hard enough.

    Reality is I've tried several other disk repair tools and where other tools fail or claim the disk is fixed (when its not), Spinrite often succeeds at making a disk readable/bootable. For me the proof is in the pudding.

    That said, I agree 100% that SR is seriously dated. Its slow, doesn't work well with many newer motherboards, many newer harddisks, etc.. I get the division overflow errors more and more these days.

    I'm looking forward to SR6.1/6.2, whatever it is...with AHCI support and far improved performance and reliability. if its written by a ghostwriter, then so be it, but I suspect that story you linked to is mostly nonsense.
     
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.