[ale] Extreme Practical Data Recovery (Part 2)

[Greg Freemyer]

I don't have a link handy, but I have seen a anti-spinrite web article or two.

Basically it said that spinrite is pure marketing spin and effectively
does nothing.

(ie. Especially with modern error drives there is not much ability to
fine tune what the drive does.  You just ask for data and it gives it
to you.  Error handling is automatic.)

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 10:55 AM, Robert Coggins <ale at cogginsnet.com> wrote:
> I have been contemplating getting spinrite for the office here.  I
> happen to listen to his podcast and he never stops talking about it...
> :)  I do truly hear how good it is though.
>
> I may run spinrite after the ddrescue completes.  So far it came from 0
> MB to 3.05BG in just a couple of minutes.  Two days later I am at 4.2
> GB.  I am making progress, but ever so slowly.
>
> I am really hoping it gets over the bad sectors soon so that I can try
> to restore some of the photos for this guy.  He just had a baby and I
> think most of the photos are on this drive without being backed up.
> Made me backup again after I got home last the other night though!
>
> Robert
>
> Robert Reese~ wrote:
>>> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 1:13 PM, Robert Reese~ <ale at sixit.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> There are actually some very good Windows apps, as well as at one
>>>> that runs off a floppy made by programming wizard Steve Gibson
>>>> called SpinRite 6.0.
>>>>
>>>> Steve Gibson's program doesn't recover the data but it does "fix"
>>>> the harddrive and IMHO finds data that others miss.  It seems
>>>> expensive, but it really isn't.
>>>> <http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm> FYI, he *hand-codes* all
>>>> his programs in ASSEMBLY!  His skills are gobsmacking.  c)
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Robert Reese~
>>>>
>>> Wow, that product is still around!  I remember Spinrite 2 was
>>> amazingly useful, both for recovery and for "maintenance" of aging
>>> drives.  When I ran MS-DOS at work, I couldn't live without it.
>>> One use on a drive with critical data more than pays for itself.
>>> I'm not sure if it's the right tool for the original poster's
>>> intended task, but it's a handy tool to have around!
>>
>> Of course, I'm banking on the drive not 'clicking' and it not being full; thankfully most users don't use anywhere near the capacity of any drive released in the past few years, so there probably plenty of unused, and hopefully undamaged, sectors to transfer the data so the recovery process can get everything, even the structure.
>>
>> It may or may not prove useful for the poster, but if it can be useful it certainly is worth its price. :)  And even if it is not useful, you are right that it is worthwhile to have on hand.  SpinRite 6.0 is now four years old, but since the technology involved hasn't changed I don't think Steve sees any reason to rewrite it.  The only problem nowadays is getting the floppy attached to the system!
>>
>> R~
>>
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Greg Freemyer
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