SpinRite

[CrazyTeeka]

New open issues with SpinRite...

Screenshot 2023-11-16 022129.png (22.28 KiB) Viewed 26250 times

[Joep]

It would be interesting to hear what DeepSpar have to say about this "partial physical sector" anomaly.

I agree! They have some blogpost on 4K sectors and the implications for disk imaging, but not really answer to this.

[Joep]

For example, SR hasn't got a clue about SMART stats as reported by Seagate drives.

Steve distrusts SMART because he doesn't understand it. As you say, the one time that he tried to make use of SMART, he made a complete mess of things. His mistake was to apply intuitive logic to a counterintuitive case, specifically a Seagate drive. Essentially, SpinRite took a perfectly healthy drive and just kept spewing out thousands of bogus errors.

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?p=21743#p21743

Yeah, his answer is totally unsatisfactory and I'm trying rubbing his nose in. Saying SMART is nonsense while at the same time: https://www.grc.com/sr/smart.htm .. You can not have it both ways.

Also as far as I understand it, SMART wasn't a new idea (IBM was already doing it or similar and IBM is hard drive manufacturer at that point) and I can find no references of Compaq forcing it on anyone. I'm sure he will claim he has insights that the general public has not.

Anyone got any idea what this is about:

There's been ample evidence in the past that some drives simply lie about their SMART status to appear healthier than they are.

[Joep]

This is the summary of SpinRite's log. It's just too consistent to be a coincidence. If the first 7 sectors are unreadable, can the 8th sector ever be trusted, even if it reads without error?

I agree, it can not be coincidence.

[Joep]

Oh my goodness .. Now Peter Blaise has joined the party. I'm going to see if I can block Mr. Tap-dance, this guy gets on my nerves.

Just some comment from him:

Move on to the current SpinRite 6.1 pre-release, SRPR-RC5 - I found the controls to be more responsive.

I also consider 'conservative' command line options, like FORCEBIOS and DYNASTAT 1.

Let us know how it works for you.

I also use supplemental cooling fans to keep the drive at room temperature, and I remove and replace the drive's circuit board and clean the contacts underneath.

Thanks.

[lcoughey]

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Is the first statement really true? How can anyone claim that a process that does not transfer a single sector from a failing drive with a high chance of completete failure and head crash is data recovery?

And to the statement that it was a tie between RapidSpar and Spinrite, how can that be? After Spinrite was done, the only copy of the user data is still on only one drive that is failing. Meanwhile, after RapidSpar is done, the data also exists on a stable drive.

[fzabkar]

Reading the grc.com forums hurts my head.There is so much disinformation, and not just from Steve.

Here is some nonsense from one of his cohort of true believers:

https://forums.grc.com/threads/spare-tr ... /post-4502

Note that DBAN is not acceptable in UK Government use because it only cleans LBA-addressable sectors. You have to use Blancco or some other accredited utility, which also wipes spare sectors and ex-LBA sectors that have gone bad and been spared out (grown defects). It's also why Steve has Beyond Recall as a slated future project - his knowledge of the ATA command set would allow him to do a much more thorough job than DBAN.

Quite simply, the reallocated sectors are wiped by an ATA Secure Erase Unit command, with the Enhanced Mode bit set. No special, esoteric knowledge required.

[CrazyTeeka]

spinrite.png

Is the first statement really true? How can anyone claim that a process that does not transfer a single sector from a failing drive with a high chance of completete failure and head crash is data recovery?

And to the statement that it was a tie between RapidSpar and Spinrite, how can that be? After Spinrite was done, the only copy of the user data is still on only one drive that is failing. Meanwhile, after RapidSpar is done, the data also exists on a stable drive.

I'll remove those statements. By a tie I meant the number of bad sectors detected, maybe I should go and clarify that.

[lcoughey]

It probably wouldn't hurt to reword it, though I wasn't pushing for it. But, they do need to see reality.

[CrazyTeeka]

It probably wouldn't hurt to reword it, though I wasn't pushing for it. But, they do need to see reality.

I agree. Maybe one day they will see reality.