[ilovejedd]

I learned about SpinRite here (from the various media server threads) so I figured I might as well ask here before I try GRC's email.


I'm testing/trying to recover some drives (pulled from Western Digital My Books and old PATA IDE). I don't think any of them contain particularly critical data, but I'd like to create back-ups just in case. My problem is testing seems to be taking quite a long time. I started a Level 2 test on a 40GB Maxtor IDE drive Thursday last week and come Monday, it still wasn't done. I'm postponing further testing and data recovery on that drive in lieu of other drives in my possession.


I'd like to inquire, what are the minimum system requirements of SpinRite? Rather, what hardware have you used SpinRite with? I couldn't find any manuals for v6.0 so I'm currently reading the ones for v5.0 and the requirement listed on that is very low (any IBM-compatible PC, 360K RAM). Right now, I'm using my dad's PC which has a Pentium DC E2160 for running SpinRite. Unfortunately, he's been asking for it back and I don't have any relatively capable machines that I can use for data recovery. I do have a spare Intel D945GCLF2 Atom 330-based build which I can delegate for this purpose. I'm just wondering how much number crunching SpinRite does and if it would be adversely affected by the lowly Atom CPU.


Thanks!

 

[vladd]

Wow, I haven't seen that software in ages. I won't be much help to you though. The last time I used SpinRite was on an AMD DX4-100. It was awesome back then.


If the basic logic hasn't changed, I doubt that the requirements are much higher now though.

 

[terryj47]

Actually, it is still a useful tool. I had a WD 250 GB drive fail due to a fan failure in the PC. The drive overheated (not a GreenPower drive). I ran Spinrite on it (System drive. Formatted using Vista HP 32-bit install DVD) and it allowed the PC to boot up. I was able to rescue the "Recorded TV" folder and use the drive for a while. Unfortunately it started failing to boot once in a while so I replaced it with a 500GB drive. And new Antec fans!


I did try it on a 1TB drive with 64K clusters and it balked. Drive was running fine. Just wanted to burn it in a bit before I put it in service.

 

[captain_video]

I've used SpinRite on an old AMD Duron 800MHz CPU and it took quite a while to run the maintenance mode (4) on a 250GB PATA drive (about 50 hours). I have tried it on newer PCs with dual core processors and it cut down the time considerably (i.e., down to just a few hours). Mode 2 is the data recovery mode while mode 4 is the maintenance mode, IIRC. Neither mode "tests" the drive but rather excercises the magnetic media on the platter to rejuvenate it.


I've been able to use it succcessfully to repair at least one Tivo drive that gave me the green screen of death and wouldn't recover. After running SpinRite it was able to repair itself after mapping the bad clusters on the platter.

 

[benjamin.r]

System requirements don't really matter here. You most certainly have a decent PC, so the only bottleneck is the speed of the HDD and of your controller. Since SpinRite is scrubbing blocks on the HDD, the speed of the recovery/testing is dependent on the speed of your HDD/controller. So it's normal if it takes a while to complete, especially if you have errors on the HDD. SATA2 is max. 300MBps, PATA is max. 133MBps.

 

[ilovejedd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by captain_video /forum/post/16900340


I've used SpinRite on an old AMD Duron 800MHz CPU and it took quite a while to run the maintenance mode (4) on a 250GB PATA drive (about 50 hours). I have tried it on newer PCs with dual core processors and it cut down the time considerably (i.e., down to just a few hours). Mode 2 is the data recovery mode while mode 4 is the maintenance mode, IIRC. Neither mode "tests" the drive but rather excercises the magnetic media on the platter to rejuvenate it.

But how much of the speed-up is due to the processor upgrade and how much is because SpinRite has already tested the drive before? SpinRite fingerprints the drives, iirc, so I think that should reduce the length of time needed for subsequent tests. I tried a Level 2 on a 40GB PATA drive (admittedly with quite a number of errors) with an E2160, 1.8GHz and after 4 days, it's still stuck reading the same sector at 12%.

Quote:
Originally Posted by benjamin.r /forum/post/16900464


System requirements don't really matter here. You most certainly have a decent PC, so the only bottleneck is the speed of the HDD and of your controller. Since SpinRite is scrubbing blocks on the HDD, the speed of the recovery/testing is dependent on the speed of your HDD/controller. So it's normal if it takes a while to complete, especially if you have errors on the HDD. SATA2 is max. 300MBps, PATA is max. 133MBps.

I kinda figured that might be the case. Just to confirm, an Atom should be a good enough replacement, right? Or if it does introduce a performance penalty, it shouldn't be that bad since the process is mostly hard drive/HDD controller-bound?


Thanks!

 

[Bigbird999]

Abort and check the setup. IIRC, there is a setting that tells Spinrite how many times it should try to recover a sector before marking it as bad and moving on. It sounds like it is stuck on the a bad sector, or maybe the drive is just fried. Or maybe I am disremembering how it worked. CPU etc is not an issue. It will work with a P1.


BB



BB

 

[ilovejedd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigbird999 /forum/post/16901313


Abort and check the setup. IIRC, there is a setting that tells Spinrite how many times it should try to recover a sector before marking it as bad and moving on. It sounds like it is stuck on the a bad sector, or maybe the drive is just fried. Or maybe I am disremembering how it worked. CPU etc is not an issue. It will work with a P1.

I've already aborted the operation, although I do need to figure out where to change the DynaStat strength. Right now, I think I'll do a Level 1 check on all the hard drives, copy whatever data I can, and then resume in-depth data recovery.


Thanks for all the feedback. I'll be moving SpinRite duties to the Atom now and giving my dad his computer back.