Dead HD with tons of bad sectors but some surviving files - could Spinrite help?

[Mean_Chlorine]

In my continuing scramble to get surviving files off my crashed and
(to Windows) inaccessible HD, I've found the website of the program
Spinrite.

It's said to support NTFS, it does low-level search, but I'm unsure if
it only handles logical errors or if it can recover data from a disk
with massive amounts of bad sectors/CRC errors?

I should make clear that I have no intention of trying to repair the
HD, I only wish to recover whatever files might still be alive on it.

(Sorry for starting a new thread on this, but I'd really like to get
closure on this ASAP)

 

[Arno Wagner]

In my continuing scramble to get surviving files off my crashed and
(to Windows) inaccessible HD, I've found the website of the program
Spinrite.

It's said to support NTFS, it does low-level search, but I'm unsure if
it only handles logical errors or if it can recover data from a disk
with massive amounts of bad sectors/CRC errors?

I should make clear that I have no intention of trying to repair the
HD, I only wish to recover whatever files might still be alive on it.

(Sorry for starting a new thread on this, but I'd really like to get
closure on this ASAP)

AFAIK Spin-rite does not really do anything special today and
it is mostly a tool for esting disk surfaces and not for
data recovery.

Arno

 

[fj]

AFAIK Spin-rite does not really do anything special today and
it is mostly a tool for esting disk surfaces and not for
data recovery.

Spin rite claims it's a data recovery tool. [I've never tried it]

From grc's site:
"SpinRite now brings its legendary data recovery and drive maintenance magic
to the latest file systems, operating systems, and hard drives."

 

[Arno Wagner]

AFAIK Spin-rite does not really do anything special today and
it is mostly a tool for esting disk surfaces and not for
data recovery.

Spin rite claims it's a data recovery tool. [I've never tried it]

From grc's site:
"SpinRite now brings its legendary data recovery and drive maintenance magic
to the latest file systems, operating systems, and hard drives."

Spin rite makes use of some assumptions about the modulation used when
writing the sectors. In the times of MFM and RLL where you actually
knew what exactly was on the disks this, the disks were relatively
stupid and this added detection and recovery capabilities. Today the
disks themselves can read close to the physical limits, do extensive
error correction and there is not realy any additional "magic" Spin
rite can do. Just a retry on read error does the same.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

In my continuing scramble to get surviving files off my crashed and
(to Windows) inaccessible HD, I've found the website of the program
Spinrite.

It's said to support NTFS, it does low-level search, but I'm unsure if
it only handles logical errors or if it can recover data from a disk
with massive amounts of bad sectors/CRC errors?

I should make clear that I have no intention of trying to repair the
HD, I only wish to recover whatever files might still be alive on it.

(Sorry for starting a new thread on this, but I'd really like to get
closure on this ASAP)

AFAIK Spin-rite does not really do anything special today and
it is mostly a tool for esting disk surfaces and not for data recovery.

Spin rite claims it's a data recovery tool. [I've never tried it]

From grc's site:
"SpinRite now brings its legendary data recovery and drive maintenance magic
to the latest file systems, operating systems, and hard drives."

Spin rite makes use of some assumptions about the modulation used when
writing the sectors. In the times of MFM and RLL where you actually
knew what exactly was on the disks this, the disks were relatively
stupid and this added detection and recovery capabilities.
Today the disks themselves can read close to the physical limits, do
extensive error correction and there is not realy any additional "magic"
Spinrite can do. Just a retry on read error does the same.

Arno

yeah
Nope.


spinrite - for HDD scan only, not for recovery

For physical recovery, but not logical error recovery.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Spin rite claims it's a data recovery tool. [I've never tried it]

As in sector data. Not file system recovery.

From grc's site:
"SpinRite now brings its legendary data recovery and drive maintenance magic
to the latest file systems, operating systems, and hard drives."

Any filesystem recovery is accomplished by bringing back sectors in the system
areas. Spinrite only knows about filesytems to know where to copy data from a bad
sector to a free sector (cluster) and update the filesystem accordingly to where
this sector is now currently when that sector can't be reassigned by the drive itself.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

In my continuing scramble to get surviving files off my crashed and
(to Windows) inaccessible HD, I've found the website of the program
Spinrite.

It's said to support NTFS, it does low-level search, but I'm unsure if
it only handles logical errors or if it can recover data from a disk
with massive amounts of bad sectors/CRC errors?

I should make clear that I have no intention of trying to repair the
HD, I only wish to recover whatever files might still be alive on it.

(Sorry for starting a new thread on this, but I'd really like to get
closure on this ASAP)

AFAIK Spin-rite does not really do anything special today and
it is mostly a tool for esting disk surfaces and not for
data recovery.

Spin rite claims it's a data recovery tool. [I've never tried it]

From grc's site:
"SpinRite now brings its legendary data recovery and drive maintenance magic
to the latest file systems, operating systems, and hard drives."

Spin rite makes use of some assumptions about the modulation used when
writing the sectors. In the times of MFM and RLL where you actually
knew what exactly was on the disks this, the disks were relatively
stupid and this added detection and recovery capabilities.

Today the
disks themselves can read close to the physical limits, do extensive
error correction and there is not realy any additional "magic" Spin
rite can do.

They have done that for a long time, not only "Today".

Just a retry on read error does the same.

Uh, nope.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

In my continuing scramble to get surviving files off my crashed and
(to Windows) inaccessible HD, I've found the website of the program
Spinrite.

It's said to support NTFS, it does low-level search, but I'm unsure if
it only handles logical errors
Not.

or if it can recover data from a disk
Yes.

with massive amounts of bad sectors/CRC errors?

Well, massive may indicate graver problems than Spinrite may cope with.

I should make clear that I have no intention of trying to repair the
HD, I only wish to recover whatever files might still be alive on it.

Then don't use Spinrite unless your data is in unreadable sectors.