Spinrite Data Recovery
'Cannot read from source file or disk' is often an indication that your harddisk has a bad sector and is quite literally unable to read some, or all of thefile. Another error that you might encounter is the dreaded 'CRC Error' whichmeans effectively the same thing: a problem with the data on your harddrive.Hard disks are fairly cheap these days and replacement is often a practicalsolution.However, if the data that you can't get to is important, or the time andhassle of replacing the hard disk is too daunting, SpinRitecould well be the answer. 'SpinRite works at the physical level of your harddrive, and knows nothing about files, folders or even disk formats.' .To rewrite data on your hard drive so as to make sure that the magneticsignals used to encode data are as clear and crisp as possible. This makes themeasier and faster to read, as well as maximizing the lifespan of the dataencoded.To recover data on your hard drive where those magnetic signals have becomeweak or corrupted.
SpinRite will go through exhaustive lengths to recover datawhen it encounters a sector that for some reason cannot be successfully read.Once it has done so it will either rewrite the recovered data to the sector, orit will relocate the sector to another physical location on the disk.In other words, it has two primary uses: maintenance and recovery.You can guess which one gets used most often.What's interesting is that physical failures like CRC errors aren't alwaysreported as such. If your hard disk is struggling and things seem slow, itcould be a bad sector that's causing your computer to try, try againuntil the data is successfully read. Occasionally, if your computer suddenlywon't boot - perhaps 'no operating system' or 'ntldr missing' or any number ofinitial errors on start up - it's because there's a bad sector that the bootloader doesn't report as such.If you listen to the podcast you'll hear SpinRite's creator, Steve Gibson,present a testimonial each week of how saved the day (and data) forsomeone. His stories of recovery run the range from the simple 'it won't boot'scenario to the complex and even the extreme.It's important to realize what SpinRite is not.SpinRite works at the physical level of your hard drive, and knows nothingabout files, folders or even disk formats. That's one of the reasons that itcan work not only on FAT or NTFS formatted drives, but also drives formattedfor use with Mac's and Linux. It's not trying to understand the data on thehard drive at all - it's simply looking at and repairing each sector,regardless of its contents.So that means it won't repair data that was improperly written. It doesn'treplace chkdsk, or undelete utilities, or file recovery utilities like.
These tools all operate on the data stored on your hard drive.What SpinRite does that no other tool does is work to repair andrecover from physical errors on the hard drive like bad sectors, CRCerrors and the like.A couple of final caveats:.SpinRite's can work on external USB drives if your computer's BIOSsupports it (and many do not). Regardless, running SpinRite over USB makesit extra-slow. If you're really facing a problem with an external drive it'soften better to remove the drive from its enclosure and connect it to acomputer directly via internal PATA or SATA interfaces.SpinRite can be slow.
Spinrite Usb
Depending on the level of work you're asking it to doit can take a few hours on a drive with no problems. If the drive has problems,it will then vary dramatically depending on how many problems and howsuccessful SpinRite is at correcting them.
It could add next to no time at all,but most often it adds minutes or hours to the process. (Extreme testimonialsI've heard have SpinRite successfully repairing a disk after working on it fordays, weeks, and in at least one case - a few months.).SpinRite can occasionally have issues with some SATA controllers. It crasheson my desktop, for example, when attempting to recover a bad sector. The samedrive connected to my laptop was repaired without incident.SpinRite cannot recover from extreme hardware failure. If the disk doesn'tspin, if the drive's circuit board has been damaged, if the disk read/writeheads no longer read/write, that's beyond SpinRite's abilities.Support for SpinRite is excellent.SpinRite is not free. As I write this it sells for $89.
Two important pointsabout that:.100% guarantee. If you don't like it, they'll refund your money.$89 is often significantly less than the expense of losing, recreating orrecovering data. (In fact, many data recovery shops begin by running SpinRite,and then charge you a premium for the service.)Bottom line is that is an extremely valuable tool to have in yourarsenal.It's in mine.I recommend it.Article-May 16, 2010.
Chris HansenJuly 27, 2010 11:28 AMI have purchased and used PowerData Recovery. It works wonders, even on reformatted drives. Read:Power Data Recovery is easy to use. You could choose one of the modules below to recover your data.Undelete Recoverymodule could recover data by accidental deletion.Advanced Recoverymodule could recover data from most of the data lost reasons including accidental formatting, fdisked or inaccessible drive and deleted partitions.
Even you reinstalled your system, you still have a chance to recover your data by using this module.Deep Scan Recoverymodule will scan the device by manufacturer's data format. It is powerful and could recover what ever left on you device.
It support popular data format including MS Office files, graphic and picture files, audio and video files. For complete file formatting list, please visit license key is required to recover data over 640K.
To purchase a license key, please visit http://www.PowerDataRecovery.com/pdrbuynow.htm. DonJuly 27, 2012 11:04 AMSpinRite works fine on my IDE-based systems but not on the SATA system. SpinRite Support told me to look for a BIOS setting that makes the SATA interface appear as an IDE (I don't have such a setting).
In other words, they are telling me that 'SpinRite works on all SATA drives' (that's what their website claims)-so long as the BIOS can make the SATA interface appear IDE, that is.Steve Gibson is a smart guy, but I wish he wouldn't let stuff like this languish. SATA is NOT a novel interface: SpinRite should fully support it.BTW, SpinRite Support's final suggestion to me was to boot my system from a Windows 98 CD (that didn't work either). Give me a break! MatthewApril 10, 2013 12:24 PMSpinRite has worked on my 2011 Windows 7 Acer laptop SATA drive and on my 2009 Acer EasyStore Windows Home Server SATA drives just fine without changing anything in either BIOS.
The only thing that SpinRite can sometimes not access is the SMART data from a SATA drive if the motherboard and BIOS do not forward the information in a manner that SpinRite understands. Where is oppo serial number/ download. This is the case for my laptop, but in the BIOS on my laptop I am able to change the SATA setting to 'legacy' (IDE) mode and it will then also have access to the SMART data.But do note that SpinRite performs.just fine.
on SATA drives without the SMART data, it simply cannot do any benchmarking of the drive's performance without it. But it will perform as advertised just fine.I suppose YMMV but the posts from Don and londoj01 are the first ones I have seen that claim that SpinRite does not work at all on a SATA drive.Good luck!
Spinrite Lp
A place to discuss the ins and outs of data recovery, both logical and physical. SUBMISSION GUIDELINESPlease include filesystem and the make/model of your hard drive, flash drive, or phone.REMEMBER: If what you are trying to recover is important GO TO A PRO! This includes your own data, or customer data.
Odds are VERY HIGH that you will lose your data forever if you are working on this without expertise.bybyHow to Copy Your Drive:.guide to using ddrescue.Link to FTK Imager.REMEMBER: Even using these tools/guides can be risky on your drive! If heads are failing, then this WILL make a bad problem worse.FINALLY: This is a forum for civil discussion and friendly advice. Please refrain from insults and personal attacks. Most people here are either trying to get help, or trying to help. Give people the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. Spinrite is a good tool for testing, but nothing else now.It isn't good for recovery for a multitude of reasons, biggest of which is that it puts the hard to read data back down on the dying drive. This makes no sense.
How can you even call it recovery if you aren't writing your data to another drive? If your kitchen catches fire, do you want to get out of the house or just go hang out in the living room?The 'maintenance' aspect of its operation is largely silly on modern drives. Really old versions used have some extra functions just for old drives, which could have issues with consistency of how data was written, mostly due to temperature and/or granularity of head positioning. In today's drives, head positioning is dynamic, using servo (track location) data recorded onto the platters.
Old drives from when Spinrite was great had a stepper motor with fixed mechanic detents for each track.Modern drives have sophisticated error correction capability, which the drives in Spinrite's heyday lacked.Just say no to Spinrite for a modern drive.Edited for typo.