Closed Pre-Release 5.03

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  • BootAble – FreeDOS boot testing freeware

    To obtain direct, low-level access to a system's mass storage drives, SpinRite runs under a GRC-customized version of FreeDOS which has been modified to add compatibility with all file systems. In order to run SpinRite it must first be possible to boot FreeDOS.

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Steve

Steve

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Continuing work toward the final release​

This is just an update release of both the fill Windows/DOS and DOS-only SpinRite code. The biggest change is an improvement in SpinRite's handling of drives that are slow to recover from errors. This was also improved by the two previous updates, but by opening several spinning drives and judiciously placing fingerprints on their disc surfaces, I've managed to make life very much harder for SpinRite and those drives. I learned a lot and this aspect of SpinRite has been significantly improved.

You may obtain this update as before by going to GRC's Pre-Release page, entering your SpinRite license serial number or transaction code and clicking the link to obtain your personal pre-release copies. You'll see that this updated release identifies itself on screen as “pre-release 5.03”.

Thanks, all!
 
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More that the fingerprint deliberately introduces a massive error on the drive, testing the data recovery ability. Taking the top cover off will void the warranty in any case.
 
That's definitely true. But I did that and touched the disc just once, not leaving any visible fingerprint... and the drive still scanned perfectly. So I reopened it and left a series of three very visible "skin oil" fingerprints... and that sure did the trick! It was a very useful hack since this was deliberately done on a Western Digital WDEARS10 drive which we previously had a lot of trouble with. It allowed me to experiment with how to manage to get the darned thing back online. In some cases is take a full 63 seconds. But now SpinRite is able to push through — albeit quite slowly — but at least it's no longer giving up and declaring that the drive is offline. (y)
 
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Thank you for the 5.03 update - I have a 40G WDC WD400BB-00AUA1 (IDE) which I have been trying to recover. Started with SR 6.0 months ago and is found a lot of issues but would "Divide by Zero" error out, 6.1 RC 5 was much improved but with the "Drive Offline" timeout. I was able to adjust the start/stop percentages to get around all but a small number of sectors.

SR 6.1 PR 5.03 behaved differently... (maybe better?). I signed up to the forum to report this as the results are significantly different. First, I saw my first-ever "B" (defective). I have scanned many drives since 2006 and never seen a defective sector, so this got my attention. The logs likely speak for themselves, so I won't drone on about the other differences, but will note 5.0.3 stopped at the same ~0.927% that all other versions have had div. Zero/offline termination. So, maybe the drive is just that "done for", but I wanted to share what I see.

Also, the drive has been in two different systems original and a much newer with PCIE IDE HBA - same SR behavior.

I am attaching both logs (hope that is within forum etiquette; if not please correct me)
 

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DrDred said:
Thank you for the 5.03 update - I have a 40G WDC WD400BB-00AUA1 (IDE) which I have been trying to recover. Started with SR 6.0 months ago and is found a lot of issues but would "Divide by Zero" error out, 6.1 RC 5 was much improved but with the "Drive Offline" timeout. I was able to adjust the start/stop percentages to get around all but a small number of sectors.

SR 6.1 PR 5.03 behaved differently... (maybe better?). I signed up to the forum to report this as the results are significantly different. First, I saw my first-ever "B" (defective). I have scanned many drives since 2006 and never seen a defective sector, so this got my attention. The logs likely speak for themselves, so I won't drone on about the other differences, but will note 5.0.3 stopped at the same ~0.927% that all other versions have had div. Zero/offline termination. So, maybe the drive is just that "done for", but I wanted to share what I see.

Also, the drive has been in two different systems original and a much newer with PCIE IDE HBA - same SR behavior.

I am attaching both logs (hope that is within forum etiquette; if not please correct me)
Click to expand...
Thanks very much for your report. I'm currently battling this "drive going offline" issue I'm still not certain that SpinRite is doing everything possible. So I hope you and your drive will stick around to see whether I'm able to get SpinRite to be better with these very troubled drives! (y)
 
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Attached is my log file for a drive that I used release candidate 4 and 5 on. I was not able to complete the scan. When I used release candidate 5 I let it run for over 95 hours but it did not seem like it was doing anything so I stopped it. With this release, I could completely run through the entire drive in just over 34 hours. I hope this helps
 

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markav2 said:
Attached is my log file for a drive that I used release candidate 4 and 5 on. I was not able to complete the scan. When I used release candidate 5 I let it run for over 95 hours but it did not seem like it was doing anything so I stopped it. With this release, I could completely run through the entire drive in just over 34 hours. I hope this helps
Click to expand...
Thanks for the log, @markav2. It sure looks like SpinRite is finally doing the right thing on that drive. Yay!! (y)
 
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