Closed Pre-Release 5.05

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Steve

Steve

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Feb 1, 2019
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5.05: Fixed “SMART”, which I broke in 5.04.​

Several immediate testers have confirmed that the persistent problem I was hoping to fix with the 5.04 release is fixed — which was SpinRite's previous problems with very troubled drives. Several people who had such drives have confirmed that 5.04 managed to plow through regions where it was previously giving up and/or getting stuck.

We've also had several confirmations that the new "video restoration" hack of pressing backspace four times brings video back online.

BUT! — It was also quickly observed that 5.04 broke SpinRite's SMART subsystem reporting. It was the result of the reworking I did of SpinRite's AHCI to fix the trouble drive problem. And it was quick to fix once I knew I broke it. So this release 5.05 should have everything working again.

Everyone who grabbed 5.04 should replace it with 5.05.

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 links to obtain your personal pre-release copies of either the full Windows/DOS SpinRite and/or just the DOS code.

Thanks, all!
 
Seems to be working as expected.

I ran this (WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0) drive all the way through Level 3 using Pre-Release 5.03 last night. It had a couple of issues where there were some unrecoverable data near the end, and also a sector near the middle that appeared to have never even been looked at. On the Graphic Status Display screen, after everything was finished, there was a white dot near the center of the grid. Not the slightly larger blue dot associated with analyzing, but the smaller white dot associated with unprocessed. I don't recall ever seeing Spinrite "not process" a portion of a drive before. It ran for 13 hours over night so of course I didn't see what was on the screen at the time.

I ran the same drive again all day today using 5.05, which ran a little over 13 hours. Today it seems to have made it all the way through with no complaints, other than what appears to be an innocuous write error and some SMART activity that is a bit of a mystery to me.

I wouldn't bother posting these two logs other than the unusual situation where it seems like 5.03 actually skipped a spot near the middle of the drive.
 

Attachments

  • PR5.03 (WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0).TXT
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  • PR5.05 (WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0).TXT
    6.7 KB · Views: 846
Attached is the log of another drive that I had issues with in the past. It was completed successfully this time.
 

Attachments

  • WD-WCAVY6183133.zip
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