I have an old Dell XPS laptop that I have kept for the sole purpose of running SpinRite because it boots from BIOS and also has an eSATA port. I have 2 external HDD docks that I can use. One of them is an old eSATA dock that registers as a SATA I according to SpinRite. The other is a new USB 3.1 (5Gbps) that shouldn't be a problem connecting to my laptop's USB 3.0 port. Which one should I use, the one that is a native SATA connection albeit slower or the faster USB that may not get down to bare metal?
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I definitely recommend using the one that registers as SATA. In SpinRite 6.1, USB is inferior to SATA because it goes through the BIOS. USB will hopefully be on par with SATA in SpinRite 7.0 and later because Steve will write a native driver for it.
Colby is right. USB is typically inferior to SATA due to serious BIOS speed limitations with USB.
HOWEVER: You said that your laptop has a USB 3.0 port? If so, that combined with the USB 3.1 dock could be faster than the SATA I option.
Your best bet would be to try both docks to see which option is faster.
HOWEVER: You said that your laptop has a USB 3.0 port? If so, that combined with the USB 3.1 dock could be faster than the SATA I option.
Your best bet would be to try both docks to see which option is faster.
I intend to try both. The only concern is whether going through USB hinders data recovery somehow. Like is there any data or hard drive area the USB connection is unable to access or interpret correctly.
There have been many issues in 6.1 related to USB, mostly due to poor BIOS implementations. I recommend avoiding it if you can.
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