Spinrite

[ryanfisch]

Latest WAN show spirite came up but the guys seems dismissive of it. It not only repairs HDDs and SSDs if you've lost data but it also speeds up your SSDs after years of use and brings them back to factory speeds.

 

I think we should petition for a video on the software, at least include it.

[whispous]

3 minutes ago, ryanfisch said:

it also speeds up your SSDs after years of use and brings them back to factory speeds.

Is this true or did you just hear it from a mate

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, whispous said:

Is this true or did you just hear it from a mate

They claim it on the software download page, not sure how legit it is though

[whispous]

Just now, Lurick said:

They claim it on the software download page, not sure how legit it is though

Because in theory that claim simply isn't a thing

[Lurick]

Just now, whispous said:

Because in theory that claim simply isn't a thing

https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Link for anyone curious btw

[whispous]

15 minutes ago, Lurick said:

https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Link for anyone curious btw

I reckon this is at worst, total nonsense and at best, hugely disingenuous from them.

[Erioch]

29 minutes ago, Lurick said:

They claim it on the software download page, not sure how legit it is though

On a site that uses Comic Sans as a font.  I'm surprised there isn't a Geocities logo at the bottom.

[Bitter]

The before and after screenshots of Andy's SSD sure look like they went from a SATA 300 to a SATA 600 configuration LOL

[Needfuldoer]

[ Moved to Programs, Apps, and Websites ]

 

1 hour ago, whispous said:

I reckon this is at worst, total nonsense and at best, hugely disingenuous from them.

Hey now, SpinRite had its place back in the days when you had to manually enter your hard drive's geometry parameters into your MDA controller. I used SpinRite 5 to recover files off a DOS floppy once.

[porina]

That's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

 

Now on the performance claim on SSDs, I have an untested theory on that one. I occasionally use HDDscan on my SSDs to read the "surface" as I have had suspected data rot on lower end SSDs in the past. Bad areas which can still be read but are on the way out increase significantly in read latency, then some day it can't be read. Even on higher end ones, I have noticed that the reported read speed drops roughly corresponding to areas where the SSD has data, and only reaches its max speed where it doesn't. A possible mechanism is that "old" data on SSDs may take more ECC and take longer to read from that. Fresh data like if you run CrystalDiskMark or whatever, wouldn't show that because it is on newly created data. I'm just speculating if this could be the case, but a full read/write of the SSD's data could restore performance if so.

 

I'm not motivated enough to test this theory out. There might be another mechanism at play for slower reads than expected. Obviously a rewrite would eat into endurance so not something I want to play with.

[ryanfisch]

1 hour ago, whispous said:

Is this true or did you just hear it from a mate

I've used it to recover data.but that was prior to spinrite 6.1 which is what speeds up the drives. Claims to doing it by rewriting and deleting bit over all sectors. This is important for SSDs as over time they lose some charge and the storage upfront is used more than the middle or end, causing the slowness. I listen to the Security Now podcast, he updated it from 6.0 to 6.1 over a few years and testing sounded thorough. I'll take him for his word.

 

 

[Erioch]

Same company?