Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Cc: "J. Roeleveld" <joost@××××××××.org>
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] [Waaay OT] Defrag tool for windoze
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:07:30
Message-Id: 201011151907.27494.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] [Waaay OT] Defrag tool for windoze by "J. Roeleveld"
1 Apparently, though unproven, at 17:10 on Monday 15 November 2010, J. Roeleveld
2 did opine thusly:
3
4 > On Monday 15 November 2010 15:50:37 Jacob Todd wrote:
5 > > Sounds like something is wrong with te drive, and spinrite.can probably
6 > > fix it.
7 >
8 > I don't see what Spinrite can do to help with defragging a harddrive for MS
9 > Windows?
10 >
11 > I like the bit where it explains "how it prevents a disk crash":
12 >
13 > "It first reads the data out of a region, then exercises that region with
14 > patterns of data that SpinRite has determined are the most difficult for
15 > the drive to read and write. In this way, any weak and failing areas
16 > within the region are located and removed from use while none of the
17 > drive's original data is being stored there. Only after the region has
18 > been made absolutely safe, will the drive's original data be restored to
19 > that area. "
20 > (quoted from the website for Spinrite: http://www.grc.com/sroverview.htm )
21 >
22 > supposedly this is "unique" (Just hope the system doesn't freeze up or the
23 > power goes while it's doing this....)
24 >
25 > How is this different from:
26 > 1) take a backup
27 > 2) check for bad sectors (badblocks)
28 > 3) restore backup
29 >
30 > This is also less risky as the data is backed up somewhere safe
31
32 spinrite claims to make the head do other things than what the drive firmware
33 makes it do. Meaning that spinrite can extract data that the drive itself in
34 normal conditions cannot. This reasoning is sound.
35
36 Remember that a drive is an analogue device, not a digital one (only the
37 *output data* is digital).
38
39 There is some doubt as to whether spinrite can even function in this wise with
40 modern drives though.
41
42
43
44 --
45 alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] [Waaay OT] Defrag tool for windoze "J. Roeleveld" <joost@××××××××.org>