dt@no.net wrote:

not comparable to a chkdsk, which would run much faster.


dying drive often doesn't survive the torture and quits completely inmidst.

since then, I would rather suggest dd-rescue data off a bad drive if
possible (even in pieces, to allow cooldown in between) to a new one, then
run recovery software like ontrack easy recovery or pc inspector file
recovery, on the new drive. Even better to have a backup copy of the image,
for repeated attempts.

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phil@xxxxx.com wrote:

the bin.
In fact, with the read-write test, the harddrive electronics will get a
chance to find out about bad sectors and can remap them as long as spare
sectors are still there. That's one reason why bad sectors may disappear
after applying spinrite.
Another issue: spinrite works with predictable speed as long as there are no
bad sectors. When they are discovered, the drive electronics of modern
drives tries to re-read them almost forever, resulting in almost stalling
progress - depending upon the drive type and make.
For some drives, the automatic defect management may be disabled, but
spinrite probably doesn't do that.

Backing up "everything" may not be what you want - it would require a
imaging program and lots of time for 275 GB. With the currently low
harddrive costs, a mirroring can achieve the same thing without effort.
Most modern mainboards have raid capable SATA controllers these days or
allow install of a raid capable addon card.
However, even mirroring (raid 1) doesn't substitute a backup - since you'll
have the same malware on both mirror drives, once you are infected, not to
talk about the occasional wipeout of important files/folders when slightly
intoxicated ;-)
......
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