![]() ![]() Similarly, crosstalk on the read/write cable or power glitches can cause a read/write failure even though there is no damage. ![]() Minor alignment issues from heat expansion and power issues can cause a sector to be written incorrectly during normal use, even though there is no physical damage. Dust or contaminants inside the drive can likewise damage the disk surface. The most common is a head crash - where a drive is bumped and the head comes in to contact with the surface, scratching it. DOS will simply retry the read operation a few times before issuing the famous "Error Reading Drive C: Abort, Retry, Fail?". ![]() When errors crop up, IBM PC hard disk controllers can not do much about them. The drives themselves have no concept of "good" or "bad" sectors. All of that falls on the controller card or host software. The signal represents exactly what is underneath the heads - no buffering, no caching, no translation, no error correction. The Data In and Data Out lines communicate by sending raw flux transitions similar to a floppy drive. "MFM" and "RLL" hard drives (more properly known as ST412/506 interface drives) have no intelligence built in to the read/write system. It does not prevent a failing drive from destroying itself.It can not recover data from very badly damage sectors.It does not test at the same analog level that a manufacturer could.It does not repair physical drive damage.Generally stress tests the drive hardware.Automatically relocates data from weak sectors.Pattern tests to detect bad/weak sectors.Determines and changes optimal sector interleave.Refreshes the low level format without re-loading software.One of their earlier advertisements can be seen here: It has a number of functions that can be confusing to someone not familiar with how hard drives operate, and many of its functions are only applicable to MFM/RLL/ARLL hard drives. It was sometimes advertised as a data recovery tool, which is a bit misleading. SpinRite is a disk utility who's purpose is greatly misunderstood. ![]()
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