Spinrite.

[Janina Sajka]

I have no beef with SpinWrite. I see no reason why we can't have
multiple tools for particular tasks. However, the discussion was about
the accessibility of the tool, a particular concern on this list,
naturally enough. On that score, I think there's little question
remaining that the native Linux tools prove the function required
without presenting an accessibility challenge.

Janina

eric oyen writes:
> spin rite is a nice tool for those who are computer users only. Us power users tend to get a bit more down and dirty with the hardware level codes than most.
> 
> Badblocks has a couple of nice options that will allow you to mark off bad areas and write that info into a file that can also be used by mkfs when you go to make a new filesystem. These are utilities included by default in any Linux distribution. Also, all these utilities are command line and are quite accessible without the need of a special interface driver on a desktop. These are also available as command line utilities on just about every OS X machine around. Can't say that for windows.
> 
> -eric
> 
> On Dec 27, 2013, at 6:08 PM, Janina Sajka wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Well, I still don't see that it does anything special. For instance, if
> > you're worried about bad blocks, the command badblocks is perfectly
> > useful for just that.
> > 
> > Janina
> > 
> > Tim Chase writes:
> >> On December 27, 2013, Janina Sajka wrote:
> >>> use standard Linux tools, e.g. e2fsck and the
> >>> smartmontools like smartctl.
> >>> 
> >>> This approach is fully accessible.
> >>> 
> >>> So, what does spinWrite give you that you can't do per the above?
> >> 
> >> Spinrite operates on the drive at the hardware level rather than
> >> filesystem-level (checked by e2fsck) or partition level.  I'm less
> >> familiar with smartctl, but it appears to offer some overlap in
> >> functionality with Spinrite.
> >> 
> >> In a way, the basic first level scan could possibly be replicated with
> >> "dd", reading the entire drive (/dev/sda) rather than a partition
> >> (/dev/sda1) and dumping the results to /dev/null which would force
> >> the drive to read every byte.  This triggers the drive to look at
> >> every byte, check the drive's integrity at that location, and let
> >> the hardware move the data in the event that spot is getting hard to
> >> read.  Based on the manpage, it sounds like smartctl might offer
> >> some similar functionality.  Beyond that, I believe that Spinrite does
> >> more aggressive scans that will persist in an attempt to read data,
> >> even when the drive returns hardware errors, and can actively talk to
> >> the drive controller to move that data elsewhere in the event it had
> >> trouble, then mark the blocks as bad at the hardware level.
> >> 
> >> Again, I'm only taking a stab in the dark based on the tidbits I've
> >> picked up on the SN podcast (which is well worth a listen, IMHO).
> >> I've never used the product, but at least the guy who wrote it seems
> >> to know what he's doing and make difficult technological topics
> >> accessible.
> >> 
> >> -tim
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Blinux-list at redhat.com
> >> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> > 
> > -- 
> > 
> > Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
> > 			sip:janina at asterisk.rednote.net
> > 		Email:	janina at rednote.net
> > 
> > Linux Foundation Fellow
> > Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org
> > 
> > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
> > Chair,	Protocols & Formats	http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
> > 	Indie UI			http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > Blinux-list at redhat.com
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 
> 
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-- 

Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
			sip:janina at asterisk.rednote.net
		Email:	janina at rednote.net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair,	Protocols & Formats	http://www.w3.org/wai/pf
	Indie UI			http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/