SpinRite 6.1 Review: Still the Best Data Recovery Tool?

Although not specific to Linux, SpinRite is a tried and true solution for hard disk recovery and maintenance. In 2024, a brand-new version has been released - and Linux users may want to take a look. But this is not just for Linux users, as SpinRite can refresh just about anything with a hard drive.

Note: This review is NOT sponsored by GRC (the creator of SpinRite). Jay is an actual long-time user of this software.

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*🕚 Time Codes*
00:00 - Intro
01:02 - Why make this video?
03:34 - What exactly does SpinRite do?
05:06 - SpinRite's "Levels"
05:43 - SpinRite purchase and setup experience
06:28 - The downsides of SpinRite

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#Harddisk #SpinRite #SecurityNow

[SGgrc]

Steve Gibson, SpinRite's "Dad" here... Wow, Jay. Thank you for helping spread the word. I'm hoping to at least get the news of the no-charge upgrade to v6.1 out to SpinRite 6's 20 years of past purchasers (v6.0 was released in 2004). So what you've taken the time to do really helps. And I thought your comments and review were perfectly balanced. Thanks again!

[falcon__]

One of the features that SpinRite has that seems very useful to me is the ability to re-write the data on an SSD when the constant use of that SSD has introduced many many errors that now slow done the process as the system spends so much time error correcting. As it re-writes the data all the errors are eliminated and the speed of the drive is restored.

[networkdwarf]

Thank you for the nice memories. Started using SpinRite on 1988, gosh I miss the 5.25" floppy disks

[PM-iofq]

-If your backups are laying around in a cabinet, with spinrite you can refresh de sectors of the hard disk(yes also ssd needs refreshing).(or you can copy to another hard disk).
-You can use spirite also if you damage(the sectors) the beginning of a hard disk, because a hard disk will not boot or be usable if the starting sectors a damaged, I used this 2 times and it worked with this problem.

[CCJ]

I got this long time ago back in the XP era. Didn't help me at all back then still lost data. What's funny after I reformatted the drive it worked fine for another 5 years after that. Though that got me into doing DVD backups regularly now extra drive backups which is always the best way.

[joerobinson]

Oh man, I would love to hear about this review on the next episode of Security Now! 😃

[Jordan-hzwr]

Thanks Jay. I've listened to Steve for years and still wasn't exactly sure what SpinRite did and at this point I was too afraid to ask.

[csvscs]

Agreed! You should do a fall video where you show the performance boost on running spin right on ssds

[rankenfile]

Been using SpinRite since heck was a pup. This video reinvigorates me to go do some maintenance on a couple of my old work horses....and figure out how to get the newest version since I bought a version forever ago.

[ronm]

Thanks. I remember using SpinRite years ago.

[alexbright]

SpinRite should not be an insurance policy. A good backup should be!! Shouldn't be trying to recover bad drives.

[jlforrest]

I'll be really curious to learn how SpinRite works on SSDs. Most (all?) of what it claims to do on hard drives can't be done on SSDs.

[johnvanwinkle]

I used this in the old DOS days. It was a great tool. I will have to check out the new version.

[bluuu]

Can you make a video to talk more detail about apt?
Like the how to repo to ubuntu (key and source.list).

[ScottBaker_]

Nice. I just downloaded 6.1 yesterday.

[john-r-edge]

Fyi. Currently Spinrite cannot be run from a Ventoy USB stick. Needs its own dedicated stick.

[mondskiez]

a rich linux guy once said.. it is better to have and not need, than to need and not have..

[JohnDoe-lgmh]

I own and have used several times. Has allowed me to recover data from drives and has revitalized several drives as well.

[memyself]

I had an earlier version and it only worked on IDE (PATA) drives. I might wait for a later version than 6.1 that addresses secure boot.

[TheMadhatter]

Spinrite is not for data recovery but for sector “repair” to allow for software level recovery. I have used this to “fix” bad sectors to perform a successful clone followed by error correction via scan tools but it’s not a perfect method and not a reliable method. I have had success having spin rite fix drives with hundreds of bad sectors to be used as spare drives but sometimes these take days to perform and not guaranteed - I had a hard drive take weeks to “fix” a sector but would not get passed and wasn’t worth running but I had spin rite take few days successfully reviving a drive that failed SMART but then passes SMART tests. So yeah, it’s a great tool to have but i would not use it solely for data recovery.