Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!unisoft!seer!ariel
From: ariel@seer.UUCP (Catherine Hampton)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.apps
Subject: Re: SPINRITE
Summary: There are at least two comparable products
Keywords: Does it really work?
Message-ID: <666@seer.UUCP>
Date: 27 Oct 90 20:36:29 GMT
References: <13509@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Followup-To: comp.os.msdos.apps
Organization: Brad Lanam  Alamo, CA
Lines: 34

In article <13509@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> rkim@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (KimBob) writes:
>
>I got a hold of a SPINRITE brochure some weeks ago, and I'm
>wondering if it's really worth buying it.  If anyone has experience
>with SPINRITE, please e-mail yourr opinions to rkim@ucsd.edu.  Are
>there any comparable programs out there?

I've used Spinrite and two other programs that do a non-destructive low-
level format of MS-DOS hard disks.  Spinrite works, yes, although (as with
any product that tinkers with your system at that level) it can cause 
problems on some untested hardware.  In my experience, Gibson Research
is quite good about testing it, though, and has thorough documentation
on what sorts of disks it works on and what disks it doesn't.  Further, 
Spinrite will refuse to run on a disk it doesn't recognize.

Another product that does the same thing is Gazelle Systems' Optune.  I
use Optune on my machines and prefer it, partially because it doesn't 
attempt to restore factory-bad disk sectors (which can cause problems)
and partly because it includes a disk defragmenter as well.  Further,
Optune's disk defragmenter is by an order of magnitude faster than 
anything else I've ever tried.  It defrags *and packs* my 100 megger in
less than four minutes.  Norton's Speed Disk takes about fifty minutes
to do the same thing.

The third product I know has a low-level non-destructive hard disk formatter
is the Norton Utilities, version 5.0.  I've never tried this utility, so
I don't know what to tell you about it.  But Norton is a good package 
to have for other reasons, so maybe you'd like to try it.

Cathy
_________________________________________________________________
Catherine A. Hampton                  BITNET: hampton@reed.BITNET
CIS: 71601,3130                      Fidonet: Cathy H. @ 1:125/32
GEnie: C.HAMPTON3     Internet: hampton@reed.EDU / ariel@seer.COM