Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!chinet!ward
From: ward@chinet.UUCP (Ward Christensen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Spinrite Concerns
Message-ID: <6413@chinet.UUCP>
Date: 28 Aug 88 15:34:43 GMT
References: <3857@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM> <329@octopus.UUCP>
Reply-To: ward@chinet.UUCP (Ward Christensen)
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 12

Article 20129 says "Well, not really.  It says that you don't need to do a
backup before running SpinRite, since it re-formats without losing data.
That is 100% true".
  Sorry, no it isn't.  I used SpinRite on my AST Premium 286, and it worked
fine (I got it because of a degradation of the inner tracks due to running
the machine 24 hours a day, maybe the house got too warm during the day).
  But when I ran it on my VERY UNUSUAL PC (with dual Interface Inc external
drives) I got a drive full of 6Cs.  Partition block and "everything" was
blown.  Somehow it failed Steve's "Check if I can reformat this drive" test.
  Steve was more than willing to persue this with me, but I said "Aw, heck,
this is a VERY rare and old drive/controller, just put a note in the README
saying that you shouldn't use it on an Interface Inc Controller".