[whiskeykid]

I've confirmed this week what i suspected for a while. My hard drive is going bad. I borrowed a copy of Spinrite, but when I go to use it, it warns me that my hard drive is in imminent danger and using Spinrite to fix it may ,may make it unusable.

I would like to know what the chances are of Spinrite destroying my drive completely before I go ahead and use it. In the last week, more and more programs are crashing and downloads come up with errors.

I have backed up some important stuff, but would rather try and fix the drive than buy a new one and transfer everything. Some programs may be unusable now anyway. Was hoping Spinrite could recover some of the data for me.

The drive is a Samsung and less than 2 years old. Surely it should not go bad so fast!!

Any advice appreciated.

[Advertisements]

if spinrite is warning you that your drive is in iminant danger (it would be great to get the full messag there)....then it probably means that there's an iminant hardware failure...which means you need to replace the drive before it dies completely otherwise you will not be able to get your info back

[dsenette]

if spinrite is warning you that your drive is in iminant danger (it would be great to get the full messag there)....then it probably means that there's an iminant hardware failure...which means you need to replace the drive before it dies completely otherwise you will not be able to get your info back

[John Butler]

I would advise Windows 7 users not to use Spinrite. This is a very old application (at leAST SITEEN YEARS SINCE IT STARTED based on DOS) and my experience is that these good old Gibson boys have not caught up with Windows 7.
While there is a very seductive convincing video the reality is different when you try to use it with today's SATA dirves. Moreover it is very expensive - $89- and there is no demo. I paid for version 6 and never got it to work in Windows 7 ultimate: a big waste of time and money.
So you buy it and may not even be able to download it. There is better software available now from Western Digital.
Caveat Emptor
Onclejon

[rshaffer61]

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, try the Hitachi DFT CD Image version of the software

Thanks to Broni for the instructions