From: Chris McDonald STEWS-IM-CM-S (1/26/93) To: orvis%llnl.gov@wsmr-simtel20.ar, Mail*Link¨ SMTP Product Test 18 ****************************************************************************** PT-18 July 1990 ****************************************************************************** 1. Product Description: SpinRite II is a commercial hard disk utility for IBM-compatible personal computers. The program provides the capability for identifying and repairing hard disk problems, to include a non-destructive, hard disk, low-level reformatting capability. 2. Product Acquisition: SpinRite II is available from Gibson Research Corporation, 22991 LaCadena, Laguna Hills, CA 92653, telephone 714-830-2200. The suggested retail price is $89.00. Site licenses are available. 3. Product Tester: Chris Mc Donald, Computer Systems Analyst, Directorate of Information Management, White Sands Missile Range, NM 88002-5030, DSN: 258- 7548 or DDN: cmcdonal@wsmr-emh03.army.mil. 4. Product Test: a. The USAISC-White Sands Life Cycle Management Branch obtained a copy of SpinRite II directly from Gibson Research Corporation for evaluation purposes in March 1990. The Branch received a free upgrade, version 1.1, in June 1990 and made the product available for evaluation by individual users at White Sands. b. I tested the product on a Unisys PC, Model 3137, MS-DOS 3.10, 512K. VIRUSCAN and VIRUCIDE scanning of the received 5 1/4" program disk was negative for the identification of known computer viruses and certain trojan horses. c. The operating manual had adequate and clear warning instructions on procedures to backup the original disk. The manual also highlighted the problem which might occur if the program executes while resident programs are loaded. The manual advised that all resident programs be removed prior to program execution. d. The central issue which SpinRite II seeks to address is the fact that for a variety of factors hard disks can lose their low-level format. The low-level formatting initially writes the sector ID headers, and actually defines and creates sector regions where none existed. After the initial low-level formatting, the sector ID headers are never written again. e. SPINRITE II has these major features: (1) Non-destructive low-level reformats of standard DOS partitions, with DOS version 2.1 and later. (2) Repair of all forms of low-level format damage. (3) Optimization of sector interleave for maximum possible data transfer rates. (4) Recovery of unreadable, uncorrectable sectors. (5) Surface defect detection with worst-case data pattern scrubbing and endangered data relocation. f. The user executes the program through a menu-driven format. The early menu screens perform basic diagnostic and trouble-shooting evaluations of the health of the hard drive. The user has various options as to which evaluations he or she wishes to exercise. The screen on low-level formatting has four choices. The operating manual suggests that on an initial use of the program the user choose level 3 or 4 which are the most extensive in their operation. g. The diagnostic and trouble-shooting evaluations did not indicate that my particular hard drive had any serious problems. I chose level 3 at the low- level format menu. Level 3 required just over 3 hours to run to completion. Basic storage capacity of the system drive was 33MB. This translates to 16, 339 clusters or 65, 518 sectors. At any time I could have interrupted the program with options to terminate or to resume operations. At the conclusion of the program SpinRite II provided a report summary of its operations. h. Since my system had no unreadable sectors, I was not able to test the data recovery features. Version 1.1 documentation indicates that it has several new enhancement to aid this process. 5. Product Advantages: a. SpinRite II addresses hard disk low-level format problems with a unique approach. Before SpinRite II, if one accepts the Gibson Research Corporation documentation, the only way to repair the low-level formatting of a hard disk was to backup the entire drive onto some other medium, give the drive a completely new low-level format, and then restore the drive's original data. SpinRite II can perform a low-level reformat without requiring this procedure. While the initial execution of the program (i.e., level 3 or level 4) may require 3 to 4 hours, subsequent executions for preventive maintenance purposes can accomplish the reformat in significantly reduced timeframes. b. SpinRite II allows a user to scrutinize disk performance and correct most problems before they cause significant damage. The preventive maintenance feature of the program could conceivable extend the lifetime of a hard drive. 6. Product Disadvantages: a. Impatient users may object to the initial program execution of several hours. b. SpinRite II is completely incompatible with all Priam's EDVR.SYS drivers earlier than 5.0. Documentation provided by Gibson Research Corporation states that, "if SpinRite were used on a drive that is partitioned with an old EDVR.SYS, ALL DATA WOULD BE LOST." 7. Comments: The problems of low-level format fading could result in data loss and in denial of service. SpinRite II provides an excellent utility to include within any continuity of operations program. 2 I was particularly fascinated by the discussion of specific factors which cause format fading. If data written to the hard disk is permanent, what causes the fading of the low-level format? The operating manual and Gibson research reports offer these answers: (1) The electric current that escapes from the drive's head amplifiers is turned into a magnetic impulse by the read/write heads and softens the data bits unlucky enough to wind up underneath the heads when the drive is turned off. (2) Although every attempt is made to keep a disk drive's heads from accumulating any residual magnetization of their own, some magnetism accumulates on a drive's heads after months of use. The weak latent magnetism, when combined with the operation of the stepping motor armature which positions the heads over the proper track, couples into the surface of the disk platters. This further softens whatever magnetic information happens to lie underneath. (3) The gradual drifting in the alignment of the drive's heads affects the drive's ability to find sectors in question because the sector's original low-level format has never moved to keep up with the drive's drifting alignment. (4) The phenomenon of "floating defects", so named by Gibson Research Corporation, may eventually result in the loss of storage reliability. (5) Catastrophic format damage may occur through accumulated age of the equipment, a sudden power failure during use, a disk controller failure, or an untimely system reset. Running SpinRite II on a periodic basis may be an ideal preventive maintenance procedure, particularly when many organizations are riding a Roller Coaster in trying to find ADP acquisition funds for replacement of aging personal computers. [The opinions expressed in this evaluation are those of the author, and should not be taken as representing official Department of Army positions or a commercial endorsement.] 3 ------------------ RFC822 Header Follows ------------------ Received: by internetqm.llnl.gov with SMTP;26 Jan 1993 21:06:01 U Received: from icdc.llnl.gov by icdc.llnl.gov (PMDF #12441) id <01GTZLI6N2YOERWQ9W@icdc.llnl.gov>; Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:05 PST Received: from pierce.llnl.gov by icdc.llnl.gov (PMDF #12441) id <01GTZLHNRDG0ERWQ9V@icdc.llnl.gov>; Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:05 PST Received: by pierce.llnl.gov (4.1/LLNL-1.18/llnl.gov-05.92) id AA16325; Tue, 26 Jan 93 20:58:32 PST Received: from WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL by pierce.llnl.gov (4.1/LLNL-1.18/llnl.gov-05.92) id AA16273; Tue, 26 Jan 93 20:55:28 PST Received: from wsmr-emh03.army.mil by WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL with TCP; Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:54:39 -0700 (MST) Resent-date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:05 PST Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 21:42:00 MST From: Chris McDonald STEWS-IM-CM-S Subject: Product Test 18 Resent-to: BILL_ORVIS@QUICKMAIL.llnl.GOV To: orvis%llnl.gov@wsmr-simtel20.army.MIL Resent-message-id: <01GTZLI6N2YOERWQ9W@icdc.llnl.gov> Message-id: <9301270455.AA16273@pierce.llnl.gov> X-Envelope-to: BILL_ORVIS@QUICKMAIL.llnl.gov X-VMS-To: IN%"orvis%llnl.gov@wsmr-simtel20.army.MIL" ======================================================================