I have no beef with SpinWrite. I see no reason why we can't have multiple tools for particular tasks. However, the discussion was about the accessibility of the tool, a particular concern on this list, naturally enough. On that score, I think there's little question remaining that the native Linux tools prove the function required without presenting an accessibility challenge. Janina eric oyen writes: > spin rite is a nice tool for those who are computer users only. Us power users tend to get a bit more down and dirty with the hardware level codes than most. > > Badblocks has a couple of nice options that will allow you to mark off bad areas and write that info into a file that can also be used by mkfs when you go to make a new filesystem. These are utilities included by default in any Linux distribution. Also, all these utilities are command line and are quite accessible without the need of a special interface driver on a desktop. These are also available as command line utilities on just about every OS X machine around. Can't say that for windows. > > -eric > > On Dec 27, 2013, at 6:08 PM, Janina Sajka wrote: > > > > > Well, I still don't see that it does anything special. For instance, if > > you're worried about bad blocks, the command badblocks is perfectly > > useful for just that. > > > > Janina > > > > Tim Chase writes: > >> On December 27, 2013, Janina Sajka wrote: > >>> use standard Linux tools, e.g. e2fsck and the > >>> smartmontools like smartctl. > >>> > >>> This approach is fully accessible. > >>> > >>> So, what does spinWrite give you that you can't do per the above? > >> > >> Spinrite operates on the drive at the hardware level rather than > >> filesystem-level (checked by e2fsck) or partition level. I'm less > >> familiar with smartctl, but it appears to offer some overlap in > >> functionality with Spinrite. > >> > >> In a way, the basic first level scan could possibly be replicated with > >> "dd", reading the entire drive (/dev/sda) rather than a partition > >> (/dev/sda1) and dumping the results to /dev/null which would force > >> the drive to read every byte. This triggers the drive to look at > >> every byte, check the drive's integrity at that location, and let > >> the hardware move the data in the event that spot is getting hard to > >> read. Based on the manpage, it sounds like smartctl might offer > >> some similar functionality. Beyond that, I believe that Spinrite does > >> more aggressive scans that will persist in an attempt to read data, > >> even when the drive returns hardware errors, and can actively talk to > >> the drive controller to move that data elsewhere in the event it had > >> trouble, then mark the blocks as bad at the hardware level. > >> > >> Again, I'm only taking a stab in the dark based on the tidbits I've > >> picked up on the SN podcast (which is well worth a listen, IMHO). > >> I've never used the product, but at least the guy who wrote it seems > >> to know what he's doing and make difficult technological topics > >> accessible. > >> > >> -tim > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Blinux-list mailing list > >> Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > >> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > -- > > > > Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200 > > sip:janina@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > Email: janina@xxxxxxxxxxx > > > > Linux Foundation Fellow > > Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup: http://a11y.org > > > > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) > > Chair, Protocols & Formats http://www.w3.org/wai/pf > > Indie UI http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Blinux-list mailing list > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > _______________________________________________ > Blinux-list mailing list > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list -- Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200 sip:janina@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Email: janina@xxxxxxxxxxx Linux Foundation Fellow Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup: http://a11y.org The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Chair, Protocols & Formats http://www.w3.org/wai/pf Indie UI http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/ _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list