Hi! I will give grml a try as the ntfs partition on my western digital elements usb drive has gone south. I can't get it back with testdisk so maybe some other tools might work. Thats why i was asking about spinrite. I really don't want to pay 10000 swedish crowns for getting a ntfs partition back. Though the files on that partition is really important to me. /A 30 dec 2013 kl. 14:59 skrev Janina Sajka <janina@xxxxxxxxxxx>: > 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 _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list