[gentoo-user] Re: [Waaay OT] Defrag tool for windoze

[Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com>]

On 2010-11-16, J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org> wrote:

>> spinrite claims to make the head do other things than what the drive
>> firmware makes it do.

I'm afraid I'll have to call bullshit on that.  I don't see how some
bit of PC software can make a drive head move.  The firmware on the
drive controller board is the only thing that can make the head move.
Does spinrite claim they _replace_ the drive firmware with their own
custom version?

Where does Spinrite's claim they can do override drive firmware?

I don't see any claims like that on their web site?

>> Meaning that spinrite can extract data that the drive itself in
>> normal conditions cannot. This reasoning is sound.

I've no problem with the reasoning.  I, however, don't accept the
premise.

> True, provided it actually knows HOW to override the firmware on all
> drives currently in use...

I doubt that it can.

>> Remember that a drive is an analogue device, not a digital one (only
>> the *output data* is digital).
>
> Ofcourse, but is the head actually sensitive enough to be able to
> cooperate with this? Professional data recovery companies actually
> take out the platters and use their own drive-heads to get the data
> out.
>
>> There is some doubt as to whether spinrite can even function in this
>> wise with modern drives though.
>
> Yes, and that's exactly my point. Something that overrides the drives
> firmware can, in my view, easily brick the drive.

If spinrite is replacing the drive's firmware, then in theory they
might be able to do something "extra", but I'd say the odds of them
being able to reverse-engineer enough the drives out there enough to do
their own custom firmware for all of a significant number of them is
pretty close to 0.

Besides, their web site explicitly states that they can't do low level
formatting, they run under DOS, and that they can only use drives that
are recogized by the mothoerboard BIOS.  AFAICT, they're just using
the normal IDE/ATA API and are doing nothing extraordinary.


-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! Hey, wait
                                  at               a minute!!  I want a
                              gmail.com            divorce!! ... you're not
                                                   Clint Eastwood!!