I have spinrite. Think it was $100. For what it is, it is not a bad tool. It does break a few data recovery NEVER, EVER, rules. Spinrite tries to modify the broken disk. In data recovery, this is NEVER allowed. Trying to write to an already broke disk will probably break more sectors or destroy the head. Use spinrite for bit-rot prevention. Besides that, I don't see much use for it. Of course, there are thousands of happy customers who swear by it. If they just ...
If you backup and restore your computer(s) from time to time, the entire bit-rot issue is handled. Heck, backups that read the entire disk force the HDD to access and see which bits are having issues. This allows the HDD to take corrective action before any problems that impact users are seen.
Spinrite doesn't work on HDDs over 2TB in size. That is really frustrating when you have a full 4TB HDD and it stops at 2TB.
This is bad:
Code:
197 Current_Pending_Sector with a RAW_VALUE of 49
I would clone everything I could using ddrescue to a newer HDD ASAP. I would not have the disk powered for any other purpose than while it is being cloned. After the cloning finishes, then I'd use that disk for any data recovery efforts. When cloning, try to use either SATA or eSATA connections, rather than USB. SATA and eSATA have the full ATA command set, which isn't available to USB storage. For data recovery, it matters.
Once you've tried to recover a system using testdisk, you'll decide to have backups from then on. You'll see why very quickly. Backups are 1,000,000x easier than getting data using testdisk.
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