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| What is SpinRite? | For those who know 6.0 | S.M.A.R.T. Details |
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How do I know whether SpinRite will work for me?
What drives does SpinRite run on? What does it need?
SpinRite runs on any PC compatible system with an Intel or AMD processor, a color screen and BIOS support. SpinRite will not currently run on ARM-based PCs, though that may change in the future. Today's SpinRite v6.1 needs a 32 or 64-bit processor but an earlier version v5.0 of SpinRite is available to v6.0 owners who might need to run SpinRite on ancient 16-bit 8086/80286 systems and/or monochrome screens.
SpinRite is self-contained. It includes its own bootable FreeDOS operating system. It can be used on any operating system and any file system. It focuses upon a spinning or solid-state mass storage device's physical storage media, not upon the file system that manages that media. SpinRite's users often use it to pre-qualify and certify unformatted hard drives before their first use. Drives on any non-PC platforms may be temporarily relocated to a PC motherboard for data recovery, maintenance and repair by SpinRite. Although a direct parallel (PATA) or serial (SATA) connection is best, USB connections can be used when necessary.
Is BIOS support required?
Yes. Many UEFI systems offer BIOS support. SpinRite v6.1 is an application that runs from the DOS operating system, and DOS can only boot from a BIOS or BIOS-compatible firmware. Therefore some form of BIOS support is required. Since the BIOS was the original PC firmware, all older PCs support the BIOS and many newer PCs continued to offer BIOS compatibility even after they switched to UEFI firmware. Since this raises the question of whether any specific system will boot DOS and run SpinRite, GRC created the BootAble freeware to answer that question for anyone on any system. If BootAble will boot SpinRite will too.
I purchased and downloaded the SpinRite program file. Now what?
The SpinRite executable program can be run under Windows or DOS. When it's run under DOS, you get SpinRite itself. When it's run under Windows you get a program that will create bootable media, typically a USB thumb drive, that SpinRite will formatted and make bootable. When you boot a PC from that drive, SpinRite itself runs.
So after you download the SPINRITE.EXE program, run it under Windows to have it create a bootable USB thumb drive, or other bootable media of your choice. Then restart the target system, booting it with the SpinRite bootable media to start the FreeDOS operating system which will automatically run SpinRite under FreeDOS.
I lost my copy of SpinRite. Can I get another?
Yes. Your purchase receipt — which you should try not to lose — contains your purchase transaction code. You may visit our customer service page at any time to enter your purchase transaction number. This will re-display a copy of your original online receipt containing a fresh software download link you may use to retrieve the latest version of our software. You may do this whenever you need to.
If you have also lost your original purchase receipt you may write to us at to have us look up your previous purchase and provide your transaction code. With your request, please provide the eMail address you used at the time of your purchase so that we may locate your previous purchase record.
How fast is SpinRite?
The best answer is “SpinRite is very fast but today's drives are very large.”
The “Quick Format” was invented because no one wants to wait while the operating system painstakingly scans an entire multi-terabyte drive to verify that all of its media can be read without error. But that is exactly what SpinRite does. It's SpinRite's entire purpose. So, yes, it's going to take a while. SpinRite v6.1 has so dramatically improved SpinRite's earlier performance that it's owners who have upgraded often express their amazement over how fast v6.1 is. But still, it's fast only in comparison to earlier versions and there's just no way around the fact that reading several trillion bytes of data is going to take a while.
SATA: For drives that are directly connected to the system's motherboard through a parallel (PATA) or serial (SATA interface, v6.1 now runs as fast as the drive can possibly go. And that's pretty fast. A rule of thumb for modern SATA drives is about half a terabyte per hour which is two hours per terabyte. So a two terabyte drive would take around four hours.
USB: Many SpinRite v6.1 owners use USB to connect drives to PCs and SpinRite. v6.1 will be the last version of SpinRite to use the BIOS to communicate with USB-connected mass storage drives because the BIOS is a mixed blessing. USB is very convenient, but the speed of USB through the BIOS can vary from USB v3.0 style screaming speed to pokey USB v1.0 performance. We have seen drives running at their full speed through the BIOS. So the choice of machine is important if you plan to use SpinRite v6.1 with large USB-connected drives.
Can SpinRite low-level format my IDE, EIDE, SATA or SCSI drive?
No. Spinning hard drives lost their ability to be low-level formatted when external disc controllers were integrated into drives with the invention of IDE – which stands for Integrated Drive Electronics. The data tracks of modern spinning disc drives contain embedded head positioning servo information which eliminates the need for (and the ability to) low-level format drives. The problems low-level re-formatting once resolved no longer occur.
Does SpinRite support SMART?
Yes. SpinRite supports SMART (Self Monitoring And Reporting Technology) in an important way that nothing else has ever offered. The reason for this is that SMART provides dynamic monitoring and feedback about a drive's health, but this feedback is far more meaningful while a drive is being asked to work at reading and writing data. Much more useful information about the true health and robustness of a drive can be gained by monitoring the SMART system's feedback while the drive is under an actual workload. No other software has ever done this.
For more about SpinRite and SMART, please see our: “SpinRite's much smarter use of SMART” page.
Can SpinRite be used for preventive maintenance?
Yes. The key fact to keep in mind is that mass storage drives, whether they are spinning or solid-state, have no idea whether the data stored on their media can be successfully read back until they try. Drives only try when they are asked. So, SpinRite's primary function is to ask. Performing a level 1 or 2 read scan of a drive will allow SpinRite to show the drive where it might be having problems. If this is done before extreme measures are required for recovery any at risk data can be safely read and then stored elsewhere on the drive.
During the development of v6.1, many of SpinRite's testers discovered something quite unexpected: The front regions of SSDs were performing much more slowly than the other regions of those drives. A well-known problem with solid state storage known as “read disturb” provides the answer. The front of drives contain the operating system files which are infrequently written after being initially stored. Over time with repeated reading, the well-known problem of read disturbance can cause a dramatic reduction in read performance as SSDs controllers struggle to determine the proper value of “softened” data bits. The solution for this is simple: A SpinRite level 3 scan of an SSD will read and re-write an SSD's media to restore its stored bits to their original and proper values.
SpinRite v6.1 owners often report dramatic improvements in system performance after running a SpinRite level 3 re-write scan over their SSDs. SpinRite contains built-in benchmarking which makes before and after comparisons easy, but the different made in a system's boot time and other operations is often quite dramatic. The SpinRite v6.1 testimonials have typical reports.
How often should SpinRite be used for preventive maintenance?
This is mostly a matter of personal taste. For example, how often should data be backed up? Modern mass storage drives are far more reliable than those of several decades ago. So a general rule of thumb would be to run SpinRite every six months or so. If a machine seems to be running slower, or appears to stall while it's working, the culprit could be a region of its mass storage that's taking much longer to read. A SpinRite level 3 scan will resolve such problems.
Is it possible to recover data from a crashed hard drive?
That depends entirely upon “how crashed” the drive is. But SpinRite has a very long history of performing “true miracles” of data recovery. Please read some of the true-life SpinRite testimonials we have received to get a sense for what SpinRite has done and can probably do for you if you ever need it. It is obviously possible for a drive to be so totally dead that it is only useful as a door stop. But today's modern drives struggle to stay alive and to die slowly. So if they are given some periodic SpinRite maintenance you should have plenty of warning of impending failure and also the ability to keep the drive alive until it can be replaced.
Professional data recovery services exist for a reason. By swapping out defective circuit boards or read/write heads, 3rd-party services can often succeed where no software-only solution possibly can. But this possible success comes at a high cost and we've heard that many such services begin by using SpinRite, themselves, first. So you may be able to do the same and save yourself thousands of dollars.
Is it normal for SpinRite is work on one spot for a long time?
The best answer is, it's not abnormal. As shown by the countdown timer at the top of SpinRite's screen while it's working to recover a sector's data, it may spend up to five minutes on a single sector. And if that sector is one of many that cannot be read, this can add up. SpinRite's command-line options can be used to reduce and even eliminate its data recovery efforts if the data on a drive is less important than the repair of the drive itself. SpinRite will not spend any more time than it needs to, though it can be quite stubborn about recovering everything it can since, unless you instruct it otherwise, that's what it assumes you want.
How can SpinRite v6.1 owners obtain v6.0 or v5.0?
Although it's increasingly rare for anyone to need diskette recovery, that turned out to be SpinRite v5.0's specialty and to make room for all of v6.1's new technology, all support for floppy diskette recovery was removed from v6.1. So if any SpinRite owner should ever need to recover endangered data from a diskette, nothing known is better able to do that job than SpinRite v5.0. Note that if such recovery is needed, using a diskette drive built into an older PC is superior to using a USB-attached drive. USB will work, but a built-in drive (after cleaning its heads with a floppy drive cleaning disc) is best.
To obtain and download SpinRite v5.0 or v6.0 instead of v6.1, all you need to do is change the filename in the software download link from “spinrite.exe” to “sr5.exe” or “sr6.exe” To do that:
What's the best way to get more help?
Email: We stand behind our commercial products and freeware offerings and provide email support. Any pre- or post-purchase customers are invited to write to our technical support services at any time by addressing email to .
Search: For immediate self help, the entire contents of this website and GRC's very active information-packed web forums may be instantly searched using the search feature of the top-right of every GRC webpage. (Click to jump to the top of this page.)
Web forums: And speaking of GRC's web forums, another source of immediate help and advice are GRC's very active web forums at “forums.grc.com”. These forums are frequented by many very knowledgeable SpinRite users and enthusiasts and you can find an answer to any question there. Membership is only required before you post your own questions or comments. No membership is required to explore the forums' extensive content and search over there.
What are SpinRite's 5 operating levels?
SpinRite provides 5 overall operating modes which can be thought of as levels:
SpinRite defaults to Level 2 because it scans mass storage media at the fastest rate possible to find any trouble spots on the drive. If the drive reports any trouble reading a sector, even if that sector’s data was corrected by the drive, SpinRite will pause its forward scan to rewrite that sector’s data. This will usually repair the bits that triggered the need for error correction. If several attempts to read a sector fail, SpinRite will engage its “DynaStat” (Dynamic Statistics) data recovery and begin working to obtain a fully corrected sample of the sector’s data. It will stop the instant it’s able to obtain -- or to calculate -- the data, or after five minutes of work on a single sector. If it is never able to obtain all of a sector’s data, DynaStat will recover as much of the sector’s data as possible and will rewrite the sector with the improved mostly-recovered data.
Level 1, (the level below level 2), performs the same whole-drive scan as Level 2, but Level 1 will only note, on screen and in SpinRite’s log, when trouble is encountered. In other words, Level 1 is prevented from performing any data recovery, and no data recovery occurs.
Level 3 does everything Level 2 does, but in addition to performing targeted recovery and repair of troubled sectors, Level 3 always rewrites the data of the entire drive. This is valuable for all mass storage media, whether or not it spins, but it should be done sparingly on solid-state media which can be fatigued by unnecessary writing. Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) drives also function best when they are selectively written. That said, running a level 3 pass on an SSD will strengthen the storage of its data before it can become unreadable and will restore its original factory-fresh speed.
Level 4 adds an optional final reread after level 3’s reinforcing rewrite. This is probably unnecessary and it will slow down SpinRite. But if you wish to be double-extra sure about the final readability of your drive’s data, Level 4 will add that extra bit of assurance.
Level 5 is the deepest and slowest of SpinRite’s five levels. After reading and possibly recovering a region of a drive’s data, Level 5 will invert it (flipping all 1 bits to 0, and all 0 bits to 1) and write that to the drive. Then it will read what it wrote to make sure all of the sectors are readable without error. Then it will flip all of the bits back to their original values, write that, then reread it. This extra writing and reading of data gives SpinRite and the drive additional opportunities to detect and remove any defective spots.
Which level should be used?
Level 2 is just as fast as level 1 unless problems are found, in which case SpinRite will slow down to recover and repair any damaged sectors. So level 2 should be the standard level used.
Level 3 is useful to fully refresh a drive’s storage media. This benefits both spinning and solid-state drives, though any level above 2 should be used sparingly on any solid-state or SMR drives.
Level 4 will be slower than level 3 by adding another full read following level 3’s rewrite.
Level 5 is the “deepest” level for use when a drive really needs to be exercised and the time can be spared to do that. (It’s not possible to read, write, read, write, then read many trillions of bytes of data quickly. SpinRite v6.1 can now do that at a drive’s absolute maximum speed ... but it’s still going to take a while.)
What are SpinRite’s command line options?
SpinRite’s command line options can be used to alter its settings and default operation, such as its operating level or DynaStat’s maximum per recovery running time. Command line options can also be used to automate SpinRite’s operation by skipping user-interface interaction by selecting drives, starting and ending locations and more.
Note that the alphabetic case of tokens is ignored so “auto”, “AUTO” and “AutO” all work. Tokens may be separated by a space, a comma, or preceded by a “/”.
In the on-screen drive listing and in the table printed by the LIST command, the column titles and the values underneath them may be used to select drives:
After selecting a drive on the command line its starting and ending locations may be specified as a percentage by using a decimal point or by sector number by starting with the '#' pound sign. See the next question for examples.
What are some example command lines?
SpinRite list
Run SpinRite to obtain a list of the system’s drives which is dumped to the screen to serve as a reference for other command line parameters.
SpinRite auto both level 2 port 0 exit
Automatically run SpinRite at level 2 on the SATA drive attached to AHCI port 0. Benchmark the drive’s performance both before and after the run, then exit and return to DOS after all work is completed.
SpinRite auto before level 5 serial WXY4AD 0.0 5.0 exit
Automatically run SpinRite at level 5 on the first 5 percent of the drive (any drives) whose serial number begins with “WXY4AD” then exit and return to DOS.
SpinRite auto after level 3 size 4T 34.4821 exit
(Presumably) resume a previously interrupted level 3 run of SpinRite on the system’s 4 terabyte drive at the 34.4821% location of the drive and perform a benchmark afterward.
What about UEFI, USB, NVMe, and SpinRite’s Future?
Even though the upgrade from v6.0 to v6.1, after 19 years, was free at no-cost, we did not hold back features from today’s SpinRite. But for SpinRite to achieve our future goals, such as to exactly locate “slow spots” on magnetic or solid-state media (indicating the need for a targeted rewrite), to multitask by running on all of a machine’s mass storage devices at once, and to boot and run on UEFI-only systems, SpinRite cannot continue to run on DOS and BIOS in real mode.
SpinRite needs a mouse-based graphic user interface, access to all system memory, all processor cores, and protected mode. For those reasons and more, it’s time for SpinRite to leave DOS and the aging BIOS and switch to its own native operating system.
SpinRite has a bright future running under Windows and RTOS-32. See SpinRite's Future page for details.
How can SpinRite speed up solid-state media?
As mentioned earlier, an Internet search for “read disturb” reveals that just reading from solid-state media disturbs the nearby stored data. “Disturb” means that the 1’s and 0’s become somewhat less certain. More work is then required for them to be read correctly and may require invoking error correction and multiple internal retries to read. This slows down the reading even though the correct result is finally obtained. We can measure this slowdown, which is usually much worse at the front of the drive where the operating system and static data has been stored. By refreshing the data on a solid-state drive, SpinRite strengthens the 1’s and 0’s, making them faster to read... “like new.”
Is SpinRite useful and safe for solid-state (SSD) media?
Useful? Oh yes! One of the major motivations for SpinRite v6.1 was the many reports we received from SpinRite v6.0 users sharing their stories of successful data recovery of solid-state media of all kinds – from thumb drives to SSDs. Even though magnetic and solid-state storage technologies could hardly be more different, the inevitable pressure to cram more bits into less space forced engineers to make many of the same density vs reliability trade-offs. The result is that mass storage works well enough most of the time but not perfectly all of the time. SpinRite can keep an eye on mass storage reliability and come to the rescue when needed.
Since writing to solid-state FLASH media slightly fatigues the storage medium, data should only be written when necessary. Unfortunately, “when necessary” is a judgement call. Rewriting data before it becomes unreadable and cannot be recovered is clearly necessary. But rewriting regions of a drive to increase its performance (explained previously at some very small cost of its life) may not be necessary... but it may be desirable.
So this creates a conundrum: We know that a faster drive is a healthier drive because accumulated “read disturbance” reduces a drive’s performance and may eventually render some areas unreadable. So being slow is not just an inconvenience, it could be an early warning of future failure. Such a failure may be preventable by reading and rewriting that region before its data degrades to unrecoverability. But when exactly is that?
There is currently no way to know; this is something future releases of SpinRite will explore. Until then, if a SpinRite benchmark on a solid-state drive shows significant nonuniform performance at its front, middle or end, a single level 3 “rewrite” pass across the drive’s slower region has repeatedly been shown to restore that region’s performance. Its performance will be restored because its data would then be “more firmly stored”, allowing it to be read more quickly. Before and after benchmarks will confirm this increased performance and a healthier drive.
Should anything be done after running a Level 3 rewrite on an SSD?
SSDs optimize their performance and their life by tracking which blocks have been written with file system data and more importantly, which blocks are empty. Since running SpinRite at level 3 rewrites all of a region’s blocks – even if they do not contain file system data – an SSD’s empty-block tracking (known as TRIM) should be reset after running SpinRite above level 2. This is known as TRIMMING and all operating systems do this automatically from time to time. Windows uses the “Disk Optimize” tool to do this weekly, but it can be used immediately after an SSD is placed back in service. Linux users should look at the “fstrim -v” command and Mac users may use “sudo trimforce enable” from the terminal.
Since all operating systems periodically re-TRIM SSDs no specific action needs to be taken unless SpinRite's user wishes to tidy up after running one of SpinRite's higher levels (3 to 5) over an SSD.
What are SpinRite’s limitations with USB & NVMe drives?
Since we were unable to incorporate native support for USB & NVMe drives into SpinRite 6.1 (which future releases of SpinRite will have), SpinRite v6.1 continues to use the system’s BIOS firmware to access USB and NVMe drives. The use of the BIOS may impose limitations on drive size and performance which low-level device drivers will not have. USB drives in external enclosures often contain standard SATA drives. So if the recovery of data from such a drive is critical, and if it is feasible to remove a drive from its enclosure to directly attach it to a standard SATA port, the BIOS can be bypassed and SpinRite will be able to access the entire drive natively and at the drive’s maximum speed.
Although USB was designed for “hot plugging”, where drives may be attached and removed at any time, BIOS firmware has never supported this convenience. Therefore, it is necessary to attach any USB drives to the computer before the system is booted. This will allow the BIOS to discover those drives at boot time so that they will be available to SpinRite.
Why are USB keyboards sluggish when using SpinRite on a USB drive?
A USB drive may consume nearly all of the USB connection so that the system may be slow to recognize the keystrokes produced by USB-connected keyboards. SpinRite checks for any pending keystrokes without slowing down the USB drive, but some lag in keyboard response is unavoidable and should be expected due to USB contention.
Does SpinRite v6.1 still check floppy disks?
No. SpinRite v6.1 removes all support for floppy diskette data recovery. The limitations imposed by real mode DOS required us to make room for v6.1’s new features. Since diskette recovery consumed a large amount of space and is seldom (if ever) needed today, it was completely removed from v6.1. However, all SpinRite 6.1 users are entitled to use their licensed copies of v6.0 and 5.0 which retain full diskette data recovery capabilities. SpinRite v5.0 is preferred, and it’s safe to say that v5.0 provides the best floppy diskette data recovery ever created.
Which drive is “C:”?
One of v6.1’s significant improvements is its ability to work with any file system format by treating all drives as unformatted collections of data. Since the drive’s health and the integrity of its data are independent of what the drive is storing, SpinRite operates on the drive’s physical media without regard for, or limitation of, any file system. This means that SpinRite lists and operates on whole drives rather than individual partitions – or no partitions at all. This makes it safe, for example, for use on drives that have been removed from RAID arrays for individual data recovery.
Why are some drives shown in RED in the drive list?
SpinRite highlights drives in red when a serious problem will or may prevent the drive from working with SpinRite. Attempting to select the drive for use will display an explanation of the drive’s condition which may or may not be possible to ignore. This may be optionally bypassed at its user's discretion.
SpinRite is making lots of annoying noises. Can I shut it up?
Yes. Simultaneously depressing and releasing both the left and right SHIFT keys will toggle SpinRite’s sounds off and on. You can also add the “quiet” term to SpinRite’s command line to start SpinRite in its quiet state.
| What is SpinRite? | For those who know 6.0 | S.M.A.R.T. Details |
| User Manual | Will it run on your machine? | Testimonials |
| FAQ | Purchase / Upgrade | The future | Sign-up for news |
Gibson Research Corporation is owned and operated by Steve Gibson. The contents of this page are Copyright (c) 2024 Gibson Research Corporation. SpinRite, ShieldsUP, NanoProbe, and any other indicated trademarks are registered trademarks of Gibson Research Corporation, Laguna Hills, CA, USA. GRC's web and customer privacy policy. |
| Last Edit: Aug 18, 2024 at 20:04 (89.28 days ago) | Viewed 151 times per day |