Definition: SpinRite

A DOS-based hard disk analysis program from Gibson Research Corporation. Introduced in 1987, SpinRite finds defects and moves the data in failing sectors to its own hidden, spare sector pool. Supporting all drives including IDE, SCSI, Zip and Jaz, SpinRite was written by PC guru Steve Gibson.

As of SpinRite 6, the utility supports all file systems, including NTFS and Linux. SpinRite can also low-level format old MFM, RLL and IDE drives without erasing data. It rewrites only sector ID, which may have drifted over time. SpinRite comes with the open source FreeDOS so that it automatically boots from a disk image or other bootable media.

SpinRite

Widely used for years, SpinRite provides a wealth of information about a hard disk. (Image courtesy of Gibson Research Corporation.)