SpinRite - technical definition

A popular DOS-based hard disk analysis program for PCs from Gibson Research Corporation, Laguna Hills, CA (www.grc.com). It performs a series of tests to detect defects and causes the drive to move the data in failing sectors to its own hidden, spare sector pool. Supporting all types of drives including IDE, SCSI, Zip and Jaz, SpinRite has been widely used for years. It is written by Steve Gibson, noted throughout the world for his technical excellence.

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.