Re: Need disk error checker for Windows XP

"Mike Easter" <[email protected]> wrote in message 
news:[email protected]...
>
> SpinRite and ScanDisk are entirely different types of products. ScanDisk
> replaces the original DOS CHKDSK command, which verified the logical
> file system structure of the hard drive (the newer CHKDSK command no
> longer performs that function). Microsoft created ScanDisk because
> people were switching off their computers without first exiting Windows.
> This resulted in corruption of the file system.
>
> ScanDisk can also perform a read-only "scan" of a drive's surface to
> check for any unreadable sectors which it will then remove from use by
> the file system. However, ScanDisk does not perform data recovery,
> maintenance, or surface analysis of any kind. Unlike SpinRite, it does
> no data pattern testing, defect scrubbing, data relocation or unreadable
> sector repair and recovery. ScanDisk was never designed to perform those
> functions.
>
> If your hard drives are acting up, the best thing to do is to run
> SpinRite first (a quick scan at level 2 is fine) to check for and repair
> any obvious read-trouble on the drive. Then, knowing that the
> "lower-levels" of the drive are okay, run ScanDisk to check and verify
> the "higher-levels" of the drive's file system. SpinRite is the best and
> only tool for long-term low-level data integrity maintenance, and
> ScanDisk is a useful free tool for checking the operating system's file
> system at a higher level. //

Mike, here's data that would indicate that SpinRite are not telling the 
whole truth (presumably in order to sell their product). Low Level 
formatting is done by the drive manufacturer and cannot be done by the OS - 
regardless of whether you use the built-in scandisk or any 3rd party utility 
that claims to do otherwise. Any problems at the Low Level cannot be "fixed" 
only the High Level stuff (which scandisk does anyway) so I really can't see 
any advantage (other than it possibly telling you slightly earlier that your 
HDD is fsked and needs replacing).:

<quote>
Hard drive manufacturers have created for modern drives replacements for the 
old LLF utilities. They cause some confusion, because they are often still 
called "low-level format" utilities. The name is incorrect because, again, 
no utility that a user can run on a PC can LLF a modern drive.
</quote>
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/geom/formatUtilities-c.html