HDD Regenerator and Spinrite

As mentioned in an earlier post, we often receive fallen hard drives.

In many cases we can still do something, but some recent cases show a worrying evolution.

Many rumors are circulating on the internet that HDD regenerator or Spinrite are able to recover data.

However, this is not the case at all!

We now often see that customers who drop their drive first try to get it working again with HDD Generator or Spinrite. However, this is asking for disaster.

These programs scan a disk for bad sectors and then replace them with one of the spare sectors that are still available.

First of all, this means that the bad sectors are replaced by sectors that contain no data.

If that sector was in a document containing important data, then that document is irreversibly damaged. The equipment we use does not replace those sectors, so there are always opportunities to ultimately read them through fine-tuning, so that the data remains intact.

If this is done on a disk that has been dropped, then the read head will find bad sectors in the mechanically damaged areas of the disk. Naturally, the program makes repeated attempts to read that sector, causing the read head to hang over the damaged area. This causes it to collide with the mechanical damage and eventually form rings on the magnetic layer.

The released magnetic dust also scratches the other magnetic layers and ultimately we can't do anything anymore.

Are these programs worthless? No, but they are certainly not intended for data recovery. Only if you have a disk with some bad sectors can they be useful, and then only if there is no data on it or if you have a good backup. However, never use them if your hard drive has been dropped or taken a hit, because then you will ruin all chances of successful data recovery.