Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:47:02 -0500 (CDT) From: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: fsck on FAT32 filesystem? Message-ID: <201207181247.q6ICl2ev063084@mail.r-bonomi.com> In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1207171902020.1625@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl>
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> From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Tue Jul 17 12:06:29 2012 > Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2012 19:02:19 +0200 (CEST) > From: Wojciech Puchar <wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> > To: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com> > Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: Re: fsck on FAT32 filesystem? > > >> > >> > >>> Surely SpinRite is "more clever" than that, > >> i would bet otherwise. simple tools and free tools are always better > > > > You continue to demonstrate that you "don't know what you don't know". > > are you another sponsored by some "recovery tool" commercial producer? What I am is an information systems professional with 45 years experience. including 30 years with Unix, who does not suffer ignorant, ill-informed, and arrogant, fools gladly. You make pronouncements of your *opinions* as though they are God-given fact -- even on things which you _don't_ have actual knowledge. You're entitled to have opinions, *BUT* the "Gospel According to Wojciech" is -not- 'the answer' for everybody, in every situation. *IF* you ever learn that, realize that there _are_ other =legitimate= viewpoints on matters, and qualify your statements with things like 'in my opinion', 'this might help', 'have you considered trying' -- as opposed to dictating what the reader must do, *especially* when you have missed critical facts in the question you are responding to -- Then, and *ONLY*THEN*, are people likely to give your opinions about how to do things any serious consideration. Case in point, your "I would bet otherwise" -- an implicit admission you *don't* know how SpinRite actually works. How much hard cash, US dollars, do you have to 'put your money where your mouth is"? Alternatively, you can admit you were blowing bullshit -- that your words were merely uninformed speculation, with no actual basis in fact. As for my subject-expertise -- I have, personally, _written_ stand-alone code that directly interfaces with hard-controller disk chips -- for purposes of evaluating the condition of damaged hard-disks. I've had clients come to me for advice on data-recovery, having suffered catastrophic damage to their only copy of what was truly 'mission critical' data. (No, they weren't existing clients -- if they had been, proper back-up procedures would have been in place, and the disk crash would have been a 'non-event'.) I have successfully recovered _every_byte_ of data from a damaged "State of The Art Compression" compressed disk volume, using custom device-driver code that I wrote. I've had clients that decided it WAS 'worth it' to pay one of the 'kilobuck per megabyte of recovered data' (actual price) "Class 25 clean room" recovery services -- where the damage to the drive was such that *ANY* attempt to access anything on the drive would cause more damage. Using "'simple, free tools", like your 'dd' recommendation, would (a) not have been successful, and (b) *greatly* reduced what would be recoverable by the clean-room facility. Your assertation that "free tools are always better" is pure, unadulterated bullshit. For 'simple' situations, they _may_ be adequate, or may not. When there are various kinds of _serious_ problems, even -attempting- to use tools like 'dd' (or SpinRite, for that matter) can/will make things FAR worse. Drive disassembly and platter cleaning _must_ be the first t hing done in such situations. _For_the_price_, SpinRite provides an amazing level of functionality. circa 85-90% of what high-end professional tools costing 100x more can do. It's not a FUS, but it is incredible 'bang for the buck', and does things that *NO* Unix 'userland' application can do in reconstructing damaged data. SpinRite _will_ recover data in a lot of situations where the 'dd' approach is "less than effective". Situations where SpinRite is ineffective, _and_ the "clean room" approach is _not_ required, are rare. It's not perfect, it won't fix "everything", but it is an incredibly inexpensive step up (and a *LARGE* step up) from the 'dd' approach. If the 'dd' type approach you you recover 'what you need' that's great. If _not_, SpinRite should probably be the 'next step'. If it _doesn't_ work, the cost/time for trying it is 'inconsequential petty cash', elative to the cost of the _next_ approach. And, if it -does- work, it paid for itself, a hundred times over, by saving the cost of the really expensive approach. "Cheap insurance' even at several times the retail price.help
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