Since SpinRite needs full access to a system, it needs to be booted off a floppy disk or CD. Fortunately, SpinRite's download comes with easy-to-navigate menus to help you fabricate a start-up floppy or to make an ISO image, which you can burn into a CD using third-party software.

SpinRite uses FreeDOS to start up from either. The opening screen from SpinRite's Web site is seen here:

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Of course, you may have to force your system to boot from your floppy in BIOS. At present, SpinRite doesn't support USB drives when booting from floppy unless you manually add DOS drivers to the disk; that ability, too, is likely to be further addressed in an upcoming version.

After booting, you'll be presented with SpinRite's splash screen, during which application checks your system's hard drives to ascertain if Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) has been turned on in BIOS. An enhancement often found in today's hard drives, S.M.A.R.T. technology records hard drive errors and is able to predict hard drive failures about three-quarters of the time. SpinRite uses that data, if available, in its analysis if your hard drives, combined with other data that it gathers.

In this photo, in the lower right-hand corner, note the Detailed Technical Log showing specific hard drive findings.

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SpinRite offers five areas of activity, dubbed "Levels." The one you're likely to use most often is Level 2, which is designed for preventive maintenance. This provides basic testing features, and depending on the size of your drive, can take several hours for modern drives with gigabyte capacity in the triple digits. According to the documentation, SpinRite works at a theoretical maximum of about 120GB per hour, although a drive's defects, lack of Ultra DMA support, or external configuration can slow its work.

Fortunately, you can save your progress during a scan and restore at a later time.

Level 2 preventative maintenance progress. Click to enlarge

However, should SpinRite detect the need for repair because of data write/reading errors, the application will then begin working at Level 4 to fix the problems and recover data.

Level 4 is an intensive, painstaking procedure. As the application works to restore data, sometimes bit-by-bit, the process can take hours -- even longer than a day for severely damaged drives. SpinRite also has a Level 5, which will alert you prior to your hard drive failing. Sometimes, a Level 5 alert will be correctable in Level 4 maintenance.

SpinRite has a built in screen saver as it works, as well as other types of displays of it's progress. If your hard drive provides temperature readings, then SpinRite will also report this information as well during testing. Temperature may indeed rise as SpinRite tries to recover data.

Below is the ‘Level 5' screen was selected and settings are changed herein:

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While SpinRite works, one of the options available for viewing is called "DynaStat Data Recovery." This graphic represents data recovery down to a particular bit level.

The DynaStat. Click to enlarge

Large drive, and/or slower read/write drive times, require lengthier SpinRite sessions.