Hello all,
I am currently starting to amass a bunch of important data on my hard drive and was thinking if there was a proactive way in which i can maintain the integrity of my data. I was searching around and found a program which claims to do such a thing and more such as retrieve data and fix (certain types) of broken hard drives
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

I watched some of the videos and read some of the reviews and i must say i am very impressed with it

I was going to purchase it but i thought it best to ask if

1) Anyone has ever heard of the program

and/or

2) Does anyone have any recommendations on a similar program

Thanks in Advance
Eddie

The most common-sense proactive way is: BACKUP your important data to DVDs or external HDs on a regular basis.

All HDs are made to die in its own time just like every living beings

i_XpUser

There is only three sure way to ensure the integrity of data on a hard disk and that is BACKUP, BACKUP and BACKUP.

Programmes like Spinrite are good for getting you out of a hole.

Backups prevent you from falling into the hole in the first place.

Stuart

I agree with XpUser and StuartS.

For most of my computers, I have a "spare" HDD on the secondary IDE and have spliced a power switch into its power cable. Usually this HDD is not powered but about once a week I will clone the primary HDD to it using Ghost 2003.

You should also turn off your computers and use a power strip to protect your systems when you are not at home. Power spikes/dips, heat, and electrical current being used is reasons drives fail. A drive that isn't powered up will last for years.

All this is useless if you don't backup also.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.

irst, i would like to thank all of you for replying to my question.

Second, I agree that all of you are correct

What i didnt mention is that i do backup the things of utmost importance like documents, music, picutures, etc...

BUT

The thing is that i have over 40 full length 8 GIG DVD movies that i bought and i like to copy them to my Home Theater PC along with all the video that is recorded onto it from the TV. It would be way to costly (Double) to be keeping backups of all of this on another HD so i would just like to know if there was a program that could kinda like tell me if something is going wrong and maybe fix it...
and yes i am aware of S.M.A.R.T but i am just looking around for other possible alternatives.

Thanks in Advance
Eddie