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Almost always heads and/or surface damage.

It is funny that you brought this up. I just got 2 consecutive projects with older Seagate drives, a 320GB 7200.10 (Date Code: 07396) and a 120GB 7200.9 (Date Code 06277), both with blown circuit boards and from different parts of the country. Both with critical business data, one with...

Could it have possibly created a new user account due to an issue with the old one? If so, your data could be in another user profile within the Users folder.

For a while, we used to recover data to our own internal drives on which we would send the data back to resellers. After they copied the data off, they would ship the drives back with the next project. Unfortunately, we were either not getting the drives back or they were coming back damaged...

This thread is more about GNU ddrescue, which is much better than dd_rescue. But, they run on similar concepts. As for the automatic power cycle, this is the shortfall of cloning software and thus why data recovery professionals invest thousands in data recovery imaging hardware such as...

I have a current version of PC3K-Flash and an outdated SoftCentre. Thus far, I've been able to recover most cases with my PC3K-Flash and, when I can't, I upload the dumps which are almost always recovered using SoftCentre. That said, I'm on the fence on whether to update SoftCentre or to get...

I've seen this before several times and although I initially thought it was a freezer effect, I learned that it was just the pattern etched into the surface from the heads scraping the surface off.

Up to now, there is no professional hardware solution that can handle PCIe SSDs. If you want to send it out to my lab, we'd be happy to see what we can do. But, the odds are, the controller has gone stupid and it is now past the point of return.

This is why I suggested to MRT to change their sales focus. Rather than try to pitch their systems as a low cost competitor to PC3000, they should be pitching it as a low cost spare system to relieve the stress from PC3000 system owners. Make it easy to not only convert a DE task from PC3000...

Are you sure you are dealing with the native ROM. Check the serial number stored in it to confirm that before wasting too much time on it.

Your best bet is to do a full scan for all jpg files and see if you can find the missing file by looking at the thumbnails. Recuva kind of sucks, I'd try R-Studio to see if you get a better result. But, as Jared stated, it could be that the file contents are no longer stored on the card.

Kind of blows the MRT update out of the water, doesn't it? Of course, I don't believe there are any annual fees to get MRT updates and (limited) support.

I just confirmed, the Restorer address is a UPS store address.

Both have an address on Yonge St, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. What are the odds that one isn't just a mailbox address for the other?

I'm sure Larry has mentioned it in the past

I just confirmed that R-Studio does work with the Apple File Vault quite nicely. Ironically enough, it works in Windows, but not with the latest version in MacOS.

I thought it was about time for me to post a pic taken with my $20 digital microscope on our custom built stand.

Can you provide me remote access to take a look?

Do you value the data on your drive. If it is a firmware issue, the cost for a pro would be low (~$300). If you try yourself and don't properly diagnose the root issue, you will likely kill the drive. That said, these drives are failing really bad these days. It is possible that it is toast...

Perhaps you aren't charging enough to do it right? Drobo is proprietary and very few support it. It would be at least $5K with Seagate and probably triple that with DriveSavers. If you aren't quoting at least $2K (preferably more), you are under charging. If the client says it's too much...

Probably a piece of cake after you get the drives cloned.

What are you studying in TO and at which institution. I run my lab up the road in Guelph and live in Cambridge.

This is assuming that they have a backdoor and it is being provided to the data recovery service division.

I'm updating the post as results come in and have linked to it on several different forums. Should I copy and paste the same information over and over again, all over the web. (Those who do, drive me nuts) If I saw a great blog on another site, should I copy and paste the contents of the blog...

How does it save time for me to post in multiple spots? If you want to see the results, you can go to where they are posted.

I'm running some tests on hard drive prepared by HDDOracle to compare the performance and imaging results of various hardware imaging tools for data recovery. I'm posting the results on the Recovery Force Data Recovery Forum, should you want to follow along.

It is annoying for data recovery guys, but if Seagate wants to sell a drive where a user can set a password without fear of easy hacking, it is what they have to do.

MiniTool is crap, though. At the very least, I'd recommend R-Studio, which will possibly show deleted files right away, without needing to scan the drive at all.

My guess is that it is a rebranded IS916 controller and should be recoverable.

Is there that much demand for these types of conversions that warrant so much spamming of our forums? I'm seriously thinking of blocking all India IPs from my forum, which would cut down the spam by 99%.

Must have one!!!

Here is a link to my first installment of several reviews: https://www.recoveryforce.com/mrt-review-part-1/

I was thinking higher density head can read lower density platter, but not the reverse.

I can confirm that Shrek LT heads are compatible with Shrek drives. However, the reverse is probably not true.

I just started a thread on their forum to discuss how they can improve their support.

No worries...I'll send the bill to Data-Medics for providing outdated information. ;)

You can try to run the following command as an alternative to hwinfo: >lshw --short | grep disk

Yeah...it can be frustrating, for sure. But, they all have their issues. The big question is, "are they willing/able to work with their clients to come up with a fix within a reasonable amount of time?"

It seems to me that you already have an MRT system. It is probable that these functions are still lacking, but don't forget that you chose to buy a system that is significantly cheaper than PC3000 and shouldn't be surprised that it won't be as good. I think we all (especially me) need to...

I've got a demo system for the purpose of me doing a review. Jump onto my forum and post anything you'd like me to test and comment about in my final review. https://www.recoveryforce.com/forums/vi ... f=25&t=279

Nice, in theory, if you only have a handful of PCBs. The jewell case idea is still a good one, if you have enough cases to go around, but the CD racks needed to store hundreds of of PCBs might require too much floor space.

Formatted and overwritten is lower odds. The second card, are you able to read it at all, or do you need chip off recovery?

What is the root cause for needing the recovery?

There is a free Linux command to calculate MD5

I plan to get back into listing my drives on http://www.mydonordrives.com by DeepSpar. It is very cool how I can connect a drive to the DeepSpar imager and it will populate the database with everything it can from the firmware, ie preamp information, SMART status, head map, serial number, etc...

When opening the task, there is a drop-down to change the source channel. If it can't find the destination drive where it expects it to be, it will prompt you to select it from a list.

Yeah...I wouldn't bother with the retries until you first get the good sectors cloned. Just be sure that your data is not worth a few hundred bucks, because it will likely cost a lot more after you fight with it and possibly kill it for good.

You need not make an image and a drive-to-drive clone...one should suffice. If going drive-to-drive, the destination drive must be the exact same sector size or larger. If going drive to image, the formatted partition on the destination drive must be large enough to hold the full capacity of...

Have you tried physically moving the ROM chip from patient to donor?

Are we 100% sure that the SATA PCB is healthy?

If you don't like the default headmap setting, change it to 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 in the ROM.

Isn't Edge better than Chrome? It must be, Microsoft said so.

The poor wording of the question screams another poorly worded response suggesting a sub-par data recovery software is to come.

You need not keep heads separated, other than the annoying times when they stick together...nothing good comes from it. I've certainly thought about just having spare heads sitting around like that, but because there are so many varieties, I'd think it would be a nightmare to keep track of...

It is not uncommon for these drives to have head and firmware issues. So, if the video is of significant value, you might be wise to just take it directly to a data recovery professional right away.

I suggest you consider outsourcing it to a lab with proper tools and experience rather than risk your client's data while you learn and play with cheap programs.

We understand that you don't have PC3K. The big question is, what tools do you have to work with?

I don't think ACE is loosing many clients to cheaper alternatives. If anything, it is the frustrations of the cheaper tools that make them appreciate ACE all the more when they make the switch. When people test the data recovery waters with these cheaper tools, it saves them money if they...

But, this is not practical for the data recovery world, as they mentioned in the blog. It is only practical if you know that the drive is stable and healthy which is very rare these days.

This is a silly time-wasting topic. At least you can post real advice here without getting banned, unlike some other forums who ban you if you even suggest that SpinRite or a freezer are bad ideas.

On the side of reusing heads, it is something we do as much as we can. We usually charge for donor heads, as it they cost us money to get in. However, we don't charge for the donor heads if they are a used set...sometimes we can recover 3 or 4 projects before the heads finally get damaged from...

That is why it was edited with an alternate text.

Unlike the garbage that I'm sure the spammer will eventually post as a different user, I recommend using R-Studio as a good well rounded data recovery program. :D

I can assure you all, base replace works. Used it last month and got almost a perfect clone.

If you are going to use tape, I don't suggest you do the flip over technique, as it is very difficult to put the platters back into a casing. It is better to make tape handles or a device to grab the platters out. If you want to use the technique by Scott, perhaps you should at least invest in...

You should alter the original post question and see if they even bother reading things through before they post the answer.

I prefer the google.ca search results.

You might want to contact a local data recovery professional who can assist you with getting your data recovered.

Unfortunately, they are too dumb to see that their efforts are being thwarted and will be back under another username making more posts before too long.

Can you post a picture of both sides of the SSD? Also, on the left side of your keyboard, there is a button labeled "CapsLock". Please tap it once and employ the shift key when needing a capital letter.

Out of curiosity, where are you located and what do you do?

I just added PreAmp to the column on my Seagate Headmap spreadsheet and am already seeing pre-amp mismatches where you'd expect to see them to be identical and being the same when you'd expect differences.

I intend to. I just created the document last week. So, I'd say that it is pretty up-to-date. If anyone wants to contribute, please feel free to fire me a line.

I have found that if the PCB has an external (U12) ROM and you write it to a PCB that has an embedded ROM or the other way around, it will result in bricking the drive. It also does not help if you write a 512K ROM onto a 256K chip.

Sadly, this company is likely to get new clients who have no clue that this is just a video made from photos and videos they stole from the internet and is, in reality, a sign that they have no clue what they are doing there.

I think you are safe to ignore the first character of the serial, if the site code is a match.

I've posted a google spreadsheet on my site for this. https://www.recoveryforce.com/seagate-h ... -headmaps/

As mentioned on Skype, I've seen at least one case with a drive ending in F, only having 5 of 6 heads, with head 0 being the missing head.

I had hired a guy with a PhD in MicroElectronics once who said it would be useful, so I bought him one. I don't think he knew how to use it. We've used it a few times since for testing thumb drive crystals, I do believe.

I suspect it will work...though, you will never know until you try.

So, you are using DDI FE to make an image file, right? They tweak the NTFS file system so that it mounts in Windows as read only, as per the request of many forensic clients. I've found that this "tweak" doesn't play nice with Windows 10 (and possibly 8), but can be undone by run a quick...

Seeing that Seagate owns Sandforce, I can't imagine ACE has any more connections than what they have. And, they were unable to recover the one test case that I sent.

Did you try to repair the library? https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201769

Kind of ironic, isn't it. Smartstore isn't very smart, using 1 sector block sizes.

When I'm sourcing a donor for a 3 head Hitachi, that is what I usually search for is a 4 head donor. Hitachi is very annoying in not having the same heads missing on drives that sometimes an exact match...right down to the day.

It probably wasn't working.

There is a difference between recovering a file name that points to random sectors on a drive and recovering the correct sectors which contain the actual file data. 1. Was anything written to the flash after the files were deleted? 2. What is the type, model and capacity of the flash device you...

There are times when the SSD portion of the SSHD is the cause of the issue. I think ACE is still trying to come up with a solution. But, that may or may not be your root cause, but it is possible.

The odds are, you are out of luck. You can try https://www.nomoreransom.org/ and see if they have a known solution yet.

Not a bad idea. Embed the cost of a new RapidSpar unit into your price quote, but be sure to include the Data Acquisition add-on.

If I were to go about it, I'd be using PHP and MySQL. But, my programming years are too many moons ago.

In theory, with all the SA modules backed up, you can revert back if the translator regeneration were to make things worse. But, using SD tools, I'm less confident. If you were using PC3K, I'd suggest running the slow responding fix to see if that helps. Unlikely, but I have seen it happen.

Yup, a few times. I've found that my best method, thus far is to park the heads on the outer edge of the platter, then remove the parking ramp so that I have room to use my tools to hold the heads apart and remove them with having them snag on the ramp.

I like how you edited that spam.

I wasn't sure...so I left it for you to decide.

How do you know that they are in "perfect" condition?

Match the full model, p/n, head map and country. Get the closest date possible.

When matching donors, I don't think I've ever compared microjogs and can't say that I've ever had any issues.

It is probable that the MFT records are lost and you will only be able to recover the files in a RAW format by file type. A common mistake users make is that the download, install and run the data recovery programs on the drive from which they are recovering.

Helpful for those who don't pay attention to what they are doing.

Server is down, I do believe.

Just sounds like they are using PC3K with DE and reading via utility with corrupt glist

Try head map 04 03 02 02

Post the head map of the drive, as shown in the utility.

Could be a head...did you play with headmap to see?

No...we are selling them trees we stole from Maine.

I think you may be over thinking this one. Basically Jared is suggesting that when the US no longer has forests of their own, they will just take over Canada for our trees.

...and our Prime Minister will be so stoned that he won't even care. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't already offered to sell us to the US. Trade you Quebec for Texas. ;)

I frequently get variations of this model of drive, almost all with stuck heads because they were dropped within the portable Seagate drive enclosure. Of those that weren't tampered with before we received them, at least 90% were recoverable at our minor recovery rate of $350 without a head...

In reality, it doesn't matter when just doing a straight clone. DDI just automatically goes to the 4096K sector size when it detects such a drive. Basically, by going to the larger sector size, each block will represent 8 physical sectors as 1 logical sector.

We spent a few hundred bucks on a bottle here. I can't say that it did much for us...outside waste a few hundred bucks.

Oh...now I get it. When the forum was moved from one server to another, some photo attachments were lost or damaged. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, Jared no longer has access to the original forum database.

I'm not totally sure what you are asking. Yes, we are able to recover data data from damaged WD Passports.

Sorry, but @LarrySabo gets first dibs.

How much are you offering?

The other issues with the franchise is that one mistake by someone else under your brand could be the end of your brand. It takes a long time to build enough skills to be able to claim to be a data recovery pro. I think you'd be better off merging/acquiring existing data recovery businesses...

How 'about the new models, "upside down turtle" and "beached whales"?

Although I've had several calls about Drobo recoveries over the years, I've yet to find anyone who thinks their data is worth our minor data recovery rates to send one in. As most Drobo users are using the unit because they don't value their data enough to get a real RAID or NAS, it seems...

We just made our PC3000 resource library available freely accessible on our website. You can PM me if you'd like the password.

Did you contact the admin for a password or are you trying "contact admin" as the password?

works fine for me

We recently did a 3TB WD drive recovery here that DriveSavers also gave up on and called unrecoverable. We recovered about 85% of the data, but it did require 3 head changes to get there.

Probably stuck spindle or heads.

I haven't looked at it for ten years...might be worth another peak.

I just got my kids a dog over the weekend. Don't think the city would approve of us having a horse in our back yard.

I can assure you that the HDRC stuff is a waste money. I ordered a full set years ago, they were so bad that they sent me a whole new set which was just as bad, if not worse. Two units that are supposed to be the same aren't even close and they look like they were made in art class by...

As far as I know, 300DDR has been doing this for quite a while. http://300dollardatarecovery.com/data-r ... alculator/ For me, I've just simplified my pricing, leaving no reason for calculations. $350, minor data recovery $700 + parts, major data recovery (head changes, platter swaps when...

Did you lookup the LED error code in the PC3000 Samsung Utility manual? What is the original issue? Why did you change the heads? Are you 100% sure the PCB is healthy?

Not for me...still up as far as I can see.

Yet, because I only have 8 PC3K channels, I do everything I can to push my imaging over to my DeepSpar imagers. I keep thinking about upgrading some of my older DDI3 units to DDI4 and then sell the DDI3 units. But, they just keep working, and I think it is better to add DDI4 units.

Watch out, here comes "Three Dollar Photo Repair"! ;)

I don't have that issue at all...though I do sometimes quote projects hoping that the client will turn it down, yet they still give the go ahead. But, it is very rare for me to have a client turn down my base rate.

Interesting thought...is that a normal feature on other forums?

We have a Synnex warehouse 5 minutes from us. I just order 5-10 at a time, stocking 1TB and 2TB portables, few larger desktop externals, and some thumb drives.

Just to follow up on this thread, yesterday was another unusual day with WD. 1. Shrek USB 3 drive with SATA donor, reads fine, no encryption 2. Two FBLite USB 3 drives with SATA donor, reads fine, no encryption 3. One 3TB MyBook, imaging directly without USB 3 bridge, no encryption It is weird...

Change the heads.

For me, stiction cases without head change is $350CAD and $700 + parts if head are damaged. Western Digital tend to have more issues with broken ramps and missing sliders...before we try to fee up the heads. We seem to be getting an average of at least 1 Seagate/Samsung 2.5" drive in with...

...and I spam this forum for the same reason. ;)

You can always come and spam my data recovery forum for the next few days. For those who are actual spammers...don't bother.

Seagate = unstable Sandforce = unstable Seagate + Sandforce = Data Recovery Nightmares

Seriously? Dmitri runs a tight ship, eh?

They may have a script to help moderate the forum...I think it went stupid.

PC3K SSD does not work with newer PCIe SSD drives from Macs...at least not to the level you are thinking.

Yup. Got to love the official representative of the drive manufacturer recommending running their diagnostic software on the dropped WD Passport. Even when the OP confirms that your diagnosis was the only one that was correct, the forum moderators slam you because you are challenging them on...

After you get the heads parked at the centre of the platters by the spindle, does the spindle rotate freely? It is not uncommon for Seagate's of that era to have seized spindles.

I've talked to many technicians with the same methods over the years. Sadly, their logic is that the cases that they cannot recover, nobody can recover (and it has nothing to do with their barbaric methods) so there is nothing wrong with it.

Seems quite busy, eh?

Just to follow up with this thread, for those who encounter a Seagate 7200.12 drive with these symptoms, you should stop powering the drive on and check in the the clean room right away. http://www.recoveryforce.com/seagate-72 ... d-crahses/

Find out how much the ransom costs, mark it up, quote the client, pay the ransom, decrypt the drive and tell the client that you recovered their data. Personally, I'm not really interested in getting into this...what happens of the paid-for software has something in it to infect your systems...

Install Anti-virus on your workstation?

It is two RAID 5 sets across all the drives, for sure. But, just like you can use LVM to make separate software RAIDs based on partitions, this controller does the same, but with a hardware RAID controller to manage it. I'm sure that if you were to jump to the offset 377487360K on all the...

Don't forget, this is mdadm's attempt to interpret Dell's perc raid meta data.

Isn't this where a new user suggests using Stellar o some other crappy data recovery software?

I require the clients to pre-approve our minimum charge, but we don't actually bill it until we complete the recovery. The only times we have up front fees are in cases of parts and special occasions where we have to physically clean the platters to go further with our assessment.

When you select to image by bitmap, it goes through the multiple passes to do so. It is likely defaulted to the last state, which is secondary pass, in reverse...at the front of the drive, which is pretty much done. I almost always use the second option in the image start process where I...

Someone who specializes only in SSD and Flash predicted that we will see success rates drop to under 25% as we move away from spindle based HDD. So, that will push a lot of data recovery labs out of business and, for those who are able to survive, their prices will have to increase significantly.

I thought this too, until I saw it with my own eyes, multiple times.

HDDGUY, I think you are missing the point. This is a case where the data is not encrypted by the processor and is still 100% accessible when converted to SATA. I'd say that this is the case for about 5% of the Passport drives we get.

I'm glad to hear that Jared was able to help you out.

5Gbps = 625MB/second 10Gbps = 1.25GB/second I thinking the fastest I've ever seen USB 3 push is about 200MB/second (about 1.5Gbps), usually less than 100MB/second (800Mbps). So, what is the point of offering 10Gbps if we cannot even come close to pushing the 5Gbps throughput? Is it just me...

Thanks...I'll give it a try.

The client did quite a number to this drive before we got it. Lots of damaged modules and I'm looking for compatible resources. This information came from the ROM >ROM Modules: >ROM version............................. : 02.0GD >ROM F/W version......................... : 0002000G >Overlay F/W...

Seriously? You thought that MS would include something useful in their OS? It seems to me that they are more likely to remove anything useful and replace them with features and apps we don't want.

Too bad, I would have told you that ages ago, had you asked.

I prefer to get work from paying clients than doing my own recoveries. That said, we usually have a system drive that fails every few months. It is rare that there is any data lost, but we usually recover the data just to get some config information and make sure that there isn't something...

There were no problems with the heads swaps. Matched model, serial, p/n and site, changed the heads, move adaptives (if needed) and clone.

I've only gone back a few weeks to get the list started and will try to post more as they roll through. Feel free to add to my list. http://www.recoveryforce.com/forums/vie ... f=12&t=157

Can you post a picture of the front and back of this drive?

It never occurred to me to make a screen shot of the final working settings with the RAID source. Moving forward, I will do the same.

I might be able to assist remotely, if you would like. Edit: Looks like you already had assistance with this one in another thread.

Usually users don't disconnect backup drives or even make a backup and the new OS blows away all connected devices. Simple recoveries, most of the time.

Yup...that fixed it for me too.

I'd like to say that it is broken for me too. This forum sucks!

Maybe it has some really high tech Chinese encryption to allow 500GB of data to be stored on an 8GB NAND.

The problem with Drobo and the likes is that they are selling themselves to users who cannot afford to buy a real server. So, the users are unable to afford the cost of a recovery from proprietary RAID configurations used. Basically, not worth looking at most of the time.

I find it easier to just deal with things as they come. But, when I discover something new, I add it to my internal FAQ for me and my staff to reference in the future.

Unfortunately, with most strains of the malware, there are usually only two ways to restore the data. Restore from backup or pay the ransom. As the majority of users don't have a backup, the ransom is the only solution. This leaves the end user with a choice (assuming that they need the data...

Yup, bing sucks...especially at giving local results. While sitting at my office searching for "data recovery", Recovery Force doesn't come up in the first 5 pages. Google has me at spots 1 & 3...which makes more sense than listing labs in the mid-west US. So, even if they paid you...

I've received the attachment twice, one as a resume.doc and another as an invoice.doc. I just posted a blog about it last evening at http://www.recoveryforce.com/e-mail-attachment-warning/

I had a case a couple years back where we received a RAID recovery from a re-seller who declined the quote. The client's server went down on Friday, we had the data recovered and ready to return to them Monday afternoon. A couple days later, we get a call from another reseller describing...

My experience with these drives, they either work or need a head change.

...if it is a RAID 1, then just copy the data from the working drive.

With SAS drives, I tend to find 1 of 2 issues: 1. Fatal head crash 2. Bad sectors I can't say that I have encountered a single case where it was a firmware issue. That said, it is bound to happen when we encountered SAS drives with damaged translators. But certainly not enough to justify the...

Why not just upload them to your actual WP site and then link to them there?

Look closely...there are no screws on top, as it is my understanding that these drives are completely sealed.

I don't recall ever seeing a USB only Passport without a U12 ROM. A quick read of the ROM from the USB PCB with PC3K via terminal should be enough to get it saved out. Program the donor SATA with the saved ROM. Then complete your diagnosis and recovery of the drive, keeping in mind that the...

"Add SEO 1115" Spammer? Really? I don't believe it.

It doesn't help that it grabs the listing information from Yellow Pages (at least here in Canada). Yellow Pages had my address incorrect for several years and it has only been a few months since they fixed it. But, according to Yahoo, we don't exist in Guelph. Yahoo and Yellow Pages need to...

I find that this practice is not exclusive to Tenorshare and is more the tactics of various SEO firms promising their clients "reputable links" and first page ranking in Google. Whether or not it is Tenorshare or some SEO firm representing them, it is Tenorshare who is ultimately responsible...

That is the wisest thing I think I have ever seen you post. ;)

Yup, the problem with templates. http://www.lunarstorm.ca/

I guess I had better start spamming your forum more often in order to get my ranking up.

As EaseUS is the only one in the list that I recognize, I can only imagine that the others are likely just as bad.

I must admit, I haven't spent much time with isobuster...never really thought of it for anything more than CD/dvd recoveries. Perhaps I should take another look...seeing I keep paying for updates.

I'm going with the assumption that the person who own R-Studio Tech and DeepSpar Imager with the network add-on must have a clue. I'm more interested in verifying that all the sectors of each file were read. If you want to throw in a header verification too, that would be nice. That said...

As R-Studio already seems to be identifying the files that have been fully imaged or not, I would say that you simply work with what you already have and just give us access to the field for filtering and searching.

It isn't cheap or easy to recover data from a database stored in the cloud...especially if the data has been deleted.

I just use jumper wires.

We charge a $100 fee to assess a previously opened drive.

As far as I'm concerned, EaseUS = Garbage. Even if their products have improved since I last tried them, their spamming is enough to keep them on my naughty list.

Of course, if it is cryptolocker 3.0, there is nothing you can do except pay the ransom, as I mentioned in a post on my forum. http://www.recoveryforce.com/forums/vie ... b8792#p172

Generally speaking...if the WD drive had a U12, it likely doesn't have a backup in SA.

That isn't data recovery...that is data destruction by someone who shouldn't be doing data recovery...assuming that they did the damage and not someone else.

I just had a 3TB DM come in that was already attempted by Ontrack that I was unable to recover as well. I posted a pictured of the client heads here.

Why not read the ROM from the original PCB?

For those who want such waivers, we have them supply the form and we sign it. It may be worth having our own blank draft.

Welcome Martin, Where in Germany are you situated? Luke

What if you get in for sharing my secrets?

If I find no error, I let the client know and offer to do a full backup to another drive for them and hold onto the clone for two weeks for $150. If they decline, we erase the clone as soon as the drive leaves our lab and if it was an intermittent issue that shows itself again, they pay the full...

Why not have a secure section for pc3k owners, the same for Deepspar, etc...and a sympathy section for SD owners

I think they all go to the count, even after deletion.

With over 900 posts being spam, does it really count?

It is for this reason I started the LinkedIn forum, "Data Recovery Pros". No end users or sales reps only out to annoy us with their posts.

I think this is tough to answer across the board...each program lacks different things. So, I just checked off integration with hardware imagers. But, even that is a little different than what I am thinking. It would be nice to bring up a file system on a drive that was cloned with DDI or...

You have to be kidding....you are not very smart, are you?

If you were able to get $5-10k for each job that requires such a system, it would make sense. But, most of the clients I get barely accept $1400 for head changes. Though, it may be worth partnering with my insurance contacts to get this system.

I had someone on my forum put a spammy post promoting EaseUS data recovery. I found their products to be crap and it reinforces to me that the only reason that they have an online presence as big as they have is because of their spam.

This looks like an Indian SEO post...in a couple days another user with the same IP range will post a link to their recommended site.

Not a bad deal seeing that the USB add-on is $1750 alone.

I sent a PM offering remote assistance (for a fee, of course).

Did you notice a proportionate increase to the number of phone inquiries and new projects? More web traffic is great, but it doesn't mean much if it doesn't translate to $$$.

This is not uncommon with Samsung drives...very large head maps, start with head 3 and almost always the first head is the bad one.

Now to get the family and model numbers cross-referenced.

Some people should just not own a computer.

I don't believe my boards are UEFI bios and they format GPT no problem.

The client has two choices, as I see it. 1. Pay to have the phone repaired so he can access and recover his files (no need for data recovery, this can be done by most cell phone repair centers). This may void his warranty. 2. Get the free replacement under warranty, but lose all his files

Yes you can, they added that feature a long time ago after I requested it. When you are logged in, there is a check box to filter your inventory in the search.

Really? They even include fields for microjogs. What specs would you require?

You can use DeepSpar's MyDonorDrives website for free. If you happen to sell anything via their site, they get a small cut.

No bugs for me either using Google Chrome.

The OP states that the list originated from the ACE website. I've also confirmed with ACE and they have no problem with the reposting of the information.

What model is it?

I'm not so sure I'd want to be the first one to own a new 3TB SSD made by a company that I've never heard of before. Though, they can't be any worse than those of the popular brands.

Forensic investigation can only happen against the original media or a forensically sound copy. When you copy a file from one location to another, the meta data gets altered. It gets altered even more when the file is opened. This isn't TV land, this is real life. If they want a true...

Just had an HP Simplesave last week, but it was with a WD USB 3.0 only interface (Shrek LT).

...and that was a very low quote considering that you may have to invest in 3 or 4 donor drives in to even find one with suitable heads to work with.

Read it again...it was this morning, just after midnight.

Probably a thumb drive connected to a IDE to USB bridge. Lord knows what you would find if you open it up. Might be worth buying just to see.

You could also broaden your scope and get involved with forums which target SEO http://www.webproworld.com/ - I haven't been active on this forum in years, but just noticed that I have some pretty solid links from them from past discussions.

Well, I have yet to find out where I can create/edit my signature file. I get a PM from a mod telling me that as a vendor, I have to disclose my company affiliation in my signature in order to post. So, when I reply to the PM, I get an error that I cannot sent PMs until I have 25 posts. Now what?

...and perhaps the family, if you know it?

I've always made at least 3 copies of a drive for forensics: 1. Exact clone with MD5 - stored in safe with original 2. Exact clone - no need for MD5, this drive is to play with, without having to worry about date and time stamps 3. Exact image file with MD5 - this is the working file that would...

I consider all ECC sectors all bad and disable the feature in DDI. Might get some useful data from older drives like this, but that is debatable, I guess.

This works on PC3K+DE when cloning between PC3K channels. Personally, I prefer to mask the 55AA to 55BB in sector 0 to prevent windows from choking on trying to mount a partially cloned drive. Windows is unstable enough on its own.

I started with PC Repair back in 1996 and started doing data recovery in about 1998. In 2001, Recovery Force was born as a separate company and in 2002, the PC Repair business was abandoned. The key with data recovery, the vast majority of work you are likely to get is via referrals from...

It is why we test our drives, then erase them and then check the SMART status before putting back on the shelf. I find that if you erase first, you will force the remapping of bad sectors and pass the test the follows immediately. That said, drives fail...usually when we don't wan them two. I...

I use MHDD to erase on some older systems set aside to wipe. But, for larger drives and larger volume wipes, I connect a bunch of drives to linux systems and erase them all at the same time with ddrescue at speeds averaging around 200MB/second per drive. But, there is no way around it...it...

I've played with the GUI once or twice and didn't like it.

I've only had to testify once because of child porn we stumbled upon. I certainly hope I never run across that crap again...it would be nice not to stumble upon any porn again.

I've seen a lot of claims by ACE over the years...can't say that I believe them.

no, i don't want to

You can request a 14 day trial via their website.

My offer to do a review of the tool is still open. You just need to send me the tool and let me play with it for at least a month (need to get used to it before I can realistically compare with PC3K. If you are concerned about trusting me with your tool...I think my credibility online speaks...

IRS - a reseller and trainer of Salvation Data...now really makes me wonder.

There is always the free version - http://www.freeraidrecovery.com/ - if you don't like the price.

In this hddguru thread - http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php? ... 20#p204067 - it would appear that there is nothing special about your hardware. Can you respond to this?

I charge no less than $500 CAD, which is currently about $400 USD, for chip-off recoveries. But, I give a 20% reseller discount, where I get most of my work. So, drop another 20%, making it $400 CAD / $320 USD. So, for me, I need at least 7 successful recoveries to start making a profit for...

How about with real PC3K DE?

Can't you load up the file system, check a few specific files and target data?

If it is my drive, I send it under warranty. If it is a client's hard drive that I just recovered the data from, I give it back to them and let them do it.

It would probably help if we all followed each other too. While we are at it, we should follow and like each other on other social media too. Google+: http://plus.google.com/+RecoveryForce Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RecoveryForce Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RecoveryForce

What is the percentage of read vs unread sectors with your clone?

When it comes to damaged EXT, I think I have had better results with UFSExplorer. But, an EXT file system with lost iNodes is going to be a very messy recovery, no matter what you use.

I did a review comparison review of DeepSpar, Atola and ddrescue a few years back when Atola Imager first hit the scene. http://www.recoveryforce.com/hard-drive ... -ddrescue/ At that point, I was not impressed. Since then, Atola has added more features, but it looks like they are now just...

I have the newest version too...and they are getting caught by my settings.

When choosing a template, keep mobile devices in mind. It may look good on your computer, but not on your phone.

If it is any consolation, I'm getting similar garbage spam on my data recovery forum without offending anyone.

The challenge is to have all the right adapters...something soft center is seriously lacking. I think you'd be better buying an entire kit from Rusolut and do just seek assistance on the devices you can't figure out.

Wasn't me. But I do need some new sexy underwear.

The problem is, there is little advantage to using MRT to image via the host OS. We'd be better of cloning with ddrescue in Linux where the host OS doesn't interfere with drive communication. When I clone a USB drive, I want all the same functionality I have with a SATA drive and this just...

You could just use jumper wires...connect tx, rx and gnd.

Perhaps the NVRAM contains info about the head pre-amp that prevents it from spinning if it detects that it isn't compatible?

I'm just glad I have the DDI USB add-on. I've plugged drives into my PC3K systems...wait 1/2 hour and windows still hasn't given up and PC3K can't communicate with the drive. But, the drive detects almost instantly and reads on DDI. But, on top of the DDI gives allows for all the same read...

How does MRT Pro handle USB only hard drives? It would be nice to see MRT and/or PC3K introduce a USB 3 interface that bypasses the host OS.

What is the price for MRT compared to PC3K+DE?

If you price your services for the lowest bidders, you will never make any money. I have those who need the data and will pay the price...when the volume goes up, I can consider bringing the prices down.

I suggest email authentication and post approval for at least the first five posts.

I don't think there is any concern for copyright, but you might find it a bit of a challenge to police. How do you restrict exactly what is to be uploaded? You may just want to just contribute to the hddguru site - http://files.hddguru.com/index.php

I had a huge spike last fall, but they have slowed down for me lately. Could be because my posted prices are higher than what people want to pay, but that is okay. I need to keep my lights on and be able to pay staff to actually do the work.

You may not want to post public comments about customers on your public forum.