Hi all

for sm time we have been doing some data recovery work and feel the time has come to expand, we have been seeing more drives lately with firmware issues that we have had to turn away, we have seen some locked drives that we have been unable to unlock, and in some cases we have come accross drives from our test drives that we have swapped the heads on and could not proceed after a head swap most likely due to the fact that we dont have all the right tools to work with the dirmware side of things,
so we have decided to further explore the pc3000 and would love to hear your thoughts on this?
are people using them happy with the way they work? are you happy with the support of drives it offer ? ease of use?
has it been a helpful tool to justify the money?
are there other comparable tools instead of the Pc 3000? and i guess lastly is it a nescessry tool if swapping heads ?
thx for all your help

I have a PC-3000 PCI for Windows, one of the best resources for a newbie learning data recovery is the Ace Labs Pc-3000 manual, this alone was worth the cost of the PC-3000 when i started out.

I use the PC-3000 sometimes 3-4 times per week and sometimes it may take 2-3 months before i need it again. Depends on what drives come in at what time.

I find that for some Seagate 3.5" IDE hard disk that no other PC or Mac can read, it can read it using the Data Extractor software. I do not use it for cloning often.

The ownly complaint i have is that it does not support new drives, and as we all know - every few weeks there is a new model disk out.

But for WD and Maxtor hard drives it's a must to own one of these as firmware problems can be fixed so quickly once you have the experience and it's very helpful too with hitachi/ibm and fujitsu tools.

I waited 2 years to buy my PC-3000 as i was deterred by the cost, i saved for it and it took me about 6 months to make the money back with new jobs but i now have it forever so for the next 2-3 years any jobs i do will be 100% profit and will pay off in the long run + having this adds to the credability of your data recovery service as you can fix disks that the local computer 'hero' cannot.

I suggest to save and buy it but make sure you get the data extractor.

Oh - and one of the most helpful things is access to the AceLabs forums which is a huge knowledgebase of info - i spent months reading all of the old posts. A good way to learn in this data recovery game where educational resources are hard to find.

I do not know of any similar tool other than the SalvationData Software which i really hate to use and avoid it at all costs.

Hi crecomp

you can go for pc3000 UDMA. Great tool undoubtedly. And very professional

DF

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DF
www.datatracksystem.net

thxs for the replies guys and thx for all your honesty, same as Zed i have put this off for a while due to the initial cost and have found the need for it now to be too great not to have, i also want to offer our customers the best possible recovery and professionilsim possible and as you said not be one of those "heros" but instead be a reputable company.
Now for a clean room any one have any ideas on these as to whether a small clean room or a flow cabinet is a better option,

thx

I suggest a laminar flow cabinet to begin with then take that into your clean room.

thx Zed
have been having a look at both types and just waiting for both qoutes to come through, it is interesting i have been qouted about the same price to build a proper clean room for the same price as a cabinet, the clean room is not big and is about 1.5 x 1.5 by the celiing height height in the office and i think it is a cleaner area, however this means you would be required to wear the garments each time you enter the clean room and add costs for the clean room chair etc which you would not have to do with a flow cabinet and therefore reduce some costs, from a customers point of view i think they would rather see a clean room as opposed to a cabinet in order to feel that you are more professional, it is hard to work out how customers think sometimes
just noticed you are in WA, hows the weather?

thx