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Discussions related to Atola Insight data recovery/Forensic suite, Atola Bandura standalone imager
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Head reading very slow

July 23rd, 2015, 6:45

Hello, i've the atola insight usb 3.6

I'm trying to image an defective device, nothing new here...

I'll take the image, and just 1st block (4096 is lenght in moment) means there is an error - so ok...

but it takes very very long to image one block - i've 1TB Hdd on it, and it means that it will take 5000 hours to get ready :) - so i make the checkup - and can see the 2nd Head is not working fine... - so i turned off - but still the same, everything very slow ~40kb/s

do you think it's Board Problem? PreAMP? Or Heads itself?

something else i can try?

Re: Head reading very slow

July 23rd, 2015, 7:23

Can you tell us the model of drive you are working with?

Re: Head reading very slow

July 23rd, 2015, 7:55

Of course...

It's a WD10JPVT 1TB Western Digital ;)

4 Heads, 2 Platters

Next question, do you know where to buy Heads directly? Or isn't there a way? - Because all HDD Producers means, thats not possible to get them seperatly?

And i think there is no universal head... am i right?

Re: Head reading very slow

July 23rd, 2015, 9:50

outbreak198x wrote:Of course...

It's a WD10JPVT 1TB Western Digital ;)

4 Heads, 2 Platters

Next question, do you know where to buy Heads directly? Or isn't there a way? - Because all HDD Producers means, thats not possible to get them seperatly?

And i think there is no universal head... am i right?


yes there are no such "universal heads".
did you mean that imaging is slow under all 4 heads ?
did you check modules ?
was this disk dropped or what was the original problem ?

Re: Head reading very slow

July 23rd, 2015, 10:01

Imaging is slow with 1 Head 2 heads, it doesn't matter, it's always slow :)

You mean check the heads physically? (with modules?) or with atola, because atola Automatic Checkup does not finish this, hangs up on head 2... (maybe if i wait 1hour it would finish)

I can not really say whats the original problem, someone repaired the Notebook (if i remember correctly - MB change), after that everything works fine, some minutes later he told me that it's not working, and no partitions found and so on. - i think the person which repaird the notebook destroyed the Disk, but not sure how...

in worst case, i search a disk on ebay and change the heads for testing...

Re: Head reading very slow

July 23rd, 2015, 10:16

With your asking the questions about the heads and assuming that this is a client's drive, I don't recommend that you open the drive. It might be a firmware issue fixable with PC3K or it might require heads. You should consider outsourcing the project and practice on your own drives later.

Re: Head reading very slow

July 23rd, 2015, 10:19

outbreak198x wrote:You mean check the heads physically? (with modules?) or with atola, because atola Automatic Checkup does not finish this, hangs up on head 2... (maybe if i wait 1hour it would finish)


am sorry am not aware with atola, never used it. I did't say check heads physically.
did you try imaging only with head 3 and head 4?

point is to know the behaviour of drive ! if imaging is same under all Heads, than it could be a different (Firmware/bad sector) problem and if you can image drive @ normal speed even with 1 head, it suggest head problem. can you check the firmware with atola ? different modules for possible corruption ?

good luck

Re: Head reading very slow

July 23rd, 2015, 19:11

your using usb version it will be slower

plus you got one head damaged.

can you post a image of the report.

Re: Head reading very slow

July 24th, 2015, 4:56

i turned it off, waiting for another disk, change heads, and after that i'll check and write results ;)

Re: Head reading very slow

July 25th, 2015, 9:22

Please heed Lukes advice- if you do not have cleanroom and head comb tools and experience at changing these heads do not open that customers drive- the probability of permanent data loss skyrockets.

Re: Head reading very slow

July 26th, 2015, 4:36

with out the correct tools your data going to be unrecoverable.

these drives are not that easy to work on

i would use the atola again and skip sectors with no data on it.

Re: Head reading very slow

July 31st, 2015, 10:17

Same Problem on another disk, changed the heads - and recovered all data :)

should work like that also here ;)

Re: Head reading very slow

August 4th, 2015, 5:53

wow so no issue at all your have to post on the steps you taken.
to help others.

thanks for the update.

Re: Head reading very slow

August 4th, 2015, 9:07

outbreak198x wrote:Same Problem on another disk, changed the heads - and recovered all data :)

should work like that also here ;)

Not necessarily. Data recovery is plagued with exceptions to common rules. And furthermore with specifics to the type and amount of damage pertaining to a particular drive.

Re: Head reading very slow

August 6th, 2015, 5:29

Yes, but it was OK by chaning the heads on this drive too :)

Re: Head reading very slow

August 6th, 2015, 7:19

labtech wrote:Not necessarily. Data recovery is plagued with exceptions to common rules. And furthermore with specifics to the type and amount of damage pertaining to a particular drive.


+1,
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