The block size was determined by the imaging program used. I don't believe there's a setting in the Stabilizer program to change that. It is displayed on the sector map screen and is constant throughout the imaging task, 128 sectors for all but the DMDE task. I can change it for successive DFL passes when I do multi-pass imaging with the DFL, going from 2048 to 128 on passes 1 and 3. The Stabilizer could be using a different (varying) block size and reporting what size the imaging program is using, I suppose.

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

Just a quick response to this for now. Even if the program (in this reference DFL) requests to read 2048 sectors, when going through the Windows API, it is only really requesting to read 1,048,576 bytes (2048 * 512). I can tell you that in Linux, there is a normal limit of 256 sectors, meaning if you request more than that, it will split the reads up, so a request of 2048 sectors would be split into 4 read commands (or more if the read request does not fall on a 512 byte boundary). Actual numbers for Windows could be seen by sniffing the USB communication. So the only way to increase the actual read size would be a form of read-ahead performed by the USB Stabilizer.

I am still not sure where I am at with attempting any sort of implementation, but the idea of possibly being able to improve slow responding cases in a drastic way has peaked my interest a bit more.

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http://www.sdcomputingservice.com
Home of HDDSuperClone and HDDSuperTool

To add to how the USB Stabilizer could incorporate a read-ahead feature to assist with slow responding drives, it would first need to have a somewhat decent RAM buffer, 32MB would be the max it should need. Then you have an option to enable a progressive read-ahead. The first read would only read what was asked for, and any sequential reads following would induce a read-ahead multiplier up to an adjustable limit. If a read was not sequential, then the read-ahead multiplier is reset. The Linux OS itself actually does this, and I would think Windows does also. The USB Stabilizer could take it to the next level. It would work best with cloning, since reads would be sequential. It can also work with file level access, but allowing too high of a limit can cause the opposite effect of a slowdown.

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http://www.sdcomputingservice.com
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With the one WD drive I do have that has a slow issue, and using the Sabrent USB adapter, with the max cluster size of 240 for the passthrough, a five minute test calculated that it would take a little over 31 days to clone. I did a five minute test on the same drive with direct USB and the max 65535 cluster size, which actually hit some sort of issue before the 5 minute mark (maybe bad sectors), and it still made it far enough to be 99.5 times faster, putting it at under 8 hours to clone. I cannot be sure if all drives would work like that, but that is one hell of a result.

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http://www.sdcomputingservice.com
Home of HDDSuperClone and HDDSuperTool

Agree. Very nice!

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

So have you had good results with the USB Stabilizer on these?

I have been (very) slowly working on my direct USB code for HDDSuperClone, and finally have some working alpha code. When I finally get to the beta level, I may be interested in having someone test it. And I may not mind a bit of head-to-head competition with the stabilizer

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http://www.sdcomputingservice.com
Home of HDDSuperClone and HDDSuperTool

Thank you for the information very useful.

So is there any interest in testing my USB Direct mode of HDDSuperClone? It is now in beta, ready for testing in the real world.

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http://www.sdcomputingservice.com
Home of HDDSuperClone and HDDSuperTool

The Direct USB mode is now available in the pro version of hddsuperclone. Is anyone interested in testing it? Or did DeepSpar find a way to quiet down anyone who bought the stabilizer

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http://www.sdcomputingservice.com
Home of HDDSuperClone and HDDSuperTool

Hi Larry. I'm quite confused understanding the posting in your website. I don't see any USB port in the SRP, but in the post it said that you're connecting USB drive connected to Windows then to DFL SRP t. Does it works like in this picture?

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https://www.ahlidata.com

"Without the USB Stabilizer, we normally effect SATA access by swapping the drive’s USB PCB with a compatible SATA PCB. That requires transferring the ROM then repairing any firmware problems, cloning or imaging the drive, and recovering the data from the clone."

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www.disktuna.com - photo repair service

@bedaone, I just answered your question here, in your duplicate post.

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

Just my 2 cents...

Having been one of the first buyers of the USB Stabilizer, I have had the pleasant experience of watching it grow into a very professional product indeed. It was a good tool from the off and paid for itself very quickly.

The increasing number of PCIe SSDs and new WD USB drives with hardware encryption which are difficult to convert to SATA have turned it into a "must have" tool for any professional lab. I have also found the support from Serge and the guys excellent (do these guys EVER sleep??) and always willing to listen and incorporate features into the updates.

I just did a quick test of a WD "Palmer" drive (Model WD10SDZW" with bad sectors and imaging a block of sectors. With PC-3000 DE without Stabilizer took just over 2 hours and with Stabilizer it sped up to 39mins 50s, so resets are definitely working. In addition, with the stabiliser more sectors were retrievable.

Another useful thing I've found is with USB flash drives that have degrading (but not totally inaccessible) memory. The USB stabiliser will often actually clone pretty well saving the trouble of resorting to a "chip off" recovery. My test 16Gb Kingston would be recognised by Windows for a second or so and then freeze up, so regular cloning by software was not possible. But with the stabiliser I was able to clone it to ~99% in a little over 11 mins!

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New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Did you try that same flash drive in Linux to see it would read.
Just curious.

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HDD, SSD, Flash and RAID Data Recovery

I'm betting that the pro version of HDDSuperClone would handle these unstable USB flash drives just as well, assuming that the (mis)handling of resets is the key.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Ok, my 2 cents too then ..

Possibly and probably maybe even. But using USB Stabilizer you can use basically any Windows software you prefer to work with such unstable drives. I see people use it with UFS, R-Studio, PC3000, MRT and I personally use it with ReclaiMe Pro and my home-cooked Windows software. Granted I am not very much a Linux person, for me USB Stabilizer is more than ideal, it adds amazing value to the tools I already used.

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www.disktuna.com - photo repair service

Surely your aim with these drives is not to use just any software, but to use a cloning tool, and only then apply your choice of data recovery software to the clone.

AISI, this "USB stabilizer" is just an expensive IP protection dongle for a tool which could easily be implemented in software, without the use of vendor specific commands. Or am I missing something?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

OK. Well describing what I use it for, it's mostly SD Cards, unstable or not. So for me, the Windows man, it means I can just plug in an SD Card and be certain it's write protected and Windows will not hang itself up trying to mount it (I know there are other ways to accomplish the latter and I know I could do this in Linux too.) I can then clone it with whatever I feel like, mostly the tool I have open already, open image file and have a look around inside it. So, for me the flow is very comfortable. Note that I work with a couple of laptops running Windows only so no lab with dedicated machines for cloning for example.

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www.disktuna.com - photo repair service

How does the USB Stabilizer appear in Device Manager? Does it show up as a USB mass storage device, or does it have its own special class?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

It show up as a disk drive.

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HDD, SSD, Flash and RAID Data Recovery