Atola Insight

[hddbug]

Hi everybody

Is there abyone fortunate to have first hand experience of Atola products? Ace has launched there portable which will be available soon with still less price. I would like to compare both products.

[Doomer]

As I know about PC3K portable - it is limited in capabilities comparing to normal PC3K
Atola itself is portable from the beginning but I'm not sure about Atola's software maybe it should be installed before using (which means it cannot be portable)

Dmitry should know better - he is one of the Atola's creators

[Dmitry Postrigan]

Hi hddbug,
We are just about to start shipping the first beta version of Atola Insight. I guess we would have to wait until August-September for the first experience summary

The software itself has to be installed indeed. However, you can have it installed on many PCs without limitations (only one copy will work at a time).

[hddbug]

Hi Dmitry ,
Nice to hear from you. It seems Atola Insight is a revolutionary product . Wish you all the Best. I will be happy be a beta tester.Kindly keep me on your active list.
Thanks & Regards
Hddbug

[Dmitry Postrigan]

Thank you hddbug!

We do not offer beta testing directly to the customers — just too busy with the development (we only have a few people at the moment). But if that does not stop you , then please see this post: http://blog.atola.com/atola-insight-status-update/

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Master ,

Just One Word Wow ......

[shahij]

Hi,
excillent job. How much the price is going on for the product?
I am eagerly waiting for that....

[N.C.]

Hi, Dmitry

Thats great!
If i think about one unique hardware recovery solution, i think amost exactly for this.

I think the real time current monitor is good idea, but what about a built in mic?
I think the sound wave sample (and compare) can be helpful too.

What do you think?

Regards,
Janos

[Dmitry Postrigan]

We've tried playing with mics. Unfortunately, modern hard drives are so quiet that to make an effective solution based on the microphone input, we would have to ship Atola Insight with a soundproof camera which does not make much sense.

Current monitor is a nearly-perfect replacement for the mic since most sounds a hard drive makes can be seen on the current scope.

[craig6928]

it be good if the price was offered a little bit cheaper.

but a microphone not to sure why you would want to listen.

you can get all the information you want from using a oscilloscope
monitor the preamp head and allso the motors.

[Dmitry Postrigan]

craig6928:
The point of this "mic thing" is to automate the diagnostic process. Obviously, you cannot monitor the preamp automatically (well, you can, but that would be an absolutely different story). Therefore we have to use what we have, and that's power consumption data.

Regarding the price: we will be considering pricing options somewhere closer to the official release (September 2008).

[N.C.]

but a microphone not to sure why you would want to listen.

you can get all the information you want from using a oscilloscope
monitor the preamp head and allso the motors.

I think first the crashed/missing head, and spindler bearing's sound.
If the drive have a crashed head, in the first spin up, we have no info about this on the current monitoring.

Janos

[N.C.]

We've tried playing with mics. Unfortunately, modern hard drives are so quiet that to make an effective solution based on the microphone input, we would have to ship Atola Insight with a soundproof camera which does not make much sense.

Current monitor is a nearly-perfect replacement for the mic since most sounds a hard drive makes can be seen on the current scope.

Yes, thats right, but only "most" sounds.
If you have 1 free AD input on the MCU, i think only one 3,5 jack plug can be a good source for any feature...
With the mic, i think exactly for a little special mic, what we can fixed directly to the hdd body, or directly to the top cover....
If the resolution is good enough, we can see/hear the heads moving direction too, and if i think right, the current monitor didn't show this.

Anyway, the current monitor is a really good idea!
Oh, i have a question about this:

If i know right, all the current-meter circuit looses some V or hundred of mV to be able to measuring the current.
If you connent the circuit before the regulator, you can't get the result you want.
But if you connet it after the regulator, the hdd can be too sensitive for this!
The samsung hdd is voltage-sensitive and noise-sensitive. (only with one diode, i can be fail the SMART in a working samsung hdd. )
Didn't you get this issue with atola?

Regards,
Janos

[Dmitry Postrigan]

Janos:.

we can see/hear the heads moving direction too, and if i think right, the current monitor didn't show this.

We did try to put the mic directly on the top lid, but it does not help much. If you want to get a decent result with the mic, then the only solution is to use a soundproof camera. Just try it and you will see what I am talking about

Current monitor perfectly shows a lot: pcb issues, bearing issues, hard drive vibraion, head issues, every head seek (with our current monitor you can even see when a hard drive applies current to stop the flying head when it reaches the needed track range), damaged surface and even read retries (sic!). And it shows all that stuff very clearly.

DC-DC regulator has relatively big capacitance, so we would lose head movements and some other spikes if we go this way; so you're right, to measure the current we had to lose some mV (but well below one hundred mV). The absolute values we lose are less than what we lose in a 2-feet HDD power cable .

[N.C.]

Janos:.
Current monitor perfectly shows a lot: pcb issues, bearing issues, hard drive vibraion, head issues, every head seek (with our current monitor you can even see when a hard drive applies current to stop the flying head when it reaches the needed track range), damaged surface and even read retries (sic!). And it shows all that stuff very clearly.

DC-DC regulator has relatively big capacitance, so we would lose head movements and some other spikes if we go this way; so you're right, to measure the current we had to lose some mV (but well below one hundred mV). The absolute values we lose are less than what we lose in a 2-feet HDD power cable .

To clearly monitor this things, you need to use min 10 or 12 bit AD.
But using this on only some mV?
What about the noise? I mean from the air, or the MCU's oscillator, or DC-DC converter, the power supply etc...
How can you clean the noise from the measure?

Anyway, this is a great idea!

Regards,
Janos

[Dmitry Postrigan]

N.C., sorry for late reply

We do use amplifiers to amplify those mV (I thought it is kinda obvious)
The noise is taken care of as well. There's still some noise visible on the graphs, but it does not impact anything... Ok, I think I better just post an example picture

(I guess this was a spinup current graph for an old SCSI hard drive)

[N.C.]

Hello,

OK, i see, this is really good solution.
It is Atola Insight ready?
What about the cost?

Regards,
Janos

[Dmitry Postrigan]

N.C., I'd suggest to wait until the release since the product is still in beta stage. If you decide to go with beta and have some fun, then you would have to contact YEC about that (we do not do direct sales at this time). I am not sure if YEC have any DiskSense units left in stock (and the next batch will be shipped out at the end of September), but you can email Jesse Goldstein at jgoldstein@yec-usa.com to find out.

[kongfu]

I am eager to know any one who used Atola. I also want to have a professional tool for data recovery. Lol......

[rchadwick]

Since the software is likely completely worthless without the hardware, is the software available before purchase? The hardware looks nice, but I thought the same about Salvation too. $7000 seems a bit much for something unfinished and unproven, considering PC3000UDMA is in the same price range. Maybe when it's out of Beta.