An Honest Truth about Salvationdata products vs PC3000

[rchadwick]

I suppose somebody should spend a lot of time and money buying all the different computers available, and find out which computers work with the tools, and which don't. Now, who do you think should do that? The customer?

The problems I'm having often are with just the user interface. Things sometimes freeze up for a long time, and more often than not they don't unfreeze. This is even without a drive connected. Salvation needs to hire another, better programmer (Or 2 or more), and spend more time testing. It is NOT difficult to create an interface that will run on all computers. Even I did it many times, and I'm a crappy programmer.

I'm glad that at least some people out there happened to have a computer that happens to work with Salvation's tools. I've already played Musical Computers way too many times already, and the computer I have set aside for Salvation is the one I expect to use (Which happens to have an Award BIOS). The one computer with a Gigabyte motherboard randomly crashes whenever something shakes it slightly, and after sending the board back multiple times, I find Gigabyte doesn't test for any intermittent problems. They throw them on a test fixture, and if it passes, they send it back to me. I'm not going to be buying a Gigabyte MB anytime soon...

[salvationlaura]

I've always thought Salvation's tools had a lot of potential. However, they're ruining the usability, and the reputation, of their tools. While they ask for bug reports, I really find it hard to believe they're interested, as I can EASILY crash all their tools doing common things. This is with the latest version of their tools. These tools aren't even ready for a Beta test, yet are sold as a solution. I don't use the Salvation tools I have, as I'm afraid one will crash, and go about low level formatting a customer's drive. While I'm not a great programmer, I know enough to NOT trust buggy software. Nobody can guarantee that a crash won't damage a drive. Every once in a while, when Salvation comes out with a new version, I give it a try, and every time I'm horribly disappointed by OBVIOUS bugs that ANYONE would come across in 2 minutes of playing with it.

To Salvation Data: the difference between you wiping Deepspar off the map, and being a constant joke to the DR community, is quality. There is NO excuse for releasing software updates with the amount of obvious bugs, unless if you don't intend to fix the bugs.

If you ask me what bugs there are, here's my answer: Fire up the programs yourself. Navigate through the menus randomly for 5 minutes. You'll see what I'm talking about. It's so disappointing you either haven't done that, or your sense of quality is very much different than mine. A year ago, I had hoped you were going to get your act together, but not much has changed. You've only come out with more buggy products. I bought your products as a gamble, hoping you'd get them fixed someday. Seems I was wrong...

To Atola:
I hope you get a few of these in the hands of some of us one way or another. I'm a bit reluctant to drop $6000 for a new and unproven tool that might wind up being orphaned. While we've heard a lot of good things, we've only heard good things. All tools have good points and bad points. I'd like to know if the bad points are acceptable. Because of the price, Salvation was a no-brainer, and I was willing to take the risk.

Dear rchadwick,

Thank you for frankly posting. We really appreicate it and we value every suggestions/advice from our customers indeed. And I have a suggestion to you and kind customers who wants to help us to improve our products and services, is that when you submit the bugs report to us, please describe it as clear as you can about the situation and symptoms occurred,in detail,please.

Our products are not perfect and we are trying to make them better than ever with your help. I am sure that no program has no bugs. So, if you send us your bug report, we will test and check immediately without any delay. If it is caused by our program bug, we will update soon and release the patches. If it is caused by a improper operation, we will remind of our others customers to prevent it.

Okay, a little off topic and back to the problems you mentioned "Crash".

I have already tested it by running the HD Doctor for Seagate on my computer for 30 minutes yesterday and switched randamly between the tabs,and not freeze. So, I offer my thoughts for your problem:

1) check your power Supply for the Hard disk, we recommend customers to use exclusive Power supply; the unstable electric current will cause delay response to the USB console;

2) Check the USB power supply on your computer; Some mainboard didn't support good enought for USB device, as shahi said , you can change it on aGigabyte mianboard or another computer;

3) The anti-virus setting. Sometimes, it will kill our programs incorrectly; you can try to run the programs on a computer without a anti-virus;

After trying above steps, if the problem still remains, please contact me. My email is sales.laura@salvationdata.com . Most customers know it, I bet.

In fact, I am very grateful for your concern about SalvationDATA. Every company has its pains when it grows. As a staff in SalvationDATA, I love my company and work hard for it. We are recruiting more programmers and we will make the programs more user friendly and a logical layout.

We will not abandon our customers,we will provide the free liftetime software update.Just give us more time and encouragement, we will not let our customers down.

Your faithfully,

Laura

[craig6928]

what your setup that you use salvation data products on and allso the os your using


use a exclusive Power supply for hard drive recovery
as it can drag the voltage down and not that stable.


sounds to me that you might a problem with your pc system itself

[craig6928]

Salvationdata products vs PC3000

end of the day salvation data does the same as the pc3000
with out all the bullshite the makers of this expensive card.

yep there some dealers on here that will think diffrent
but end of the day you make money for selling there products.


its cost if not thousands of dollars to have technical help you out with any problems
its a very over rated card.

where salvation data will try and give you free technical help for NOTHING

where does salvation data fails is there instructions booklet how to do things
the easy way.



allso one click repair is the key for there software.

by the way i dont own any of there products but there pdf book
is very interesting read
and most people who have had problems is more likely down to your machine.

allso if there as a big problem with there products you would see all the horror stories
on the net
which you dont.

[shahij]

I'm glad that at least some people out there happened to have a computer that happens to work with Salvation's tools. I've already played Musical Computers way too many times already, and the computer I have set aside for Salvation is the one I expect to use (Which happens to have an Award BIOS). The one computer with a Gigabyte motherboard randomly crashes whenever something shakes it slightly, and after sending the board back multiple times, I find Gigabyte doesn't test for any intermittent problems. They throw them on a test fixture, and if it passes, they send it back to me. I'm not going to be buying a Gigabyte MB anytime soon...

hi rchadwick,
"You might face the problem with your gigabyte motherboard for bad customer support where from you purchased your product" its your bad luck, not of the motherboard.
"You cant show me a single branded motherboard which does not come for after sales service with problem in the world."
Here (Bangladesh) we get returned the same model motherboard with a new motherboard instaed of the bad one instantly after checking(if any little problem found also).
I tested a lot of motherboard in my life (at least 1000 pieces or may be more), i get best performance at gigabyte motherboard with enhanced features where no other motherboard can offer like gigabyte...
I just shared my experience, rest upto you...

[rchadwick]

Shahi,

Thank you for sharing your experience with Gigabyte. All I did was share my experience, and I am extremely disappointed with them. I used to think highly of them, until talking to a manager in the RMA department who absolutely insisted they would not under any circumstances test for an intermittent problem related to vibration.


Craig,

The computer I'm using now is a Compaq P4. It's a relatively new install of XP, and has absolutely no problems otherwise. Voltages and ripple on the Power Supply are acceptable, and I don't think the drain caused by connecting the Salvation device to the USB port will tax the PS that much. I've also tried it on another P4 Motherboard running Windows 2000 with pretty much the same problems. I haven't tried any other computers.


Laura,

When I get to the office, I will give you the exact specs of my computer, and give you a step-by-step on how to freeze the software. I'm more than happy to help figure this out. The last time I complained about this for the Maxtor product, you had an update out in 24 hours, and it was more stable.

[craig6928]

thanks for the information can you try the device on a non branded pc at all
or is this your only machine you got.

if your getting voltages or ripple on a power supply its not acceptable
as they can go open circuit and destroy everything.
the power supply should be stable under any load
if its not it will lock the machine up and do weird faults

what your power supply itself on your pc system 300w or 450w

how many hard drives do you have connected or cd writers
any type fans on your machine.

allso how much ram do you have on your machine.
if you dont have more then 1 gig your have problems.

and do you have any programs running in the back ground.


other problem could be it wont work right with a p4 cpu





Craig,

The computer I'm using now is a Compaq P4. It's a relatively new install of XP, and has absolutely no problems otherwise. Voltages and ripple on the Power Supply are acceptable, and I don't think the drain caused by connecting the Salvation device to the USB port will tax the PS that much. I've also tried it on another P4 Motherboard running Windows 2000 with pretty much the same problems. I haven't tried any other computers.

[salvationlaura]

To rchadwick:

Thank you so much. i will wait for your email. If it caused by a program bug, we will update as soon as we can.

Regards

Laura

[shahij]

Mose of the Branded PC are assembled using "INTEL ORIGINAL Motherboard". So, users face problem (Professionals). Professionals dislike to use AMI Bios (intel/Asus/or more...), AMI bios does not give users(professionals) extra forced/needed features. So, clone pc is the best choice in my sense.

in this case 3rd party branded motherboard best to figure out excluding intel/asus (ami bios). I prefer Gigabyte motherboard for professionals from my experience. Not only for HDDGURUS, but also other fields- networking/isp, web-developer, programmers etc...

Performance/Features are the choice of professionals...

[craig6928]

your right on the following

clone pc is the best choice in my sense


i got clone machine and they run great for recovery.

[rchadwick]

Ok, I dug out a clone machine I wasn't using anymore. It's an ECS K7S5A motherboard, with an AMD chip, and an AMI bios. I installed the driver, then the latest WD software. After a few minutes of playing with it, and the screen saver kicking in, it locked up tight. Business as usual. Laura, if you want an exact walkthrough, let me know. However, I didn't do anything terribly unique. I don't have any AV software on any of my DR machines. Power Supply is good, and it's not being stressed whatsoever. I've used the original USB cable, a high quality one, and now a 6 inch cable. Also, I didn't have a drive hooked up.

I've noticed some bugs crawl out of the woodwork due to different language Windows. Perhaps a program that works perfectly on a Chinese Windows might crash randomly on a US English Windows?

As for the BIOS, I tend to prefer AMI. However, almost all clone boards have a better BIOS than the Dell, HP, Compaq, and other name brands. When a manufacturer buys a license from AMI, Award, or Whoever, they can configure the BIOS to have exactly the features they want, or don't want. Consumer computers usually have many features disabled to cut down on tech support calls. Clones are good for many things, but I tend to choose what to use from what I have on hand.

[shahij]

Dear rchadwick,
Again you r with a motherboard that is configured by AMI Bios.
AMI Bios is not appropriate for professionals as I stated before. And you try to take others comments about it.

[thatdellguy]

I don't agree with that statement about AMI Bios motherboards. There must be more to it because I use an older MSI MB with AMI Bios that works perfectly with all my SD tools. In fact it is the only machine that plays nice with all my SD tools. We had to replace the usb cables included with SD because they strangly rusted and the contacts oxidized.

[rchadwick]

I don't agree either. Both AMI and Phoenix can cripple their BIOS. In 18 years of building PC's, I've never experienced a problem that could be traced to AMI itself. Actually, from my perspective, I've seen more Phoenix BIOS's that were more crippled. The AMI boards I come across tend to me more configurable. Also, while I used to think Gigabyte was a good board, and imagine it might still be, it's far from a scientific fact that it's the best. There are many brands considered very good, and some that are absolute crap, and then there are boards with a good name that are crap. Then, there is software that's poorly written, and will only work on one motherboard, or one chipset, or perhaps one BIOS. That's not a problem with the board, chipset, brand, power supply, or BIOS, but a problem with the software.

[HeadCrash]

I wont spend a cent for salvationdata products, i'd prefer to wait for ATOLA insight products

[craig6928]

I wont spend a cent for salvationdata products, i'd prefer to wait for ATOLA insight products

that is a long long way of and still in beta test.
some firmware might not be release for years to come and never will be.

yes it looks good but end of the day to expensive

salvation data are working on one click repair firmware
and its out for seagate now

lets hope they follow with maxtor

[craig6928]

there going to be a lot of members who bought salvation data products

please post your setup so others know what machine they work on