I'm looking at picking up one of these. I'm curious to hear what anyone who has it or has used it thinks of the hardware and software. It looks like their forum is very active in supporting new flash controllers, but I'm a bit confused as to what all I would need to buy from them. As far as I can tell I need the hardware, the mix editor software, and looks like the majority of flash controllers would be covered by the block_number software, with other less usual controllers having their own pieces of software.

So it looks like I would be significantly covered by just getting the Flash Reader hardware and the Mix Editor and Block Number software.

Anyone with experience have any other recommendations?

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Yes, you need the hardware and the Block Number licence, at least

That should do 90% of the cases.

I don't use Mix Editor myself, I learnt the hard way of manually removing mixes in dumps

But apparently it's good for beginners.

I offer training in UK for FE (ask Sergey or Alexey for verification that they are happy for me to offer this)

PM me for details.

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

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

I'm a bit curious about the hardware details as well. I've got my own reader, with tons of adapters. I imagine the base reader will be required, but let's say I wanted to read a TSOP short chip. Could I just use my programmer, with my adapter, just read to a file, and work with the file? Is the main programmer used more like a big hardware key? I don't mind having a USB dongle with a strange socket on it, but personally I like and trust my current programmer, and we get along great

hi pcimage

Mix editor not for beginners as you still need to know and understand what is going on. What It does mean is you can set the mix parameters without creating loads of intermediate dumps. You just set the different stages in the mix editor then run the appropriate tool to get the image.

A simple one would be;

Join by Byte -> 1/2
Split Pair 84000/2112 (equals split by block 84000 then join by block 2112)

Saves one heck of a lot of time especially with large dumps. Well worth it!

<itch>

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If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don't fully understand the situation. ... Mr Kipling

https://www.mjm.co.uk/

Hi, yes the reader also acts as a dongle for the s/w.

The s/w won't run without the reader connected.

Also each s/w licence pertains to each reader (I have two readers, so I know this!)

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

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

Well, I ordered mine yesterday, so I'm excited to see how it goes. I've got a couple of broken flash drives sitting on my desk waiting for recovery.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

I have been using PC3K Flash during 2 month. I think that it's really good tool. For this moment it support more than 100 controllers and you can select one of them and perform autorecovery. But of course, sometimes I have unsupported controllers, and try to recover data in manual mode, it's not so easy and can be undecideble. You can read about this tool on the site of ACE Laboratory. Unfortunately, for purchasing Soft-center flash extractor you must go to Russia.

I am also using PC3000 Flash, and I'm satisfied with it at the moment. To recover Flash memories, is not an easy task sometimes. But AceLAB has a friendly technical support (if you pay for it) and everytime try to help You if they can.

Yes, you are right.

The downside of the ACE product being the price difference... if there is a similar markup as on pc-3000 udma then the ACE flash tool is about 10-20x the cost of the soft-center tool.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

drccsc,

Easy: compare a professional tool and the amateur one

a) Unlike all other products PC3K Flash has many automatic modes, it saves your efforts to a great extent. They work instead of you.

b) The task for DR itself has much more convenient look, it is
well-ordered.

c) PC-3000 Flash has two large databases:
Microchip memory database:
It helps to read microchips without entering additional parameters.

Controller database:
It helps to read data automatically by 2 operations only.
If the controller is not supported PC-3000 Flash can gather itself all
information about the new controller to create such new data recovery
task. It makes the file and you can send it to ACE LAboratory. Controller will be added and shared for all users.

d) PC3K Flash writes all conversions into the tables which saves
your free space and increases speed of work.

e) The main difference:
PC3K Flash has the in-built functions of Data Extractor
necessary to make the image for the later successful data recovery.
Data Extractor knows all file systems.

PC3K Flash is a fantastic product, both on the reader and software end with two exceptions. Automated recovery is great however the list of controllers which support automated recovery is VERY small once you factor in different firmware versions. Their mix editor is good but I’ve had mixed luck using their block methods to perform manual recoveries. At the moment soft center appears to support more devices both on their software (supported controllers/firmware) and reader (different adapters) ends. As PC3k flash was just released future updates and new adapters will add more support which will narrow this gap.

While I don’t own soft center, I wouldn’t call it an armatures product, if anything it requires a professional to use in that you must figure out the various parameters. To help they post past configurations they’ve encountered but this method is flawed because controller firmware change so frequently. The same model flash drive a month from now may use a different firmware version with different parameters.

In the coming months I expect PC3K Flash to support more controllers / firmware in which case it will be a far superior product however at this moment soft center with its low price and large list of supported devices shouldn’t be discounted.

Could you please publish all list of controllers, supported by SoftCenter complex? If you wanna prove smth, you need FACTS. I don't wanna dispute with you, because I have respect to your convictions. But FACTS....

you can find that easily on the soft-center website and forum

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

how your getting on with this program
and did you have any problems with ordering it

enclose is the data of what it can do


Reader can read ALL chips with NAND flash interface. For example:

Samsung: Toshiba: Hynix: SanDisk
K9K2G08
K9K2G16
K9K4G08
K9K8G08
K9W4G08
K9W4G16
K9W8G08
K9WAG08
K9L8G08
K9LAG08
K9G8G08
K9GAG08
K9HBG08
K9NBG08
TC58NVG1
TC58NVG2
TC58NVG3
TC58NVG4

TH58NVG1
TH58NVG2
TH58NVG3
TH58NVG4
HY27UA081G1
HY27UF081G2
HY27UG082G
HY27UG082G4
HY27UT084G
HY27UT084G2
HY27UT088G
HY27UT088G2
SDTNIGHSM-4096
SDTNFCH-1024

Hi:
Now they have stopped operations in Asia and China, I do not know why, I am very optimistic about this tool. I would like to ask you who have bought and used?

I am not optimistic about PC3000FLASH
I am optimistic about FRT

Actually yes, I have had extreme difficulties with ordering it. Soft-center accepts payment only through western union, and I have had a hell of a time getting western union to accept my payment without thinking that I have been scammed or am doing something illegal.

The United States is pretty paranoid about that sort of thing lately.

It was only this past Friday that I was actually successful in making the payment, so I have not received the stuff yet.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

I had the same problem when purchasing HD Duplicator thru a Western Union place. They warned me several times before completing the money transfer. Since I saw the software maker and several users on this forum, it made my purchase easier. The forum users could have all been involvoed in a scam but I asked several legit members before making my purchase.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Yeah, same situation with this. I've talked to plenty of people whom I would consider legitimate, plus the soft-center forum is huge.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.