PC-3000 question

[Brecht]

Hello folks!

I'm a newbie in Recovery data.
I've some questions about the PC-3000.
I saw the following for sale (see picture attached)

The mainboard + 2 hardrives are included (i guess for the PC-3K licence?)
Is this a completed set with all the neccessary adapters included?

When i checked the site from Ace by 'Procucts -> Data recovery from HDD -> PC-3000 Express system'
they offered more adapters than on this picture.
For example; 10x drives adapters; PC-USB terminal adapter, MX safe adapter and the ATDS/ATDA adapter.

Anybody who can tell me if i can trust to buy this licence + hardware tools?

Kind regards,
Brecht

Attachments

[pcimage]

This is counterfeit copy of outdated PCI version of PC3000

[digitalferret]

Anybody who can tell me if i can trust to buy this licence + hardware tools?

as per pcimage, that would be a "NO" -

Even if it was genuine, afaik, the licensing on Acelabs gear still does not permit "to sell on" their goods second hand, so you would get no support.

[Brecht]

Okay...and no support. It's a must to have support your life long?
the person who sells those tools said he bought it in 2012.
Maybe you need updates for the PC3K in order to service the latest hard drives?

Grts

[thatdellguy]

That's the cheaper clone version and probably has updates only to 2003/2004ish. Quite useless in today's world.

[Brecht]

thatdellguy,

The seller told me he bought it in 2012.

[fzabkar]

PC3000 PCI V2.5 + Data Extractor V2.2:
http://www.drivestar.biz/hdd-tool-pc300 ... 4_132.html
http://www.drivestar.biz/pc3000-pci-v25 ... p-298.html

Supported HDD list of PC3000 PCI:
http://www.drivestar.biz/files/pc3000pcisupport.pdf

This tool was released in 2007 and cannot upgrade to support the latest hard drives.

[Brecht]

Hello fzabkar,

Thank you for the post.
If no support for the latest HD's, i think i'll stay away from this.
Anyway...the price made me to doubt about it.

Very hard (expensive) to start your own business in HD recovery.
I started 11 years ago with pc reparing with only one screwdriver!

[HaQue]

thatdellguy,

The seller told me he bought it in 2012.

IMHO the seller could have whistled Dixie and it would have been more useful to listen to...

[Brecht]

fzabkar,

thx for the info.
Somebody know's how to start in HDR?
It's damn expensive to begin in HDR!
12 years ago i began in repairing PC's and only need a single screwdriver....

[HaQue]

Correct
To start in DR you need to be smart. And I don't mean about fixing hard drives

Whe you start you can either
A) buy all the told and still not be able to fix all the hard drives that you get because you have to learn the tools. Expensive

B) buy tools you can afford. Learn as much as you can and save for the next tool that your own work and skillset makes it obvious you need. And outsource to other advanced labs the rest so your customers see you as someone that can get their drives fixed. Outsourcing is not a bad thing


Really it is more about time and how you spend it than money

[Brecht]

Hello HaQue,

To fix those harddisks you need offcourse the knowledge but also the tools to fix them.
What is a perfect HD recovery tool(s) to start in this business?
I heard an all in one tool doesn't exit.

[fzabkar]

Somebody know's how to start in HDR?
It's damn expensive to begin in HDR!
12 years ago i began in repairing PC's and only need a single screwdriver....

You'll need to upgrade your Phillips driver to a Torx.

Seriously though, I'm not a data recovery professional but IMHO you can equip yourself with all sorts of point-and-click tools and you'll learn nothing other than how to use point-and-click tools. Instead I would first experiment with all the freeware tools I could find and learn as much as I could by just resorting to first principles. That means getting a basic understanding of electronics, a good grounding in file system structures (FAT, NTFS, Linux), and learn how to use a hex editor and disc editor. Then I would learn as much about HDD firmware as I could with whatever tools I could obtain. Some drives (eg Seagate, Samsung) have a serial terminal port which responds to various vendor specific commands. I would pursue that avenue as far as possible. Next I would obtain one of the "easier" drives and remove and replace its heads, with a full surface scan in between, and I would repeat this procedure until the drive stops working.

After all that, you'd still only have scratched the surface, but you'll have a useful foundation to build on. AFAICT, many people start out doing logical recoveries and non-invasive physical recoveries, and then slowly accumulate the expertise and tools for invasive work.

[Brecht]

Hello fzabkar,

Last week i bought already a new torx nr7 because my previous one was used.

I have more than 10 years experience in IT (hardware, networking, OS deployment etc). I have a computer shop in Belgium.
Since 3 years i repair also printers and high end copiers (Kyocera).
I can work with electronics.

[fzabkar]

"Working with" electronics and "repairing" electronics are two vastly different things.

As a PC "technician", you would have "repaired" a hard drive by unscrewing its 4 mounting screws and disconnecting its cables, and then reversing the procedure with a replacement. That experience is essentially of no value in data recovery. I expect that your printer repairs were carried out to board level as well.

The fact that you made no mention of a multimeter suggests to me that you may not even be able to do basic electronic troubleshooting (unless you were being facetious). For example, as an owner of a computer shop, there would no doubt have been many times when you would have needed to replace a PSU. An experienced technician would test a PSU's voltages before replacing it, but you would need a multimeter for this.

BTW, you need a Torx 6 driver in your toolkit.

[Brecht]

Hello,

Today i had i client in my shop with a noisy hd (not clicking).
I opened the drive and saw the following (see picture!)

The plat is scratched on the outer side of the platter.
The hd is an external WD 1TB (without sata connection)

I tried before i opened with some software tools (HD regenerator, HDD raw copy tool etc).
But it came only worser because the more the drive was running the more it was scratched!

Somebody know if this could be repaired.

Thanks...

Attachments

[Brecht]

fzabkar,

Since 12 years i never used a multimeter to repair computers or notebooks and yes i know the basics of a multimeter. I need it sometimes for measuring some values on copiers.
A PSU costs approx 15 euro for the cheapest one. why doing effort to measure? Change the psu and test.

[pclab]

Hi

There are several topics about starting a DR business here on the forum.

But you will need time and €€€€. Alot of both....

[pcimage]

I tried before i opened with some software tools (HD regenerator, HDD raw copy tool etc).
But it came only worser because the more the drive was running the more it

.

Hdd "regenerator" is quite possibly the very reason the scratch has manifested itself in quite such a bad way.

Sorry to say, but you've probably made this drive extremely difficult to recover, if at all possible

[lcoughey]

I tried before i opened with some software tools (HD regenerator, HDD raw copy tool etc).
But it came only worser because the more the drive was running the more it

.

Hdd "regenerator" is quite possibly the very reason the scratch has manifested itself in quite such a bad way.

Sorry to say, but you've probably made this drive extremely difficult to recover, if at all possible

No way! HDDRegenerator will use sonic pulses to rebuild the scratched zones on the platters and clean the dust of the heads.

On a serious note, this is the perfect case of why HDDRegenerator is NOT a data recovery tool. Sorry.