Data compass owners

[hddguy]

Can anyone clarify this? Will each upgrade have a charge, or is there a generic charge for support which includes the updates?

[HDD Spaz]

off the salvation data website....

Aiming at those drives which have media defects in the SA, which is being undetected in the BIOS (so far no tool in the world can fix this kind of problem), Data Compass bypasses the SA boot failure, and then by reading only the key modules such as P-List from the SA to access the user data area directly for data recovery.

** This Analog function now works on Hitachi family drives with ATA and SATA interfaces only, free upgrade that enables this function to work on other manufacturers will be released in the near future.

[hddguy]

free upgrades? Suppose that is a relief for data compass owners

[HDD_MASTER]

I think that anyone buyin hardware of this kind should expect limited drive support. Look at the UDMA data extractor, there are still a lot of families not supported.

We demand a lot from these products but it is hard for the manufacturers to keep up with the new support as well as older drives.

I still would not buy one (yet!)

[shahij]

Why not simply release a finished product?

How can we expect in technological field as a full n final?

Update is required until the earth goes died.

the-best-disk-cloning-hardware-software-t10396.html

[bnice]

I'm sure i read on sd some time ago. That their philosophy mandate is, free updates for life of all their products past, present and future.

[skyunlimited]

We are looking into purchasing Data Compass, but am getting mixed reviews on it. Some say it is a great tool, others say it is not. It has limited support for many disks, with some disks not being added until 2009, as it is a salvation product I expect it will be a fairly buggy interface, there are numerous reports of bad technical support (though I have absolutely no problems in contacting selina, she is proving to be very helpful). Anyone able to offer an unbiased honest review of Data Compass that will actually help the rest of us decide if it is worth the purchase?

I think it is really a matter how you use DC. If you want to recover data in a easy structure or you want a 100% privacy guaranteed, DC is the really the best choice. I bought DC since their release and use it well and i am not worried about my lab data loss and security issue. Just i will sometimes lose connection with DC and my notebook can not recognize it. and the SA boot failure bypassing feature is not enough to support our lab's disk brands. I am waiting for SD free upgrades to other brands of disks as they promised to me.

[Doomer]

I saw a screenshot of Data Compass once
Is it true that is impossible to set up read timeout less than one second on Data Compass or I just got wrong/old picture?

[jerkykid]

Where are you getting these manuals?? I own one of these things and I cannot get one . I have to be honest..I am a little disappointed in dc, I know they are working on a few things and I think the device has good potential once things are worked out. Until then I am using Media tools. I will say that they (especially Laura and Justin) are being as helpful as they can, but for me I just havent had much luck with the tool.

[Money fan]

I heard more negative reports on it, than more positive. It is normal thing - there is no 100% good or 100% bad tool. When I try to make a choice, I just see pros and cons. For me, dc has more cons, PC-3000 has much more pros. So I made my choice

[hddguy]

I heard more negative reports on it, than more positive. It is normal thing - there is no 100% good or 100% bad tool. When I try to make a choice, I just see pros and cons. For me, dc has more cons, PC-3000 has much more pros. So I made my choice

That is a great point, and the reason I have a preference for Acelabs products over Salvation.

[HDD_MASTER]

That is a great point, and the reason I have a preference for Acelabs products over Salvation.

Acelab have their faults but don't we all. I will pick the Data extractors and other hardware products from Acelab over everything at the moment.

Acelab rock!

[craig6928]

Why not simply release a finished product?

because there no such thing as a release finished product.
if there was our lifes would be a lot better.

to many new drives coming out all the time need to know the modules

[irs]

hi i think this 3ad is becoming more "ace vs SD" than about datacompass, everyone is free to choose which tools to buy, personally i use both; but in this moment i prefer sd .... this is only mu humble opinion... everyone has to choose the tool that much fit to the needs.

[hddguy]

If it works for you, why change it? I personally think its all about preference rather than the sw/hw abilities.

[irs]

hi hddguy, i totally agree and quote!

[craig6928]

end of the day you buy you test it


data compass is ok but does not cover all hard drive models
next year new modules

[HDD Spaz]

Anyone had problems with data compass?

I have tried to clone several disks with bad sectors using data compass 'sector servo/shadow disk technology'. I'm afraid it doesn't seem to work.

Also DR Studio is a load of rubbish as it can't handle unstable disks. They are developing a new program (like data extractor) which seems a lot better as I tested the BETA version but thats not able to clone disks.

So at the moment I have a very expensive IDE/SATA to USB Adpater.

My problem is when creating a clone using shadow disk, clone appears to complete but only 8 - 9 millions sectors have actually been copied to target disk. The clone took about 9 hours and gave no indication that the target disk was not being written too.

I spent 2 hours today with their remote tech support. It took me 30 mins to get my point across to the first guy (even though my email to arrange tech support clearly defined the problem), then he had to leave, I spent another 45 minutes trying to explain my problem again to a second guy. The guy recommended I use Winhex to clone disk as he had never seen this problem before. I actually got the impression I knew more about Data Compass than the tech support. They pointed out its best to extract data without clone, little did he realise I have spent the last week trying that and a clone is the only option. The fact he recommended I try winhex to clone the disk and not find a solution to the 'lack of shadow disk' cloning process doesn't fill me with confidence.

Anyone get the feeling they don't do a lot of actual data recovery?

Anyone else having trouble with Data Compass?

[rchadwick]

Based on experience with their previous software products, I strongly suspected something like this would be the case. Since I've been waiting over a year for their HD Doctors to be usable, I'd expect to wait years before DC is usable, and that's a hopeful estimate.

[falther]

@ HDD Spaz

Data Compass is definitely not a cloning / imaging device. The advantage
of the unit is to pinpoint the needed data and retrieve it as quick as possible.
That makes sense when you / your customer needs specific data quickly and
cant (or dont want to) wait for hours or days to get a drive cloned.

If you are looking for an imaging device, then buy Deepspar Drive Imager or YEC Ninja.

The shadow technology - as I understand the information from SD - will not work
for imaging, as there is no need for further access to specific data. The shadow
technology (if it works?) should build an index and reduce write access to the
source drive. Allthough I have some infos from SD I really do not understand how
this should work.

The "old" software - Data Recovery Studio is in fact a version of a Canadian DR
Software from MT Solution Ltd. One can find them in the internet easily.

The "new" software is definitely in beta stage. We (the users) are told so and
can decide which software to use.

What makes me unsecure about the "shadow technology" is the fact, that one
can use any DR software to access the source drive. Its possible even without
prior to start the Data Compass Panel - the software where one can activate
an additional hdd as the shadow disk.

Surprisingly and allthough I have my doubts about shadow technology I got some
very good results in copying files from severe damaged drives, where I could not
get access with other tools. Coincidence?. Miracles? I dont know - I will go on to
test the unit further.

***