Usually such kind of topic is really boring and few people are serious about really solving problems but creating problems and confusions. The only one in this topic I agree with is craig6928, he has deeply understood the real key to data recovery business success, that's to learn as more as possible such as sharing data recovery tips and tricks, managing to set up your own donor archives, joining some data recovery training to share with other engineers, reading some good data recovery books, etc.

We have all PC3k tools, SD tools, Atola tools and many other software from ontrack and Rtt. The reason is simple, the more solutions you have, the higher success rate you will have! In our lab, we have almost 50 cases each day and our success rate is nearly 95%. Besides, we have many jobs from other small DR companies. You can say I like all of them or you say none of them is perfect. The key is who is using it!

I usually ask different engineer to use different tools from different manufacturer, like one engineer use SD, one engineer use PC3k and one use Atola. They usually help each other and finally get the case done successfully!

Our engineers share their tips and tricks every day and they use almost all the tools. For SD, they use Data Compass and HD Doctor most, for PC3k, they use UDMA+DE and PC3k flash most, atola is one but seems not that efficient as the former two.

I just hope, some people can take back your bad words on others, whomever your words to. If you have really time, pay more attention to do what I mentioned above for business success, no complaining, no quarrelling. If you really need support, email the provider, call them and ask them directly until you get the answer. the best saving way is to have one online communication with the one you are dealing the purchase with.


Forum is finally a forum, truth, rumors, slander, malicious competition between suppliers, etc. Anyway, you must have your own decision and you must sometimes try by yourself only if you make some necessary research. Those who follow will defintiely lose!


Again my friends, if you have time, use it to improve yourself and prepare better for starting. Only if you prepare well, you will never fail. If not, check yourself and your preparations. I like reading the technique parts of this forum and then copy and save and share with my engineers. My engineers have never had time with this boring topic.

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Never be young?
Never be a dream-maker?

Bullshit!

In comparison, all of those tools are useful. I have worked with PC3000 DOS, PCI and then UDMA. Just for experience, I tried Atola, SD, DDI, etc. They are all good tools. To better display the difference between those tools, there needs to be a diagram. Something like.
DDI can do: B, C
Atola can do: A, B, C, D
SD can do: A, B, C, F, G
When PC3K UDMA + DE can do: A-Z
Overall, yes, all those tools are useful for cases they can be used for. If you have one tool and don't have other, means you are less likely to fix a drive with which this particular tool is not really good with. I hope you know what I mean.
Many people praise DDI, which I still use. But I only use it when I do not have a slot on PC3000. DDI is imaging tool only, which can do 90% of Ace's DE. The disadvantage of it is not being able to easily browse through sectors, load, and save sectors, work via Utility (for example trick WD Marvell's calibration and then use DE to image by heads), and some other things. Nowadays you can work with DDI via Windows, but still some of the features DE Imaging Utility (make data copy) offers are not covered. Build map for the win
As far as SD, it has the same, if not better, support for flash devices, USB drives etc., but when it comes to working with firmware of modern drives (WD USB, WD Marvell, Seagate ES2 and .11), it is behind by FAR, even some basic features are not included.
Now, pricewise, would it make sense for a guy who like to ride bicycle once a month to buy a $6,000.00 mercedes bike, which weights only 1.9lb? Not really. If that guy becomes a professional biker, then yes. Same thing here, what is a point of having an almost $15,000.00 tool, when you cannot understand basic mechanics and firmware structures of hard disk drives? Having PC3K won't make you a better data recovery tech, it gives you an ability and apprtunity, if, and only if, you have a GOOD idea of what you are doing.
@pclab - take your time, start from learning basic mechanics and electronic parts of hard disk drives. Learn file systems. Then read SD manuals, they have a starting idea about firmware of drives, etc. Having problems? Ask here or ask SD lab. If something you have NO idea how to work with, send it to another company. Later on, you will start understanding the whole concept of data recovery industry and won't need to re-send any of your data recovery projects. There is publicly available material online, it is just VERY hard to find. So if you do a good job at searching for it, you will find more than you need. Here is a doc I found within 2 minutes of online searching on

the hd doctor can do the same as the pc3000

the only thing that hd doctor setup can not do

is your own scripts to run the drive with

that it nothing more


if you fancy selling yours i buy it from you

Again, I ask the simple question, "Do you own PC3000 or even used it?"

Back to the original reason for this post, I feel that I should update my findings with Salvation Data support. I've been playing with the SD Flash over the past month or so. I thought I'd try their free flash recovery program to see how it works. Well, it did work, but not without a few hitches. With the time zone differences, it took over a week before things got rolling and they downloaded the files to play with. After that, there was a lot more communication via e-mail, keeping me up-to-date on what was happening. In the end, we they got the files back. Now I'm trying to get them to share how they did it so that I won't have to ask them again, the next time I see the same issue.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

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

your rate of 95% is total bullsh1t so I will ignore everything you say.........

HDDsoEasy "and our success rate is nearly 95%"

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

I use a fork and a microwave to recover 150 cases I get every day, with 99% success rate and e-penis bigger than yours.

PS.

hd doctor does even more, it washes and dries your cloth, it has even an imbedded script of ironing it. Sometimes, depending on it's mood it can even give you a blow job, when pc3000 only used for data recovery and hard drive repair.

Look at your name, 'guru', this is really bullsh1t, if people like you who never understand what's 'respect' can be called guru, everybody is guru too. Look at your posts, '1415', you have bullsh1ted 1415 times here in the forum?

I am not sure which party you are standing for, PC3k, Atola or SD? but I am sure you do have too much time biting others everyday.

So please go back home and work seriously, this would help us a lot for clean forum! Thank you!

_________________
Never be young?
Never be a dream-maker?

Bullshit!

Says the guy with 13 posts...

Most of which are talking about how great salvation products are...

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

Well it's probably the software from ontrack that gives him the edge to do the 95%

Maybe it's a success rate of fails that is nearly 95%

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

Your eyes turn red when you see others succeed! I love salvationdata, I love PC3kUDMA, I love Easyrecovery, I am open to all tools useful...So what? I cannot understand there're always some isolated people who see others with their arse. I must say 'byebye' to such poor people, my last post in this boring topic...

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Never be young?
Never be a dream-maker?

Bullshit!

Dear Friend,
A very good advice, be carefull with Salvation Data "TOYS", when to buy you get the best attention,
as for support, you are completely IGNORED, you don´t even have firmware to use with these "TOYS",
you´ll have to "Dig" on the web for them, and "PAY" if you find.
I personnaly prefer the PC3K "PROFESSIONAL TOOLS", the kit comes with a 3GB firmware database,
it is also integrated with the Recovery utility software "Automatic".
I used both, and on scale 0 to 10, pc3k got 8 to 10, when Salvation Data Tools got ( -10 to 2),
as for the support, you´ll have to learn chinese... indeed, chinese products ALWAYS had the fame of
POOR or BAD quality, the technical support is iqual or worse...
my Regards