Hi,

I really need some help and advise from you guys !!!!

So I didn't research enough last year and ended up buy the DataCompas and the HD HPE PRO - Hard Drive Repair Tool, now I know its a bad quality product and bad support, they wont support usb 3.0 either, and I need to purchase the HD doctor for firmware issues or something to fill up that gap.

I was researching and found 2 options:

1. Atola insight:

pros:

- fast
- great support
- multiple drives at the time can be checked
- easy to use
- it's basically an all in one.

cons:

- price tag for the Insight ver.4 $7000+
- support annual fee got rise to $1600

PC3000 express w/extractor:

pros:
- Price is lower
- can do firmware issues, bad sector
- good reviews

cons:

- not easy to learn, training too expensive and really far away.
- annual tech support fee is now $1200+

Now I got the DataCompas and need something better to complement, I was thinking only on the PC3000 or should I got for the salvation data HD doctors?? the problem is the limited budget .. and those annual fees seems excessive, how necessary are those, need some suggestions or guidance here .. Thank you.

I think the best in pc3k.

Very good tool. You can purchase it. When you buy it You got 1 month free support

If you want i can help you ussing then remotely. You can see that i do. And You can learn about ussing it

If you are already screwed by SD you want to get SD doctors?!??! No way.

PC3K is the way.
But you have other players: Dolphin Data Lab and MRTLab.
Those won't ask for annual fees and they have free upgrades.
With MRT you can now pay by monthly fees, so you don't have to spend all the cash at one time.

_________________
http://www.pclab.com.pt facebook.com/PCLAB.A.T
ACELab partner

Hint: Stay away from China and India...

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

Yes, the PC3K is an excellent tool - in the hands of a pro ....

and besides that

if you ever want to (re)sell it - no way, you sign a contract
that you lease the tool which belongs ACE.

+++

Thanks for the advise guys, now the only concern I have with PC3000 is the learning curve and their support. What do you guys think of the Atola Insight, they offer a lot FW issues, bad sectors imaging, password recovery, flash card recovery .. it can do simultaneous scans .. its usb3.0 ... it sounds to good to be true to be honest .. is expensive .. but .. what do you guys think of it ? some experience or reference from someone ?

I don't know the numbers and may be completely wrong, but I would imagine that if you were to ask established data recovery labs what they use, you'd likely find that over 90% actively use PC3000, less than 5% even have Atola and 100% would say not to use Salvation Data.

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

I agree with lcoughey.
I'd just add that most likely situation looks somehow like this not because Atola Insight is a bad product, but because it's reasonably targeted to another, (probably) less busier market segment, being the best for those people, who also have other things to do besides recovering the data by all means.

So I believe your choice depends on the niche you're targeting. If it's forensics and just supplying the data isn't enough, then go with Atola. If you plan to focus on data recovery only, without corresponding investigative stuff, then PC-3000 is the tool to choose.

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• Remote RAID, NAS, SAN, VMware, DVR (CCTV), flash and tape recovery. Data recovery support.

I see, and regarding the PC3000 training .. or at least learning curve do they provide the training docs .. how hard is it really ?

Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't the emphasis be on learning about the HDDs themselves not so much the tool? seems to me the members here that appear to know what they are talking about talk more about the HDDs and their unique differences/quirks than any tool/tool feature/tool operation.

Seems to me more experience than anything.

If you are starting out, I think the cost of the training might come into play as well.

Would be great if you could write a little on the process of starting out, and what obstacles you encountered and also what you found helpful. if you want to help you other potential competition, which you may not I guess!!