Is there data recovery software that can recover data at the ata level rather than bios?.

Like PC-3000 or DataCompass?

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software only not hardware.

I can only think of mhdd.. but thats not really recovery is it. more diagnostics.
i think spinrite does it- but its not really that great software.

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The simple answer is no.

The detailed is:
You need ATA port for this.
If you are limited to software, you will need driver for the ATA port too.
If you have driver for the port, your OS will get the drive from it, and will play with it when you are trying to do magic...
This is why you will need special hardware with special software, like PC3K or similar.

Janos

Most of the current logical data recovery programs run under Windows. An environment which does not handle failing HDDs well. While direct ATA communication is possible under Windows, it is not a good idea as physical errors on a HDD easily makes the operating system to tilt over. This can possibly be avoided by connecting patient disk after Windows has started, but I would be surprised to see commercial applications demanding such a procedure.

However, the workflow should be to clone the failing HDD to a healthy disk first. Which then can be accessed by recovery programs under Windows. Luckily it does exist a few PC based clone programs which talks ATA directly (bypassing BIOS). But these programs run under DOS (or similar).

There is basically no limits for what an application program running under DOS can do system wise. E.g replacing interrupt vectors, effectively implementing own system code. So as programs like MHDD and others have shown, direct ATA communication is possible under DOS.

Use of dedicated HW as implemented by some clone products and firmware repairers does provide some added benefits: it let the application control/monitor power and reset lines for the attached HDD, it provides a consistent Host Controller or Host Adapter interface, it can provide a serial terminal interface, and lastly also function as a kind of copy protection for the application.