Opinions please DDI4 or PC-3000

[myiannakou]

Hi all,

Only have enough funds to purchase either DDI4 or PC-3000 UDMA. Which should I purchase first and why?

Feedback appreciated as always.

[Spildit]

PC3K UDMA WITH DE.
Because pc3k with DE is a firmware tool (that allow firmware repair) with the data extractor component (cloning and extracting data hardware assisted).

DDI4 it's just the cloning tool (equivalent to the DE component of PC3K).

You can't fix/backup/play with drives firmware with a DDI4 except for minimal stuff like cloning with selective heads or do a slow fix on wd.

PC3K WITH DE will do all that DDI4 can do + manipulating firmware.

[myiannakou]

Can PC-3000 suppport head testing and cloning by disabling heads etc. Do they have any plan to support USB drives like DDI4 can?

Thanks

[Spildit]

DE (PC3K DATA EXTRACTOR) will clone by head.
You can even do very cool and fancy stuff that you will not be able to do with DDI4.
Let's say you have a seagate drive with pending bug or damaged ata overlay or whatever. With ddi4 you can't clone because the drive is responding very slow or not responding at all. With PC3K with DE you can run from active utility, load the firmware from a loader file instead of drive platters and then clone it by DE. It's the combined power of the firmware tool with the data extractor/cloning tool.

[Spildit]

If you have a wd drive that it's USB only and the pcb get's damaged and the drive have encryption (without password to be set) if you only have ddi4 you can't do a thing.
With pc3k with de you can replace pcb with sata or adapt to sata and DE can emulate the usb bridge controller encrytion on the fly and you can get the data out of the drive, decrypted.

[pcimage]

PC3K +DE is considerably more expensive than DDI, but a considerably better all-round tool IMHO

So, if you can afford PC3k + DE then go for it, is my advice.

Admittedly it's MUCH harder to get your head round, but it does a LOT more.

If you were a regular PC shop that just wants to clone drives with bad sectors, then DDI is your man.

But if you want to go a step further and fix FW issues and read drives that won't start up on their own (e.g. Seagate drives that require a LDR to start, as Spildit says), then PC3K is the way to go.

Last edited by pcimage on February 13th, 2015, 9:29, edited 1 time in total.

[Dmitri]

DDI4 or PC-3000 UDMA. Which should I purchase first and why?

Depends on what you need it for. If that's data recovery, then definitely PC-3000.
With it you should be able to do all the things, which can be done with DDI and much more, but not the vice versa.

[myiannakou]

Many thanks people - I have a lot more to go on now.

thank you

[data-medics]

And as far as the USB only drives are concerned. If it's a WD drive, you can replace the PCB with a SATA one using PC-3000 and even decrypt the data on the fly (for most models).

DDI is a faster more feature rich imaging tool which is used to speed up the cloning process. However you can still do the same thing (just a bit slower) with PC-3000 and Data Extractor.

However PC-3000 can do a ton of stuff that DDI can't. Re-programming PCB boards, re-building lost ROM codes, common firmware repairs, etc. So if you can only afford one it's the obvious choice.

But don't think for one second that it's going to be a quick, plug in the drive, press fix and it's all better solution either. It isn't like that. The tool will take a lot of time to learn how to use it, which if you aren't willing to invest the time will render the tool useless.

[myiannakou]

Some very strong points made thanks. I guess it depends what percentage and what type of market One is looking to capture. If someone's main customer base is going to be home and small business I'm guessing DDI maybe the way to go as less chance of firmware issues. Does anyone have an idea percentage wise what the spit would be between jobs requiring firmware fixing as opposed to those that simply need a head swap and imaging? I'm currently using DFL-FRP for Seagate drives so I'm quite aware of how complex firmware issues can be.

[data-medics]

Really all depends. We get quite a few WD drives here that need a simple slow responding fix to get them operational, quite a few Seagates that need translator regeneration, etc. I'd say roughly about 20% of the drives that show up, we couldn't do without the firmware capabilities. However at least another 10-15% we couldn't do without PC-3000 as we need it to write SA tracks onto a donor drive to hotswap drives with damaged SA areas.

All in all, I'd say at least 40% of the jobs we do couldn't be done with just DDI, but can be done with PC-3000. It's the first machine that any drive gets connected to when they arrive here and it's probably the only one I couldn't live without.

[data-medics]

Just as a thought.... if you're on a really tight budget you might consider MRT PRO as an alternative. It's certainly not as good as PC-3000 (the gold standard), but has a lot of the basic functionality, as well as good cloning capabilities. The whole system only costs $3,360 USD and they even accept payments.

[myiannakou]

Yes I did look into that actually and yes they accept monthly instalments. Problem is I'm a little cautious about Chinese products where good support would be needed. I find support from the Chinese market in my experience to be quite poor and even when info get a response it's like trying to decipher morse code because of poor English. How have you found the support from Ace Labs?

[eazycut]

The tool you want as No:1 is PC3000+DE+SSD and maybe Flash if you have many of these cases. I have the whole kit and cannot live without it! For sure!
As second tool you want DDI.

Support from Ace Labs is excellent and simply the best in the world!! I know because i had all the other tools before (Not talking about DDI now).

Thx
eazycut

[myiannakou]

Thanks good to know.