Hi all, I'm wanting to set up a sideline data recovery service to work alongside my current business.

Now I don't claim to be any data recovery master but do know the basics after years of research. My plan is to diagnose the fault quickly then make the decision to either tackle the problem myself or farm to job out to a 3rd party.

What I'm trying to find out is what would you recommend as the most versatile / affordable diagnostic tool?

Any thoughts or assistance would be greatly welcomed.

Many Thanks,

Devs.

experience, ears, eyes and MHDD.

Agree!

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www.datarecoveryne.com

Deepspar DDI would be my first purchase if I were you

Admittedly not strictly a diagnostic tool, but it will help you with a lot of cases.

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

I agree, DDI is a great way to start. With the power monitor add-on, head map ability and file system access, you can quickly assess a drive.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

Hmmm all above answers are from real DR pros ....

For them...:
DDI is a great Imager - ideal for the DR pros who know what and where
to fine tune this programe - to get access respectively get utmost out
of a hdd.

But for a start with DR - as a test system PLUS very fine DR capabilities -
most probably in using that tool in a PC and laptop service - my first choice
is one of the Atola Insights:

The Atola Insight Ethernet is the best combination of test system and
one of the fastest imager of the market.

Have a look: http://atola.com/products/insight/

Mine paid itself within a very, very short period - no computer or laptop
leaves my office without a hdd test on that system - and guess how
many hdd show defects. And you can inform customer within 3 to 5
minutes and get a quicker decision whether and how to proceed....

+++

As a good starting point to learn the basics you could start with:

-Good set of quality tools (T6,7,8; multimeter, pliers, screwdrivers, anti-static precautions etc)
- USB-serial converter for working with Seagate drive's terminal
- Linux and a good working knowledge of it
- ddrescue
- MHDD
- time and practice and patience

If you're willing to get into more seriously then a DDI as others suggest is a good investment for drives with bad areas.

The most important thing, by far, is knowledge which is only gained through putting in the time.

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Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

Morning guys and many thanks for all the helpful replies. I've always been a lover of Deepspar's tools and did except it to be mentioned. Its such a shame that they never come up 2nd hand. I'll get my site launched and if things go as expected will take the plunge.

I hadn't heard of Atola before and the tool they offer does look very good. I will do some more research.... ... thanks.

With regards to software tools could post your must have essentials.

I'm still in the very early stages so any assistance would be great

Thanks all.

Devs.

P.S. PCImage will pm you now

R-studio is good for logical stuff.

There's a reason there aren't a lot of DDIs coming up second hand...

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Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Data Recovery Cape Town

Yeah its a great tool.
You comment made me laugh because it made me think of SD kit & we see SD kit listed all the time - enough said

Loki

Cheers guys! Any advances on R-Studio?

P.S. I'm unable to send pm's so anyone that's sent me one, unfortunately I can not reply at the moment.

Each reply you get here will simply be an opinion based on years of experience.

Ideally you need to first get the experience then develop your own opinions on hardware/software.

Working with the logical stuff is always a good place to start, for this you would need some surface verification tool like MHDD and the use of R-studio is good advice.

From here you can gain experience and develop further

Soooo true and thanks for the input hddguy. I just like to hear what tools are on the top of the pros lists... It helps me to focus on the proven tech rather than sifting through the masses.

Cheers

Getdataback
UFS Explorer

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PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Would you take your car to a service station that was unable to look under the hood? Sorry sir we can't fix it because nobody knows how to open the hood. A "sideline" DR operation will only lessen the chances of your customer getting his/her data back due to inexperience. I see it all the time with the $99, $199, we even supply the parts for free, jokes on the Internet that appear and disappear every year. My 2cents.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

To be fair, he did say that he would farm out the stuff he didn't think he could do.

By which I assume he means physical stuff and firmware problems he doesn't have the tools to fix.

I (as do I guess the others offering advice) just hope he knows his limitations.

I don't have a problem with people starting out in DR with basic stuff like bad sectors, logical issues and so on, as long as they don't butcher people's drives beyond recovery. Everyone has to start somewhere!

We see no end of bodged jobs by amateur DR firms who thought they'd "just take the lid off and have a look"

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Lately I've been getting a lot of "Oh the IT guy reinstalled Windows but for some reason now my data's gone"

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

Yeah we had one better this week.

"the it department reinstalled my PC and I used it for one day and did hardly anything with it, now my PST has gone"

OK, we thought. Fair chance of getting it back so send it in.

He kinda neglected to mention the umpteen software packages he installed. Oh and the 50gb of data he put in a folder on the desktop!!

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Yep, totally agree that experience is the key to a successful DR. I have no intentions of trying to tackle anything that I don't feel confident with and will farm out pretty much everything to begin with.

Like pcimage said, everyone has to start somewhere!

Cheers,

Devs.

How good is Salvation Data Compass Premium