Hello everyone,

I received my Salvation Data Compass last week and I would like to share my experience with you.

When I saw the release of Salvation Data Recovery Data Compass I was a bit skeptical about the ROI of this product. Since I’ve been in Data recovery for over 4 years and I manage to do most of my job with my current equipment (PC3K ISA, HDD Duplicator etc…) After reading spec and cases study about this product I decide to go ahead and try it.

I was working on a Hitachi travelstar 80GB for over two week this drive was undetectable by any BIOS PC3K was giving time out error I couldn’t find compatible donor for Head Swap I try to fix the firmware without any changes, so by playing with it and an other power supply I finally manage to get it detect in HDD Duplicator it was actually imaging around 2% per day (Around 1.6GB/days) and I continue looking for donor. By the time I received the Data Compass the drive had 22% of the image done. I decide to take this drive as a test drive for this new toy I received. I red the manual then I plug the HDD to DC turn it up and what a great surprise with all default setting the drive was detect and I can read sector. In the DC there is a high level Data recovery software include witch is call “DR Studio”. So I opened the drive with this tools click the files I wanted to save (Document and Settings) It took around an hour to extract 10GB of data no corruption everything is clear I was more than excited I made the job I’ve been working on for 2 weeks in less then an hour!!! But since I’m sceptical by nature I told myself maybe the drive start working weel because it was imaging for 2 weeks. So I plug it back to my other systems and same thing not detect by any BIOS PC3K gave timeout errors. Them this tool is Magic I was telling to my self.

Physically the DC is a USB device witch look like an external hard drive with led witch indicate states registry hardwarely (very useful). They are several switch to control drive accessibility (Power, PIO/UDMA etc…). It came package in a nice plastic briefcase witch you can carry on for in site data recovery.

The software that come with it (DC controller) is nice you can monitor the drive temperature and voltage you have knob style buttons to set different setting (readiness, retry times etc..) you can enable/disable read and or the write to the drive. There is also an option to start IBM/Hitachi drive from a res files witch I haven’t try but it’s suppose to “Bypass” Firmware problem to get access to the user data. Several options are available for the disk imaging to give you more control you can read all sector witch are “Good” then restart the image with different setting and tell him to read only sectors that haven’t been read before.

You can also use this tool to mount your “fucked top” (sorry for the bad words but I think any body dealing with DR will understand) hard drive in windows or on any of your favorites High level data recovery software.

What’s missing in this tool to be perfect ?

-For myself this product miss the option to read sector backward (maybe there is one witch I haven’t seen) this option saves me a lot of time sometime …

-I would really appreciate a virtual translator recovery (like in Ace PC3K PCI and UDMA).

-A mac (HFS/HFS+ support in DR Studio).

Maybe salvation will listen to our request and add those feature in the next software update.

I recommend this tools to any serious Data Recovery expert if you are trying to start in DR and you have a limited budget I recommend buying this equipment as the first thing since it will help you making a majority of job. If you are a Data Recovery expert with all the sophisticated equipment this equipement is somewhere between a good imaging system and PC3K PCI or UDMA. For less than 3000$ USD this equipment will definitely pay by itself quickly.

If you ask me to give it a note on ten for this devices I will definitely give a 9.5/10 (nothing’s perfect in this world)

For more detail contact PM Laura (She's hanging around in this forum) or send her an email:
sales.laura (at) salvationdata.com

She give a good service and reply shortly to your questions.

If anybody else had a chance to try DC I would appreciate your comments.

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Francis Parent-Valiquette
http://www.tux-tech.ca/

What would be more appreciated at this step is:

Please tell us about the "Drives" supported by DC. So far, it seems it's built solely for the Hitachi drives? What about Seagates, Samsungs WD's etc? I would love to hear your experience about using DC on any other drive I stated above..

And, If you can do it, kindly attach a screenshot of the welcome (Drive Selection) screen of the Data Compass.

Also, What's the status of the Documentation? Which manuals/help files did you get? Was the manual good enough to deal with every function of DC smoothly?

PS: Please atleast *Connect* some other drives with even minor f/w problem. We all are eagerly waiting for your experience.

Thanks for a good review..
Goodluck

(Don't mean to offend you, but I don't see the neccessity of a new thread for this. As we already have a thread to discuss about Data Compass. So, these topics could have been merged)

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I just hate spammers...It was a Spammer, who ruined my life!

HardDiskBug,

This tools support all IDE-SATA Hard drives models, you have to keep in mind that this tool is not a firmware repair tool but an Imaging / High recovery tools you should compare this with PC3K Data Extractor and not with the firmware repair tool from PC3K the IBM/HITACHI firmware "Bypass" is like having a candy over this tool and Salvation are suppose to develop loader file for other brand also.

Up to now I sucessfully recover Data from a Hitachi IDE 80GB 2.5", A western digital 500GB Sata witch had a damage spindle motor the drive was detect by other bios but imaging very slow (around 1%/day) I've been able to mount it and copy only needed data from this drive (The lady wouldn't have pay for Mechanical intervention). Right now this system is extracting data from a 1.8" Toshiba drive from a MP4 Players witch was drop and have serveral "Bad sector". Tonight I will try to Image a maxtor witch has been drop and have a lot of bad sector (almost 1 every 64 sectors).

I also attach 3 pictures of what I think the most important view (the forum limits it to 3 files).

Hope it helps

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Francis Parent-Valiquette
http://www.tux-tech.ca/

Well,

I am utterly shocked and horrifed .. 'Fucked top' is not really helpful!! One thing about this group is that it has nearly always been professional, then you come along and say this I think what you meant to say was 'F****d up not TOP



Daisy

Daisy Woo,

I'm French and I just Wrote it as it sound to my hear

My mistake

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Francis Parent-Valiquette
http://www.tux-tech.ca/

HardDiskBug,



I don't know for you but when I see 2 page topic it's generally 2-3 posts of good content and 1 page and a half of bulls**t and I generally don't follow this kind of thread so I decide to start a new one because this is an objective view of DC instaead of supposition made by other

Regards

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Francis Parent-Valiquette
http://www.tux-tech.ca/

HardDiskBug,



On this one I have to say like every salvation product manual they are really basic but enough to get started. If you Don't have any knowledge of other Imaging / Recovery tools you might be lost ...

But actually there is 2 main function (Imaging / Recovery).

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Francis Parent-Valiquette
http://www.tux-tech.ca/

I wish they would update the WD Doctor before taking on other projects.

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

I was only joking, Franc .. Sorry

why does this thread appear made up?

I am not sure, seemed like it to me as well... Although nothing really special or useful was said so it is probably genuine...

mediaman,

I will answer your question by a question.

Why do you think this thread is made up ?

I start this thread because before buying it I was scared gambling my money I pass several hours making research, trying to deal with Laura ask her for more documentations. I needed a new imaging tools I shop around what are the options?

PC3K UDMA + Data Extractor almost 20K? (Really I didn't feel like spending this kind of money)
HDD duplicator I already have it and it's working great.
Deepspar Imaging tools (similar price to Data Compass) but this one is only imaging.

I already had Power Data extractor from salvation and believe it or not in certain case it was able to image drive that either Duplicator or PC3K ISA couldn't.

For several reason I decided to try the Data Compass without that much expectation. Now I've been working with it for almost a week and I'm more then satisfy So I took my personal time to write this review to help others in there decision. From my point of view It doesn't change anything if you buy it or not.

I have nothing to earn to foul people for 2 good reason I'm building up a business on Parts Broking for Data Recovery and every user on this forum is a potential customer for me. I'm also developing software for the back-end/administration of Data Recovery witch I would like to commercialize in a close future. So what would be the point to made up a thread ? If you have a chance read my other threads you'll see that when I can I'm giving valuable informations to helps others.

I'm not a seller if I like a product and believe in it I will spread the word that's it.

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Francis Parent-Valiquette
http://www.tux-tech.ca/

Jinx,



Hope you don't think your post is special or useful.

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Francis Parent-Valiquette
http://www.tux-tech.ca/

I was probably too hasty but salvation seems to pop up so often here it's hard to take it on face value. others can/will decide for themselves. Maybe I am just jealous 'cause you have a cool new piece of equipment.

I will see who is going to be my side in 2 days, the anti-salvation or the salvation fan. Because I just placed my order for compass and finish the payment, according to salvation I will be receiving the product in 2 days (to Japan). I will be posting my feel about it here when it happens.

It took me one year to know how to use their hdd doctor, i hope this won't happen again.

To franckrules,
I hope i will be here supporting your point of view in 2 days.

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Never be young?
Never be a dream-maker?

Bullshit!

can this machine do more then any other imager on the market

up to know me personel think that the machines from yec called the ninja
does the same thing or better.


we need more tester and i hope members tell us about there experience

Hello to all - this is my entrance into the forum and also the first posting.

My main direction is PC and Notebook repair and from this side I face more and more hdd problems, where I want to help (and certainly want to earn something for it). As you all know, real DR has its value, but the usual customer ist not prepared to pay for it.

Looking for a easy to use tool I got the Ninja F last December and although I am not the technician to use the forensic part (I always decide for the better option in tools) this unit has paid itself at least twice.

But, it has its limitations (perhaps for me as non technician). I trace sometimes a hang up with AM ERROR or ID ERROR.
One error was (and still is) a drive with a smart error wont be tested further. Yec was helpful and wrote immediately a script to overcome that!
The second (in my opinion is) one can test (function Test Repair) a drive and <unrecoverable ECC errors> will be fixed - and then (only with a drive with a lot of errors) Ninja hangs with a (the) next AM oder ID error. Then I start again - it needs to test from the scatch on to that point (i.e. at 48%) to bypass the error where it hungs the last time and then stops at 55% - and one has to start again from the very beginning. I asked for a function or script where I (the user) can define the percentage to start the testings - but, unfortunately, I think my english was not too clear or exact to explain it correctly....?

As I am facing more and more Laptops with hdd errors - and I really want to check each drive which comes in, I need at least one similar tool. So I ordered the unit from Deepspar and will also order the DC from Datasalvation (their rep in UK as I am based in EC). Atola will be the next tool - but I want to know/learn more and will wait a little bit....

When I have comparisons I will post them
Thank you for useful hints in this forum
Walter

have you tried any hard drives out that click away and used the new fuction

called HEPSS（High Effiency Power Supply System)

this is suppose to work by putting more power to the head if its clicking away
or weak

but if the preamp head is damaged i dont think it would work

please post a update on what you tested

YES! That will be very useful! I hope you test a lot of drives in varying conditions and use each tool to its maximum ability and let us know the results

mediaman,



I really appreciate your honesty

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Francis Parent-Valiquette
http://www.tux-tech.ca/