Ideal Bench Machine

[jackz]

What is your ideal bench machine?

Sata and IDE caddys for quick imaging etc?

An IDE cable sticking out to connect 2.5" IDE drives?

I use Get Data Back for NTFS extensively, what other software do you consider essential for data recovery?

I have mine as dual boot so I can use dd etc.

Is your bench machine more for testing customer components and you use another machine for imaging / restore etc. Do you use the tray system with all of the components accessable?

One thing I dont do is anything with customer data on my pc with my own docs / accounts etc

[Cue]

I have a 2hgz dual core 2 gb computer with 4 sata and one IDE.

I use USB -> IDE 2.5 extensively for notebook hard disks but I run very long sata and IDE wires from the bench computer.
Because I fasten the bench computer in a shelf above my work table I dont have to take the disks out of the computer/s im currently working on. Its a real time saver.
SATA is hot swappable but I can only change IDE once, then I have to restart the computer.
USB - IDE 3.5 does not seem to work all that good. Maybe I just have a bad one, two of them.

I use Avira, F-Prot, SuperAntySpyware, Ad-Aware, Malewarebytes, Promix and many other to scan the hard disk im working on.
If I disable real time scan/monitoring I can have all those programs on the same computer.

My main problem is that I need to automate the process of scaning a computer. But I am totally blocked when it comes to scripting so im hoping someone else will figure it out for me :)

I would like a script to run chkdsk then AVIRA with F-Prot monitoring real time then run malewarebytes and SuperAntiSpywre and finaly defrag.

[DohIForgot]

I've been using a laptop as a bench machine for awhile (with a USB HDD adapter), but I'm switching my old DVR to a bench machine right this minute.

It's a Dual Core with 4Gb memory and 2TB of raw storage with 2 removable drive cages on top of that. First drive cage is a 500GB mirroring disk. That'll mirror the customer's disk in the second tray. All my tools, ISO's, etc are going to be in 1 folder on the 2TB array, along with long-term customer backups that need to be there.

My only problem is that this only works for SATA 3GBps (SATA II). I still need an adapter for IDE disks, but I think I'm going to grab a third tray just for IDE and get rid of a DVD player (since I have a writer as well - filled up all my SATA w/ drives). I'm also thinking about picking one of these stinkers up (http://www.addonics.com/products/duplicator/hdd_duplicator.asp) to make things easier on myself.

On that, I'll have Windows 7 installed (I'll use a trial until I can actually buy a key) and the OS partition backed up to my Server 2008 box in the office. Machine runs Avira AV on it as well as Spybot S&D - both setup not to scan the hard drives in the trays until I unblock. I was using a freeware disk copier, but I'm about to start testing Acronis Backup & Recovery Workstation 10 to see if I like it. I like the ability of creating a restore partition for customers as well as the option to create a Virtual Machine out of a copy.

Tools folder has: ClamAV (mainly for a portable AV solution on my USB stick), Spybot S&D installer, my Technet ISO's to include several copies of Win CDs, several ISO's for drive tools, Prosoft Data PC3, various freeware tools to include the Ultimate Boot Disk. I've got a freeware tool to mount ISOs to be able to use during the process as well (really helps out with the amount of windows disks floating around).

Still switching it from a DVR to this, but I think I'm satisfied with it so far. We'll see what happens when I start really using it. It'll be VLANd on the same router as my Mac (I use 2 due to my FiOS only being G rated.) so I don't anticipate any major issues with it infecting anything else if something does get compromised.

Like Cue, I need to setup a script to nail a hard drive to automagically run through an AV & Spyware check(s), toolbar removal script, and a few other things like Defrag/DD. More when I make up my mind ;-)

[jackz]

I'm also thinking about picking one of these stinkers up (http://www.addonics.com/products/duplicator/hdd_duplicator.asp) to make things easier on myself.


Nice price for that!

[greggh]

This is the only answer you need:

http://www.highspeedpc.com/

[iisjman07]

Voila - http://helmer.sfe.se/helmer1-1024x768.png,

or failing that, some form of OSX Cluster