RapidSpar V2 – Now with Head Mapping, Multipass Imaging, and Financing

[P-List]

We are happy to announce a major upgrade to RapidSpar in the form of a free software update for all users. There are two major features added:

1) Head Mapping. RapidSpar can now disable specific read/write heads on Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Fujitsu hard drives. This allows users to achieve a partial recovery from good heads in cases where some heads are weak/failed.

2) Multipass Imaging. RapidSpar can now run a typical three pass data recovery imaging process. The first pass uses a low read timeout to recover easily accessible sectors and the other two passes target only previously skipped areas with more intensity.

The demo video has been updated and the new functionality begins at 6:48

We are also starting to offer an installment payment option for customers in USA, Canada, UK, and Australia. Each payment is for 25% of product cost and it activates the device for 3 months. At the end of the 3 months the device stops working until the next payment is made. Total product cost with this option increases by $90US, added to the first payment. This option allows users to pay off the investment with just 1 successful data recovery case per month. Press on “Pay in Installments” to see the new offer: https://portal.rapidspar.com/buy/

As always, feel free to ask questions.

 

[Ken's PC Repair]

Nice! Since moving up to the deepspar I was debating whether or not to keep the rapidspar. Guess I'll be keeping it now!

 

[Markverhyden]

Hmm.... Now this offer is something I'll have to give serious thought.

 

[Doc+Com]

I put my first payment down yesterday!

 

[Your PCMD]

a free software update for all users

Well after paying almost $2k for a device I would certainly hope updates are free.

I take that back.$350/yr for updates, AUTOMATED at that. Wow!

 

[Matthew Bradley]

I am curious now how this differentiates itself from the DDI4. Seems with these latest features and with the ability to interface with a PC in real-time, it doesn't make much sense for a DDI4 unit. Also, given that the RapidSpar has some success with firmware recoveries, it one-ups the Deepspar imager. What am I missing here?

 

[Markverhyden]

A usb interface is more limited than the native hardware interface. So the DDI4 offers much more functionality. While RapidSpar is not cheap it's much less than the full DDI4 suite. So it gives, those of us who are so inclined, a much more robust system for problem drives.

 

[Matthew Bradley]

A usb interface is more limited than the native hardware interface. So the DDI4 offers much more functionality. While RapidSpar is not cheap it's much less than the full DDI4 suite. So it gives, those of us who are so inclined, a much more robust system for problem drives.

But the Rapidspar has both a native source->dest interface AND a USB3. You don't even need to use a PC necessarily. I have a DDI3 so I'm well versed in their functionality. The head mapping and multi-pass were deal-breakers but now that they're available...

 

[Markverhyden]

But the Rapidspar has both a native source->dest interface AND a USB3. You don't even need to use a PC necessarily. I have a DDI3 so I'm well versed in their functionality. The head mapping and multi-pass were deal-breakers but now they their available...

Oops. Forgot about those ports but no IDE. At any rate there are quite a few things under the DDI list not available with the RapidSpar. My guess is DeepSpar is intended for traditional data recovery and DDI for much more. Maybe @P-List fill us in.

Edit: Stoopid me. I was thinking the DDI was the PC3000 which is a totally different animal.

 

[NYJimbo]

This financing scheme makes it hard to say no.

 

[Matthew Bradley]

This financing scheme makes it hard to say no.

Yep. I'll be ordering one tomorrow. I've been wanting an upgrade over our aging DDI3 so I'm really anxious to see this thing cook. The demo gives a great example of firmware recovery which we've had to outsource. I hate losing that revenue.

 

[AndrewFergus]

When I hit the buy link the rapidspar site gives me a 403 error. Does anyone have an idea of the cost?

 

[Your PCMD]

Does anyone have an idea of the cost?

More than what most are willing to pay?

RapidSpar Device plus Rapidspar Software Suite $1950.00
Set of Adapters (extra) $300.00
Data Acqusition Add-on $850.00
Extend RapidNebula Access by 1 Year $350.00

$3,495.00 if you got one of everything. Your ROI mileage will greatly vary.

 

[GTP]

Too much for me unfortunately

 

[AlexanderCS]

More than what most are willing to pay?

Did you have a bad experience with them?

A lot of us participated in the free demo where we got to play with one for about a week or so. For me personally, this is a great kit to have in the shop so I have a competent "go-to" recovery device before it gets sent off to a real expert like Luke. It also handles the drives in such a way that if I do attempt a recovery and am unsuccessful, it has the best chance when I do send it along.

Either way, I'd say it's a great product when you're a tech who wants to do better data recovery, but doesn't want to spend the tens of thousands required to become an expert.

 

[lcoughey]

More than what most are willing to pay?

RapidSpar Device plus Rapidspar Software Suite $1950.00
Set of Adapters (extra) $300.00
Data Acqusition Add-on $850.00
Extend RapidNebula Access by 1 Year $350.00

$3,495.00 if you got one of everything. Your ROI mileage will greatly vary.

As most of you are not doing forensic data acquisition (otherwise $4,000 would be paid back in a single case and you wouldn't hesitate at getting one of these units), you need not worry about that add-on. A $350/year subscription is pretty good compared to my PC3000 annual subscription rate of around $2600 USD or SoftCentre's NAND extractor renewal for a single unit around $2000/year.

Not all clean room labs charge my rates of $350 CAD (under $300 USD) for stuff you would handle with these units. If you were to consider that the minimum rate for DriveSavers is $700 USD and you were to charge $500 USD for all your in-house recoveries and you only had 1/month, you would pay the unit off within 6 months. But, you should be marking data recovery (making sure that you have an affordable clean room lab on speed dial) so that you can profit from more projects

As service technicians, don't just think of the revenues from data recovery, but think of data recovery as a gateway into new clients who clearly need your core services. These clients clearly need backups, replacement drives and servers, and assistance in getting things back online after the data is recovered.

Personally, I've considered raising my minimum rate for $350 CAD to $500 USD for the consumer. However, my marketing is not focused on consumers, rather on resellers, and my goal is to make sure that my lab prices are low enough to make it a tough decision for resellers to invest in tools such as RapidSpar. That is, after exchange rate and reseller discount, the cost for a reseller to have us recover stuff that might be supported by RapidSpar currently costs under $220 USD.

 

[lcoughey]

Playing with the update now. From what I have seen, thus far, it is now possible for me to use this unit as another imager in my lab.

 

[P-List]

I am curious now how this differentiates itself from the DDI4. Seems with these latest features and with the ability to interface with a PC in real-time, it doesn't make much sense for a DDI4 unit. Also, given that the RapidSpar has some success with firmware recoveries, it one-ups the Deepspar imager. What am I missing here?

Good question! We are moving forward a little differently than we originally planned. As our customers know, we provide full data recovery support with all our tools. Meaning users can call/email us and ask us advice on whichever data recovery case they have, even if it requires more than tools. We help users do PCB swaps and give general advice on what to do with every case. Naturally this can get quite time consuming on our end. When we originally came out with RapidSpar (RS), we wanted to ensure that we can provide this level of support to everyone, so we planned for a large number of support hours and were hesitant to add some of the advanced features (like head mapping) due to concerns that support would become unmanageable. When real support requirements became apparent, it turned out that we were too conservative. RS users need a lot less help than we expected, which opened a window to add more support-heavy features.

This update did indeed bring RS a lot closer to DDI4. DDI4 will always be a better imager. It gives a lot of manual control over imaging configuration which allows it to handle rarer drives that behave in unusual ways. DDI4 will always be faster at processing bad areas because its architecture is designed for minimum latency as the first priority, unlike RS, which is also about high bandwidth for reading healthy drives at max speed and of course the convenience of a USB connection. We certainly agree that these advantages do not make up for the lack of firmware repairs, which is why we are working on connecting RapidNebula to DDI4. It will be mostly the same thing as in RS, but DDI users will have more manual control over the firmware repair process (manually choose which solutions to apply, likely manual access to modules, more info/choices in general). Our end game is RS for $2k or DDI4 with RapidNebula for $4k. The core capabilities will be similar, but DDI4 is faster at processing bad areas and gives more user control over everything.

Well after paying almost $2k for a device I would certainly hope updates are free.

I take that back.$350/yr for updates, AUTOMATED at that. Wow!

We have never charged anyone for anything automatically. Updates and RapidNebula access are two different things. All updates have been free so far. All functionality that requires vendor specific commands (firmware repairs, diagnostics, head mapping) is a part of RapidNebula. Vendor specific commands are different for each family of drives and such solutions require constant work to add support for the new drives that come out on the market, which is what the $350/year fee covers.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Playing with the update now. From what I have seen, thus far, it is now possible for me to use this unit as another imager in my lab.

For us it just makes sense to keep sending drives to you since we don't do nearly enough recoveries to cover the RapidSpar and you haven't given us any reason to consider going anywhere else.

 

[Your PCMD]

such solutions require constant work to add support for the new drives that come out on the market, which is what the $350/year fee covers.

And manufactures of those drives do not charge their customers for updates (the same could be said for other manufacturers of things like motherboards or video cards, you don't get charged for bios or video driver updates once you buy the product) not that firmware is different from each iteration of a drive. A WD Red Network 2TB drive of 2 years ago hasn't changed firmware that much, if any. If you have 500 customers that pay $350/yr, I don't see why it costs $175k to add support for that OR a drive.

IF I was heavy into data recovery, on a consistent daily basis and it was my main focus, I could see the reason to pay for what you offer. Your product is a niche product in a niche market and likewise the cost is there for that niche. It just seems to me that the product is a glorified docking station for an off site software based system which could in theory be hosted on a customers own machine with updates pushed down when necessary. Additional cable cost of $850 is a bit much IMO as many cables can be had from Amazon for next to nothing and the ones that arent, could possibly be made much much cheaper.