Thoughts on Hard Disk duplicators?

0ldfart

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I have been thinking of buying one for my business for data recovery jobs. As its a fairly expensive purchase, I wanted to seek feedback on the idea from other members. Is anyone using a duplicator to obtain data from failing disks? Any recommendations on specific models?
 
If it's for SATA drives these look like good value.

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Or even better is this one without the card reader but has USB3 interface so should be future-proof for a while.
 
Thats not quite what I had in mind. Im talking about data recovery hardware. Probably should have made this clearer in the initial post :)
 
I still didnt get what you trying to do, you mean taking the platters out and putting into a diffrent drive and recover the data?
 
I think they're sort of a waste of money. Most of them only do bit-for-bit copying and you can easily do that with a cheapie computer and a program like rawcopy.
 
I still didnt get what you trying to do, you mean taking the platters out and putting into a diffrent drive and recover the data?

No. I dont have a clean-room or the facility to install one.

I have gear like the dock above, but they are less than ideal for working with faulty hard disks. Especially problematic if the drive won't mount when connected to sata or ide cable and even bios won't recognise it. At this point I have no gear to take the process any further.

So Im thinking of getting a proper data recovery device, like a YEC Ninja Kaze or an Atola Forensic Imager
 
Especially problematic if the drive won't mount when connected to sata or ide cable and even bios won't recognise it. At this point I have no gear to take the process any further.


For nearly any drive that this happens with, those duplicators won't be able to do anything, either. I still think that all you need is a cheap PC with the proper software. In the case of a drive that won't recognize in the bios, you should look into getting a replacement PCB.
Read some data recovery guides about it, you really don't need the fancy equipment.
 
I have gear like the dock above, but they are less than ideal for working with faulty hard disks. Especially problematic if the drive won't mount when connected to sata or ide cable and even bios won't recognise it. At this point I have no gear to take the process any further.

I have to agree with the above poster. If a drive will not detect in a system it will also not detect in a duplicator. I would personally just get an adapter that you can use on a system.

This is one I like, It supports SATA/IDE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189169&cm_re=usb_sata-_-12-189-169-_-Product

i dont have experience with any of the tools you listed, wait for someone more knowledgable to reply :)

OK that was random as hell.

Thats like standing up in a crowd and saying "I don't know anything and have nothing to say" :D:rolleyes::D
 
I have to agree with the above poster. If a drive will not detect in a system it will also not detect in a duplicator. I would personally just get an adapter that you can use on a system.

Thats actually not correct. In fact I managed to get most of a hdd recovered today that would not mount in Win or Linux using a Shintaro. Im getting data from the clone it produced as I write this.

Not sure what use a USB adapter is in regard to data recovery. USB is probably the worst interface to try to read a faulty hard disk through. Kind of like trying to see 6-point font with beer-goggles on :)
 
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Thats actually not correct. In fact I managed to get most of a hdd recovered today that would not mount in Win or Linux using a Shintaro. Im getting data from the clone it produced as I write this.

Not sure what use a USB adapter is in regard to data recovery. USB is probably the worst interface to try to read a faulty hard disk through.
Why?

In fairness I posted the USB duplicator in response to your original question as it was posted. I've cloned many a faulty hard drive via a USB adapter, a sector copy is a slow process so it doesn't need a high-speed interface.
 
Thats actually not correct. In fact I managed to get most of a hdd recovered today that would not mount in Win or Linux using a Shintaro. Im getting data from the clone it produced as I write this.


A drive mounting in Windows or Linux is not the same as being detected by a bios. Huge difference actually, and if you re-read my post I didn't say "mount" I said "detected by bios".

If a drive can be detected by a bios, there's just about as good a chance that you can get it with the right software. I stand by that 100%.

If it's not detected by the bios, you're looking at a PCB on the drive. There's no magic that a recovery unit can do if the drive's controller board is shot.

Edit...Ok, actually...I guess I wasn't clear. Hopefully the above post clarifies what I meant.
 
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A drive mounting in Windows or Linux is not the same as being detected by a bios. Huge difference actually, and if you re-read my post I didn't say "mount" I said "detected by bios".

If a drive can be detected by a bios, there's just about as good a chance that you can get it with the right software. I stand by that 100%.

If it's not detected by the bios, you're looking at a PCB on the drive. There's no magic that a recovery unit can do if the drive's controller board is shot.
That's how I see it, it's quite alarming how many 'techs' on here cannot differentiate between the BIOS and the operating system. I guess some things have top be learned, you can't glean them from the simple experience of working on Aunty's computer.
 
A drive mounting in Windows or Linux is not the same as being detected by a bios. Huge difference actually, and if you re-read my post I didn't say "mount" I said "detected by bios".

If a drive can be detected by a bios, there's just about as good a chance that you can get it with the right software. I stand by that 100%.

If it's not detected by the bios, you're looking at a PCB on the drive. There's no magic that a recovery unit can do if the drive's controller board is shot.

Edit...Ok, actually...I guess I wasn't clear. Hopefully the above post clarifies what I meant.

It does. Cheers :)

filler
 
That's how I see it, it's quite alarming how many 'techs' on here cannot differentiate between the BIOS and the operating system. I guess some things have top be learned, you can't glean them from the simple experience of working on Aunty's computer.

m8 there's no need to be rude. If you read the post above it was unclear.

I dont recall knocking your professionalism, so dont knock mine eh?
 
wait the os and the bios are different?

Jk at my old job I used a hdd copier it looked like a small toaster with adapters for different drives, I used it to copy images from 1 drive to the next next it was able to do independent with out a pc hook up or I could control it from my pc to copy what I wanted. I never had trouble with faulty drives, I honestly can't tell you the name of it or where they got it, I just used it, I know it looked like a toaster with a lcd on it and buttons.
 
wait the os and the bios are different?

Dunno. Ask IPtech's aunty :)

Jk at my old job I used a hdd copier it looked like a small toaster with adapters for different drives, I used it to copy images from 1 drive to the next next it was able to do independent with out a pc hook up or I could control it from my pc to copy what I wanted. I never had trouble with faulty drives, I honestly can't tell you the name of it or where they got it, I just used it, I know it looked like a toaster with a lcd on it and buttons.

Yep. Thats what Im talking about. If you remember the brand / model could you let me know?
 

There's a discussion on this topic in an interview between Steve DiMico and Scott Moulton. Scott does better justice to it than I can here. If you want to know more about the reference Im making, listen to the interview. The points he makes put me off using the interface for recovery.

But you seem to know everything already, so may not be of interest.
 
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There's a discussion on this topic in an interview between Steve DiMico and Scott Moulton. Scott does better justice to it than I can here. If you want to know more about the reference Im making, listen to the interview. The points he makes put me off using the interface for recovery.

But you seem to know everything already, so may not be of interest.
Go off and buy it, I'm sure it'll be a great investment.
 
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