Data Recovery HDD Imaging

The primary reason a data recovery expert images a drive is to:

• Prevent to further deterioration of the original HDD during the data recovery.
• Test bad sectors while coping

There are mainly two types of imaging methods; HARDWARE and SOFTWARE (Sometimes they can intertwine, hardware devices being controlled by software, etc).

HARDWARE:

• Easy to setup HDD with dedicated station.
• Faster Speed (approx. 3~4GB/min)
• Variable parameters settings available such as [Error count], [Bad Sector Skip], [Time OUT time], [HDD Reset]
• Higher cost for the equipment.

SOFTWARE:

• Requires a PC
• Lower cost
• Flexible control on ATA command issue to HDD

• Sector to Sector: This is faster and easier to handle after duplication (Normally this is used)
• Image file(s) such as DD image file: slower copy, and one

Important: What is your goal?
The goal is to get all, or as much data copied as quickly and safely as possible. You must remember, this drive is unstable and is subject to fail at anytime so you must be extremely careful when extracting the data. Always start with the quick copy, and try low timeouts so that the drive will quickly skip over bad sectors. This takes stress off of the drive, and allows you to get all of the data that is definitely good. Once you have imaged the drive once using low timeouts you can then attempt a deep copy with high timeouts. Some devices have even more advanced features such as the ability to read data from a single head allowing you to identify which heads are damaged, but this only works on select drives.

New "Dangerously Safe" Seagate FDE (Full Disk Encryption) Drives

Thousands of notebooks are stolen every day which creates significant data security issues for the common PC user. With these new FDE drives a user enters a simple BIOS password that will give access to the disk, which is protected using 128bit AES standard encryption.

If the whole disk is encrypted this means the recovery process for these drives is going to be much more demanding on the technicians, and also much more expensive for the customer. I have no doubts that there is some way to recover data from these drives if you know the password (assuming these passwords cannot be removed/reset using standard techniques) but if the user somehow forgets their password, or if the drive's firmware becomes corrupted, what then? I would like to think that drive manufacturers take into account the possibility that a drive may need to be recovered when they are developing it, but it seems with this series they may be trying to make it impossible to recover. Especially in the case of notebook drives (where backing up data is less common), we feel this technology is sort of a "double edged sword". Yes, your data is safe from theft, but what about failures?

Product Review: Data Recovery Tool Review: Pace ST-25 Soldering Station with PS-90 Iron and Mini-Wave Tip

As a courtesy to our customers, we have created extensive product reviews of the tools that our data recovery technicians personally use. This allows an inside look at the actual performance of various tools currently on the market.

Importance: The sole purpose of a soldering station for data recovery is for PCB repair, and swapping EEPROM and NVRAM chips. Power issues (plugging wrong ac adapter into an external drive, power supply failures, etc) are a huge cause for HDD failure. This is why a soldering station pays for itself very quickly, and it is definitely worth it to get one that is reliable and easy to work with.	4 Stars
Value: This station goes above and beyond any expectations you would have for a soldering iron. This iron can heat up to 900 Fahrenheit (well over what you would need for PCB soldering work) and the mini-wave tip is perfectly shaped to work with the joints on EEPROM and NVRAM chips.	4 Stars
Reliability: It doesn't get any more reliable then this. While the warranty is only for one year there are stories of this unit last upwards of five to ten years with nothing more then standard maintenance (cleaning tips, etc).	4 Stars
Usability: This unit actually has a dial on it unlike cheaper soldering systems that just plug in and that is all, no temperature control whatsoever. That is not the case with this unit. You can set the temperature to whatever you need and adjust it as you work. Typically for the type of work you would do on PCB's ~320c is a good setting. With the mini-wave tip (it is sold separately) soldering EEPROM and NVRAM chips is a breeze; there is no need to hold your soldering wire over the joint, just apply some and slide the tip across the joints you need soldered, after some practice it is amazing how difficult jobs become as simple as 1, 2, and 3 with this unit.	5 Stars
Performance: There is not much that can be said that hasn't already; this unit delivers. If you have been using cheap soldering irons for your work you will see the difference like night and day when using this unit. Every time I use it I'm amazed at how simple it makes soldering these tiny chips; the productivity boost you gain from this unit is nothing short of amazing.	5 Stars
Overall: There is no arguing, if you need a solid, reliable soldering station for doing PCB repair and transferring of EEPROM, and NVRAM chips then this is the perfect solution that is guaranteed to perform day in and day out without fail.	4.5 Stars

Who We Are

YEC International has been a major player in the data recovery industry for years with a strong background in hard drive testing, duplication, wiping, repairing, imaging, and diagnostics, as well providing successful data recovery services to customers from all over the United States