F.L.A.M.E. - A new tool for data recovery

[irs]

hoping not to bore anyone with this long post
i didn't put all available utilities but only the most used (Seagate and Western Digital)

bye
Luca

 

[pclab]

Thanks for sharing Luca.

I must confess it's not the most appealing GUI I ever sean, but as long as it works.
About the utilities, I don't see too much options for repairing problems, Like the clear translator, G-List, etc etc
About the option to mount a Virtual HDD, I think that ACE DE does that already.
It does have that, right?

 

[Jared]

Yes Ace DE has the ability to mount the task, and will clone the read sectors at the same time as you access them.

 

[Jared]

Not to try and insinuate anything here, but one of the first screens reminds me too much of the HDD doctor interface. Does it seem at all like they recycled some of that software when they put this together?

 

[irs]

about the clearing lists and translators are present the options, for seagate i absolutely prefer do it by terminal so you can see errors (in pc3000 are serial port commands ), you can load loader, regen translator clean SMART, glist and non resident also, change head maps ... i really don't see many lacking features; but if you need i can make a list some, but it's a time wasting job.

for DE yes you can mount the task but not the drive directly with headmap without the need to copy sectors (make data copy), so it's a little bit different, and also in pc3000 if you don't change sector 0 windows will try to open partitions on an unstable drive ...

Luca

 

[irs]

Not to try and insinuate anything here, but one of the first screens reminds me too much of the HDD doctor interface. Does it seem at all like they recycled some of that software when they put this together?

i really don't think so, hd doctor use USB Bulk communication with a box that have all the commands inside, in fact you need to update the box to use latest seagate software (when they added F3 - new set of commands) and i don't think the graphic interface is similar anyhow, there are no magic buttons for repair all problems in 1 click like SD; and comparing to Pc3000 i don't think is worse than a grey screen ...

I repaired 4 diablo 3s drives in the last 3 months having ROM corruption rebuilding ROM with FLAME, PC3000 wasn't able to do it as the ROM overlays (102,103,105,107) are "NOT INIT". Using this tool i simply hot swapped (without changing any module on donor) and used the "Generate Rom Modules" option finding all modules (including 47 and 20B), this way the tool has paid by itself, and is the proof is not a copy of something else.

Luca

 

[Jared]

Good to know that. I had heard your name mentioned once regarding rebuilding lost Seagate ROM. Now I know why.

 

[lcoughey]

as last preview i'd like to add a feature on the cloner that i haven't found on any other tool, the option to mount the drive in windows (in read only) preventing windows to access it (without bothering of masking first sectors to hide partitions to win) but selecting head map and skip surfaces while extracting with any software (like Rstudio, winhex...) this way you can chose the SW you like but skip defective heads!

This works on PC3K+DE when cloning between PC3K channels. Personally, I prefer to mask the 55AA to 55BB in sector 0 to prevent windows from choking on trying to mount a partially cloned drive. Windows is unstable enough on its own.

 

[Jared]

Or if you just check the box "Modify MBR" when creating the task in DE, it does that automatically.

 

[HaQue]

as last preview i'd like to add a feature on the cloner that i haven't found on any other tool, the option to mount the drive in windows (in read only) preventing windows to access it (without bothering of masking first sectors to hide partitions to win) but selecting head map and skip surfaces while extracting with any software (like Rstudio, winhex...) this way you can chose the SW you like but skip defective heads!

This works on PC3K+DE when cloning between PC3K channels. Personally, I prefer to mask the 55AA to 55BB in sector 0 to prevent windows from choking on trying to mount a partially cloned drive. Windows is unstable enough on its own.

Are you allowed to do this for forensic cases? I hear all the time forensic guys on podcasts saying that yu must never change anything on a drive. Surely some changes are required to access data, and as long as it is documented and can be proven that it doesn't effect data, and is needed for damaged drives..(55 AA to 55 BB for example) then this would still hold up in court?

To me, it is like the police physical forensic unit finding a bullet casing, but leaving it at the crime scene because they "can't change it". they still need to change *something* (bagging and tagging, taking to lab, applying chemicals to examine it) but can still hold evidence integrity.

Just how strict is the data integrity in real life?