Atola Insight

Disk Duplication

All hard drive imagers are not created equal

Hard drive duplication is a very important part of the data recovery process. Trying to recover data directly from the original HDD is dangerous because the hard drive can fail at any moment and result in permanent data loss. This means the technician must transfer the data quickly and safely from the original HDD to a backup HDD and then proceed using the backup. When the original HDD is imaged, the user must be 100% certain that all usable bits of data have been extracted from and transferred to the backup. The Atola Insight is the industry’s most effective system for imaging hard drives quickly and safely, while extracting the maximum amount of data. It allows the user to set every part of the process in order to customize the imaging approach to best suit each data recovery case.

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Flexible settings

The Atola Insight is able to image entire hard drives, selected partitions or specified sector ranges. The newly created image can be stored either on a destination hard drive or the host computer. A data wipe function is also available to quickly and easily write a null pattern to the destination hard drive (example: 00, FF, or E5) if necessary to prepare it for a new image.

Customize every step of the process

The Atola Insight enables the user to create the perfect imaging process to meet the needs of a project by adjusting simple parameters. These parameters can be applied to any range of sectors or any single read/write head. Multiple read-passes can be created for a number of reasons (example: quickly extract data from healthy sectors before going back to focus on damaged sectors). No complex coding or difficult, time consuming steps are needed because customization is simply built into the user interface. Please see the video at the bottom of the page for examples of setting parameters.

Main Imaging Parameters:

• Specify read/write heads to transfer from
• Timeout length (after failed sector read attempt)
• Number of sectors to skip after failed read attempts
• Number of imaging passes
• Apply Read-Long command on last pass
• Reduce HDD operating speed to PIO mode
• Calculate checksum (MD5, SHA (1, 224, 256, 384, 512))
• Disable GList auto reallocation
• Copy direction (forward/linear or reverse)
• Abort duplication if after X amount of HDD power cycles

In-depth status monitoring

The Atola Insight’s real-time status monitoring system is detailed and easy to read with Case Management and File Recovery modules. At a glance, it communicates vital information to the user (such as total number of errors and last block read) in both digital and graphical form. Based on the data being displayed throughout the imaging process, the user has the option of making on-the-fly changes to the imaging parameters. The user can even add another imaging pass to the end of the function to revisit areas with multiple errors and apply different parameters. When the imaging pass is complete, all status information is automatically sent to the Case Management and File Recovery modules.

Data-Only copy option

This option gives the user the ability to only copy occupied sectors from the source hard drive. This can greatly reduce copy time and relieve strain on the source hard drive. Please note that this function should only be used for hard drives that are NOT severely damaged.

Image file creation

Copying the source disk into an image file is fast and easy using the Atola Insight. Just select a storage location on the host PC or media and specify the image file size (put all data in 1 image file or “chunk” the data into a series of smaller files).

Fully integrated with file recovery module

At the end of the duplication process, the Atola Insight creates a Bad Sector Map and stores it in the Case History. When the File Recovery module is started, it will automatically refer to the Bad Sector Map, so the user does not need to waste time by scanning the hard drive again. A list of recovered files has already been recorded and the data is ready for browsing. This system is much more efficient than using one product for imaging and another for file recovery, because the user would have image the hard drive and then re-scan it with file recovery software when using two separate products.

Additionally you can watch these video tutorials:

Imaging to disk

Imaging to file

Two hardware options to meet your needs The Atola Insight system is offered with 2 options for the DiskSense unit, which is the physical tool that mounts the hard drive and connects to the operator's computer. The DiskSense USB unit offers a lower investment price and transfers data at speeds up to 38 MB/sec (UDMA speed). The DiskSense Ethernet unit utilizes a faster 110 MB/sec interface for data transfer functions with 2 ports to allow for direct disk-to-disk duplication.
DiskSense USB Unit	DiskSense USB Source HDD SATA and IDE ports Native ATA/IDE and SATA I/II interface support Supports hard drive to host duplication via USB (38 MB/sec max transfer speed) Supports hard-drive to hard-drive duplication through host computer using USB interface (2.2 GB/min max transfer speed)
DiskSense Ethernet Unit	DiskSense Ethernet Source HDD SATA and IDE ports Target SATA port for super-fast disk-to-disk transfers Native ATA/IDE and SATA I/II interface support Supports source HDD to host duplication via Ethernet (85 MB/sec max transfer speed) Supports source HDD to target HDD duplication via Ethernet (110 MB/sec max transfer speed)