Support

Frequently Asked Questions

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• Where do I find DiskSense Serial Number?
  It is located on the bottom of the unit.
• Will Atola Insight stop working after subscription expiration date?

  No, it will not. You can use Atola Insight forever, however, you will not be able to install versions that came out after your subscription expiration date.

  In other words, you can use any version of Atola Insight that was released prior to your subscription expiration date.

• How does the Atola Insight compare to other products in the industry that advertise the same features?
  Our goal is to develop the most effective data recovery solution on the market. Though our product is clearly the most effective solution for some operations, there are many products on the market and we feel that it is unethical to make claims such as “our product is the best on the market.” A feature-by-feature comparison to competing products in our industry is available through Ji2 Inc. (www.ji2.com).
• How can I achieve the best duplication speed with DiskSense Ethernet unit?
  To have an acceptable throughput you would need to use a Gigabit Ethernet network card in your computer. If you plug DiskSense unit into a network switch, the switch has to be rated for Gigabit speeds (as well as all other intermediate switches between the unit and PC where Atola Insight software is installed). Gigabit Ethernet will give you the maximum speed of about 85 Mb/s.

  When Gigabit Ethernet is not available, the maximum speed would be only 8 MB/s which is very low.

  There are few steps to ensure high speed connection:

  1. Check that your Ethernet adapter supports Gigabit Ethernet. If it doesn't, then you would have to obtain a new Ethernet adapter that supports Gigabit Ethernet.
  2. If DiskSense is not directly attached to the PC but to a networking switch, then please make sure that it does support Gigabit Ethernet (as well as all other intermediate switches, if any). Ethernet adapter in the PC still must support Gigabit Ethernet.
  3. A misconfigured network switch or network adapter can cause a negative impact on the speed as well.
  4. Verify that all intermediate network cables between the unit and the PC are 5e category or higher (cat. 6). It is suggested the cables should not be too long; however, usually long cables (20 meters/60 feet and more) do not cause any issues.
  5. For maximum performance, DiskSense Ethernet unit should be connected directly to the Ethernet adapter on the PC without any intermediate network switches.

  There are other things that could affect transfer speeds like network adapter drivers, motherboard drivers, antivirus software and so on. However, complying with the rules above is enough for most cases.

  To verify the network speed you can do the following:

  1. Launch the Atola Insight software
  2. Connect a good and fast hard drive to the Source port of the DiskSense unit
  3. Navigate to Imaging, select Imaging to File option
  4. In the file selection dialog enter file name nul (with one L if you are using Atola Insight version 2.0 or earlier; if you are using version 2.1 or newer, the name should be null with two L). This special file name will force Insight to skip writing, thus target write speed will not affect the measurement. Data is still transferred through Ethernet.
  5. Begin imaging

  If everything is working properly, you should see speeds of 50 MB/s or higher.
• When I start the Insight, I receive the following message: "Cannot locate DiskSense unit. Please ensure that DiskSense unit is attached and powered on."

  Resolution depends on the type of your DiskSense unit. If you have a USB unit, the message means that either unit is powered off, there is no USB link between the unit and the PC, or the required drivers are missing. For driver recovery, please proceed to the Atola Insight download page and download the driver pack.

  If you have an Ethernet unit, then please verify that the Unit Status indicator is not flashing (flashing means unit is booting) and that you do not have any firewall that might block the connection. Verify ethernet connection to the computer. If that did not help, then try manually setting the IP address of your PC to 192.168.0.100, network mask 255.255.255.0. If Insight still does not launch, then please follow the procedure of resetting IP address of the unit (see article below).

• How do I reset DiskSense Ethernet IP address to default?

  Default IP address is 192.168.0.177. To reset the current IP address to 192.168.0.177, turn off the unit, press and hold the yellow HDD Power Off button and then turn on the unit. Hold HDD Power Off button until the unit is ready (Unit Status LED is not blinking). Now the unit has default IP address (192.168.0.177).

• When I lock a hard drive in a laptop with known password and then try to extract that password with Atola Insight, extracted password does not match the one I used to lock the drive

  Cause: Laptops apply a certain scrambling algorithm (depending on the laptop manufacturer) before sending the password you type to the hard drive.

  Resolution: There is nothing to resolve. The extracted (encrypted) password is the one that is in the hard drive. You can use it to unlock the drive.

• How do I backup and restore Atola Insight's database?

  First, please download and install Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express.

  Then:
  1. Launch Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express
  2. Click "Connect"
  3. Expand "Databases"
  4. Right-click "AtolaInsightDB", select Tasks->Back Up...
  5. Proceed with the backup

  Restore procedure is similar to backup, just select Tasks->Restore instead of Tasks->Back Up.

• "Error writing firmware" message when updating DiskSense firmware

  Cause: there was a bug in early versions of the DiskSense firmware update utility

  Workaround: Detach IDE and SATA cables and install a jumper on IDE port pins 1 and 3:
  

  After the update procedure is complete, remove jumper and continue to work normally.

  This issue is already resolved in latest releases of Atola Insight.