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PC-3000 UDMA HDD Repair

The PC-3000 UDMA is a hardware-software solution intended for diagnosing and repairing HDD based on SATA (Serial ATA) and ATA (IDE) interfaces for numerous vendors (Seagate, Western Digital, Fujitsu, Samsung, Maxtor, Quantum, IBM (HGST), HITACHI, TOSHIBA), for various capacities (from 500MB to 6 TB) and various form factors: 3.5" - desktop drives, 2.5" and 1.8" - laptop drives.

The PC-3000 UDMA coupled with the Data Extractor UDMA forms the PC-3000 UDMA Professional System that allows you to recover data from SATA, ATA (IDE) HDD. If you wish to repair these HDD, you need only the PC-3000 UDMA, and for data recovery you need the combination of PC-3000 UDMA and Data Extractor UDMA.

THE PC-3000 UDMA Hardware

The new PC-3000 UDMA is a three-port tester-board which is inserted into a PCI-Express expansion slot and has 2 SATA ports (data transfer speed up to 133 MB/s) and 1 PATA (speed up to 100 MB/s) port. The primary port is SATA0 while SATA1 is a secondary port which is switchable with the PATA port. The PC-3000 UDMA provides two simultaneous connections for two drives – the first port is used for SATA and the second one can be used either for SATA or for PATA (it depends on your needs). Thus, you can work either with 2 SATA drives or 1 SATA and 1 PATA at the same time.

When developing the new PCI-Express-based PC-3000 UDMA system, we used the main features from the previous generation of PCI-based PC-3000 UDMA, which proved to be the best, most reliable, and most optimally performing data recovery system possible, while at the same time maintaining a reasonable price.

Processing modes:

SATA x2 — UDMA133, UDMA100, UDMA66, UDMA33, PIO4, PIO3, PIO2, PIO1, PIO0
PATA x1 - UDMA100, UDMA66, UDMA33, PIO4, PIO3, PIO2, PIO1, PIO0

Two ports are separable, but when they are both in use they are dependent. There is a slight reduction in performance on the second channel when the first one is fully loaded (no more than 20% reduction) as the PC-3000 UDMA is based on a single-channel PCI-Express bus. At the same time, this technical solution allows a reduction of the total cost of the board and makes it more attractive for small and mid-sized data recovery companies.

Reading performance for two HDD drives

According to the diagram, the reading speed of two channels on the new PC-3000 UDMA is much higher than the reading speed of the previous generation of PC-3000 UDMA on the PCI bus.

Power supply adapter

A double-channel power supply adapter is located on the board controller and provides independent +5 V, +12 V voltage supply and protection from overvoltage and current overloading. In case of any contingency the HDD power supply is switched off automatically.

In addition, every channel has a feedback circuit with special management software that controls the supplying voltage values and informs the user about any issue with the feed circuit.

Resource Management of the PC-3000 UDMA board

One of the most important new features of the PC-3000 UDMA allows for launching of the PC-3000 utility and Data Extractor tasks as separate OS processes. The "PC-3000 Resource manager" software makes using the new PC-3000 UDMA very easy and effective. The "PC-3000 Resource manager" manages port and related process activity, controls the status of the ports, checks process conditions and kills processes when it is necessary.

Once a process is started it can use more than one port. For instance, two processes can be used for every port or two ports can be used by one process.

Port selection process in the PC-3000 UDMA

PC-3000 UDMA Resource Manager

THE PC-3000 UDMA Kit

PC-3000 UDMA-E controller
PC-USB PWR adapter
PC-USB-TERMINAL adapter
PC-2" adapter
SATA-micro SATA adapter
MX-SAFE adapter
PC-FUJ.SATA adapter
PC-QUANTUM adapter
PC-SAMSUNG adapter
PC-SEAG.SATA adapter
PC-SEAGATE adapter
PC-TOSH.SATA adapter

PC-WD3.5" adapter
PC-WD2.5" adapter
ATCS, ATDA probe unlock
USB 2.0 Defender cable
SATA RAID edition (80 cm) cable
UDMA80 (80 cm) flat cable
IDC10 (30 cm) cable
MX-SAFE power cable
SATA HDD (80 cm) power cable
PATA HDD (70 cm) power cable
PATA-SATA (10 cm) power adapter
PC-3000 UDMA software, resource database
User manual

PC-3000 UDMA Kit

PC-USB PWR adapter

PC-USB-TERMINAL adapter

PC-FUJ.SATA, PC-QUANTUM, PC-SAMSUNG, PC-SEAG.SATA, PC-SEAGATE,
PC-TOSH.SATA, PC-WD3.5", PC-WD2.5" connectors

HDD 10 pin cable

How to connect PC-USB-TERMINAL adapter

How to connect PC-SEAG.SATA adapter

PC-MX-SAFE adapter intended for working with MAXTOR HDD in safe mode

Tester (ATCS, ATDA) intended for unlocking HITACHI/IBM HDD

PC-2" adapter intended for connecting 2,5" and 1,8" HDD

PC micro SATA adapter

SATA RAID edition (80 cm) cable

UDMA80 (80 cm) flat cable

HDD SATA (80 cm) power supply cable

HDD PATA (70 cm) power supply cable

PATA-SATA (10 cm) power adapter

SEE ALSO:

PC-3000 Express

Data Extractor Express

Data Extractor Express RAID Edition

PC-3000 UDMA

Data Extractor UDMA

Data Extractor UDMA RAID Edition

PC-3000 Portable

Data Extractor Portable

Form factor: Embedded board of PC expansion which uses one slot.

Interface type: One-channel PCI Express 2.5 GB/s

Diagnostic ports (location): 2-SATA (external), 1-PATA (internal)

Processing modes:

SATA - UDMA133/100/66/33, PIO4/3/2/1/0
PATA - UDMA100/66/33, PIO4/3/2/1/0

Power adapter: Two-channel power adapter with protection from overvoltage and current overloading. HDD Connectors are external.

Supported HDD: 500 MB - 6 TB: 3.5", 2.5",1.8",1.0"

OS Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10; х86, x32, х64

Recommended PC configuration:
CPU: Intel Core i5 (Quad Core)
RAM: 8GB
Storage configuration: 1 TB HDD
LCD Monitor: 22", 1920x1080

The main principles of PC-3000 functionality

A Hard Disk Drive (HDD) consists of three main parts: the Hard Drive Assembly, the printed circuit board and the internal software. If one of these parts is damaged, the HDD does not work. The PC-3000 allows you to diagnose the HDD, fix damaged HDD modules, switch off defective heads, block access to the damaged area of magnetic surfaces, get access to the user data and many other functions.

HDD diagnosis can be done in standard (user) and technological (factory) modes. There are special PC-3000 adapters used for switching the HDD into technological mode to get access to the internal HDD software and user data.

To make initial diagnostics, the PC-3000 universal utility is launched. It diagnoses the HDD in user mode. The following checks are done: if the HDD is identified and if the HDD is password locked; check of surface access by LBA to the user data area and HDD translation system etc. If there are any HDD malfunctions, a special vendor-specific technological utility (intended for a specific HDD vendor) is used to repair the drive and gain access to user data in technological mode.

Technological utilities

The PC-3000 UDMA includes 16 special utilities used for various vendors, architectures and HDD families. Special utilities help to conduct HDD diagnosis on a low level, reveal damages and try to exclude them using special program methods and gain access to user data. If you wish to only repair the HDD and you do not need user data, you can make full drive initialization, switch off damaged heads, hide defects on the magnetic surface and reconfigure the HDD.

All specialized PC-3000 utilities are capable of performing the following actions:

diagnose the HDD in technological mode
verify and recover the HDD service area
read-write Flash ROMs area
load service information access program – LDR
modify HDD heads configuration tables
review defect tables (P-list, G-list, T-list, etc.)
hide found defects of magnetic surface
recalculate (initialize) translator
change configuration and identification parameters
reset logs and S.M.A.R.T parameters
watch and reset HDD passwords
work with the Data Extractor

How to use the PC-3000 UDMA to recover data

The most frequent reasons of HDD damage:

failure of one or more magnetic-resistance heads
damaged service information module
magnetic surface defects like scratches
damaged PCB
other damage

In many cases it is not necessary to fully repair the HDD to recover data. It could suffice to correct internal HDD software. This allows temporal access to user data and you can read the required information.

If one of the magnetic heads is damaged, we can get data access through the remaining heads using “MR-Head Shift technology”. The damaged head is substituted by the adjacent correct magnetic head. It allows for keeping the integrity of the translated data and for reading big data volumes without having to exchange the head stack.
If there is a problem with the initial HDD initialization, the detailed start process log can show some information that helps to identify the damaged program modules with service information. Service area copies can be switched over to make the correct system head initialization. If the initialization process fails due to the problem with loading program modules into RAM, you can use the special Loader that creates essential HDD content into RAM.
Technological mode allows reading of data using physical parameters in PZCHS or line physical area with ABA. It is very often the only way to read data from significantly damaged surfaces.
When the HDD PCB is damaged you can use another correct PCB taken from an HDD donor. This will save a lot of time in gaining access to user data.
USB HDD access can be done using the COM port or adapted SATA HDD PCB.

How to use the PC-3000 UDMA to repair HDDs?

The PC-3000 provides a great variety of functions for repairing HDDs. It enables the user to overwrite FLASH ROM, to switch off damaged magnetic heads, to detect and exclude damage in the HDD service area, to recalculate and overwrite service modules, to regenerate the translation system, to clean and reset S.M.A.R.T. logs and tables, to detect bad areas in magnetic surfaces and to exclude them from the HDD working area. Afterward, identification parameters are corrected (including serial number, model, capacity, etc.) There are 5 main HDD repair stages:

HDD PCB is diagnosed. It helps to evaluate how difficult it is to repair this HDD and if it is worth doing it. Board can be repaired or substituted by another board taken from an HDD donor. Flash ROM is checked for integrity and version correspondence. If necessary, they are rewritten from the PC-3000 resource database.
Magnetic heads are checked, bad heads are disabled.
HDD service area is diagnosed. Service information modules are checked on all copies. Damaged modules are recovered or overwritten in accordance with reference data. Some service modules are cleaned and logs are reset. Calibration is launched for those HDDs where it is possible to do it.
Searching the bad sectors and tracks on HDD surfaces and hiding them. In case of seriously damaged surface and numerous bad sectors, this surface area is disabled. If defects are minor and local, separate areas can be switched off or defects can be hidden by using an HDD backup zone, HDD capacity remains the same. For some drives SelfScan procedure can be launched.
Available HDD logical space is determined. Max LBA parameters, model name, serial number etc are formed.

The PC-3000 UDMA HDD firmware database

The PC-3000 UDMA Professional system has a massive database of factory firmware resources: FLASH ROMs, service area modules, service area tracks and other HDD critical resources. The database is systematized and stores all data in compressed format. It allows getting quick and easy data access and sharing firmware resources between several PC-3000 Kits.

The main advantages of PC-3000 database:

FireBird database server is used (one of the most reliable SQL servers)
adaptive indexation mechanism is used to speed up the search process
shared firmware database can be created for use by several PC-3000 kits at the same time
backup policy can be managed
you can create a database with more than 4GB size
you may add your own resources, for example, new objects, from the latest HDD models
all users can exchange resources they have between each other

Dedicated modes for experienced users

There are two dedicated modes intended for experienced users: integrated script system and ATA commander

Script system – allows creating algorithms used for issuing commands to HDDs in Visual Basic Script including data preparation and results interpretation. Advanced object model is used for getting access to HDDs. This object model is used by PC-3000 utilities. This algorithm can be added to any PC-3000 utility as a "user" mode.

ATA commander – interactive mode that allows issuing commands to HDDs (including technological commands) even by a user who does not have programming skills. You can set values for HDD registers (including registers for LBA 48 mode), and prepare and provide HDD data commands using a binary text editor. The sequence of supplied HDD commands can be classified by types and saved to file for later use or for sending to another PC-3000 owner. Judging from HDD command data, ATA Commander can generate script text for using it from Script system or as a "user mode".

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