November 24, 2015

New software versions PC-3000 Ver. 6.0.14, Data Extractor Ver. 5.3.1 and PC-3000 SSD Ver. 2.0.2 are available now

PC-3000 Express/UDMA/Portable Ver.6.0.14
PC-3000 SAS Ver.6.0.14
PC-3000 SSD Ver.2.0.2
Data Extractor Ver.5.3.1
Data Extractor RAID Edition Ver.5.3.1

PC-3000 software has been supplemented with numerous significant and helpful features. The list of supported HDD families has been considerably extended. A lot of new forensic features have also appeared in the latest software release.

By updating your PC-3000 software, you will be able to enjoy the newest features and enhancements.

When preparing this release, we took a special approach. We have made this release larger and more comprehensive than the previous ones, as we planned to provide the owners of the old "green" PC-3000 UDMA with the maximum volume of useful features.

Starting from the 1st of January 2016, no software updates will be available for the old “green” PC-3000 UDMA.
All further software updates will be provided only for the new product line of the PC-3000.
You can upgrade your old tools to the new PC-3000 products till the 31st of December 2015.


DETAILED LIST OF ENHANCEMENTS

For PC-3000 Express, UDMA-E, UDMA, Portable

WD Marvell

• The "ROM Build from SA Data" mode has been completely changed
• It has become possible to read data from Self Encryption Device HDD and to decrypt data automatically
• Dir address editing for all copies has been added in the "SA Regions Editor" mode
• The "Max" button error has been fixed, which used to occur when track defects were added through the defect editor
• The following commands have become available in the "Execute" menu:
  - Block SA Access;
  - Init HDD SA Access;
  - Allow SA Access and Restart;
• The Dir compiling mechanism for the search\edit results has been improved for the "Modules Search in SA" and "Dir Editor" modes
• After finding a module in the "Modules Search in SA", you can now add it from the search list to Dir
• In the "Modules Search in SA" mode, you can now save Dir as a file and write it into RAM
• Module writing as a static has become possible
• In the "Dir Editor" mode, you can now save Dir as a file and write it into RAM
• The "region shifting" mechanism has been improved
• The "View and Edit HDD Resources" has the following improvements:
  - The "ROM Map" and "RAM Map" functionality for the RAM ranges reading
  - The processing of "next" and "previous" buttons during the ABA ranges reading
  - If module reading is interrupted, the part of module which has already been read is uploaded into the editor
• All SA copies are now checked during the SED key searching. Keys are checked for full binary matching. If there there is no matching, the key is added as a new one
• In the "Donor Search" mode, it has become possible to save the search report

WD Caviar Cyl32 (SATA)

• S.M.A.R.T. clearing procedure has been improved

Seagate F3

• In the past, a deadlock used to arise when power was turned off/on during terminal process. Now this deadlock has been fixed
• Loader creation via terminal has been improved (when System Files information is available)
• In 'Work with SA' -> 'Work with System Files', a new option has appeared for working with a part of a file. This option has two parameters: Offset(bytes), Size(bytes)
• A new tool has been introduced, which helps to hide the groups of mini-zones of a drive (up to the drive head) via the NonResident G-List plugin
• ROM ID 0xBF (SST / SANYO) is supported
• The auto-initialization utility has become available for the Kahuna family
• In 'Work with SA' -> 'Work with RAM', a new option has appeared for reading/writing via the terminal using the +/-/= commands

Seagate

• The 'Safe Mode' procedure is improved

Toshiba

• The "Zones and Heads Inactivation" mode has been added
• The MG04ACA family is supported now
• The defects hiding algorithm has been improved
• The grouping defects to tracks procedure has been improved
• The "Physical scan" test has been improved, HDD cache control option has been added ("Look Ahead")
• For the 29GSG, 55GSX, 55GSXN families, the access to SA via SATA has become much easier
• In the "LBA -> CHS" mode, it has become possible to select the commands: "LBA->CHS", "PBA->CHS", "LBA->PBA"

Samsung

• When reading data in Data Extractor, you can now use the active Samsung utility actions
• The "Work with Service Area - Table of Zone Translation" test has been replaced by a much more powerful "Tools - Utility Extensions - Disabling of Zones and Heads" tool
• It has become easier to handle the situations when the modules table of a drive is on the first track of the service area
• For the N3 family, an alternate parser of Zone allocation table has been implemented
• It has become easier to handle the situations when the capacity was not changed after editing the PARAM_DM module (because the Max LBA value was set in the PROFILE module)
• It has become possible to automatically switch into the "DBG>" mode and back while reading the ROM, which has made this procedure much more stable
• In the "Donor Search" mode, it has become possible to save the search report
• In the SA and ROM reading modes, you can now control the presence of the files where the data is saved

WD (all), Toshiba, Maxtor

• In the SA and ROM reading modes, you can now control the presence of the files where the data is saved

Universal utility PC-3000 AT

• It has become possible to save the parameters of the reading/writing tests in the universal utility

PC-3000 Kernel

• PC-3000 Express, PC-3000 UDMA-E, PC-3000 SAS, PC-3000 Portable were successfully tested for compliance with Windows 10
• The 'Choose Another Profile' and 'Rename Profile from Disk ID' commands have been added
• Digital signature of the PC-3000 Kernel and the installation utility has been added
• Automatic saving of the Log and Terminal Log has become possible for all utilities
• For the PC-3000 Express & UDMA-E boards, additional optimization of reading/writing operations in the UDMA mode has been implemented. Reading/Writing speed has been increased by more than 5 MB/s
• For the PC-3000 Express & UDMA-E boards, additional changes have been made to the UDMA protocol to show the transitional states of HDD/SSD on the lower Status/Error register panel. The new DMA RQ indicator has been added
• It has become possible to choose SATA mode (SATA-I/SATA-II) and PIO Mode (0..4) for PC-3000 Express & UDMA-E boards. This feature is helpful for working with old HDDs that may work unstable in the SATA compatibility mode or may fail to support the PIO4 mode

Win7 Disk (for PC-3000 Express, PC-3000 UDMA-E and PC-3000 Portable)

• The HDDs that are connected to the PC-3000 ports can now be mounted into the operational system due to the new driver. In case of a crash of a PC-3000 process, the drive turns off automatically

Data Extractor

• New methods of LVM metadata scanning have been introduced. It is now possible to view the LVM segments of all versions
• New browser of disk and file structures has been implemented. The browser database contains a variety of disk managers, file systems and different types of files
• The VHDX virtual disks are supported now and it is possible to recover the damaged sectors of VHDX metadata from the Log
• Virtual disk type autodetection has been added
• It has become possible to save all the marked files and folders for several partitions (the "Save marked files" menu item was removed. Instead, a dialog window is displayed when you click on the "Save" option)
• The following forensic formats are now supported: *.E01; *.aff; *.s01; *.001. Disk and partition images can be used as a data source and can be recovered even if they are located on a damaged drive:
  - It is possible to create a task based on disk and partition images in *.E01;*.aff;*.s01;*.001 formats;
  - A disk or a partition can be exported into a selected format (*.E01;*.aff;*.001);
  - A virtual disk can be created based on the file images which are stored on an HDD.
• It has become possible to make a "snapshot" of the file system based on metadata integrity
• The opportunity to work with non-LBA (CHS-only) drives has been added
• HDDs with the sector size other than 512 bytes can now be mounted into the operational system
• The "Recalculate statistics" mode has been added to the main “Statistics” menu
• For the “Loss of Readiness” and “Reading Error” tabs, a new procedure has been added for the “Pause" button
• It has become possible to delete a file when copying has been cancelled
• It has become possible to save a copy of task parameters into the "!BackUp" folder and to recover the task from this copy
• Enhancements for file systems:
  - NTFS. In the “Search Structures”, a new method of clusterization start detection has been added. It significantly improves the quality of data recovery in complicated cases;
  - NTFS. The procedure of encrypted files saving has been changed. Earlier, such files could not be saved. Now a file is saved in the encrypted form and also a copy is saved with the '$100' attribute;
  - FAT. Partition analysis and FAT tables recovery are now based on the legends of decrypted sectors and sectors read by the utility.
• RAW recovery mode:
  - New LVM structures and methods of maps creation have been added;
  - New fields (name and possible dates) are displayed in the RAW recovery results;
  - The RAW recovery results can now be grouped by subcategories;
  - It has become possible to create a virtual file system based on the RAW recovery results.
• Explorer mode:
  - For virtual file systems based on data analysis or "snapshots”, it has become possible to sort files by date and type;
  - Free space control in the process of data saving has been added;
  - Different options are now available during data saving after the required space is calculated. The process is terminated if the disk space is overloaded;
  - When folders and files are saved, all dates can be set now (not only the creation date);
  - After the marked files are saved, it has become possible to remove the marks.

RAID Edition

• In the “Create RAID” form, it has become possible to choose the polynomial for data recovery based on RS blocks
• It is possible to quickly mark a RAID member as a missing (dummy) disk
• The RAID map legend can now be built based on the legends of RAID members
• Autodetection of RAID parameters based on LDM metadata has become possible in case of GPT partitioning
• New "Structures" tab. It increases the efficiency of interactive RAID detection and enables to determine the RAID parameters based on the analysis of file types

For PC-3000 SSD

Samsung SSD

• The 840 EVO family is now supported
• The following enhancements have been made for the 470 and 830 families:
  - Improved translator building algorithms;
  - New loaders added;
  - Apple SSD of the the 470 and 830 families are now supported.
• The following enhancements have been made for the 840/840 PRO/840 EVO families:
  - Improved loader algorithms;
  - Improved algorithm of checking and reading memory chips in the loader;
  - Improved algorithm of memory chips reading in the utility;
  - Support of the 512 Gb drives (840/840 PRO);
  - Capability of hardware decryption for reading by logical sequence;
  - Improved algorithm of translator building for the 840/840 PRO family drives.
• General changes of the utility:
  - Loader type can now be selected manually;
  - Memory chip information has been added into the "Utility Status" menu;
  - The window of family selection has been changed. Now the family can be selected by microprogram version and controller type.

OCZ Barefoot 3

• New families are now supported:
  - OCZ Vector 150;
  - OCZ Vector 180;
  - OCZ Vertex 460;
  - OCZ Vertex 460A;
  - OCZ Arc 100;
  - AMD Radeon R7.
• New tests have been added:
  - Low-level formatting;
  - "Clear S.M.A.R.T.";
  - Defect table report;
  - Trasfer of G-List into P-List.
• New functionality:
  - Autodetect procedure for the drives in the “Safe" mode;
  - Clear password option for the drives in the "Safe" mode;
  - SMART attributes decoding;
  - Improved Defect Tables search algorithm.

For PC-3000 SAS

• Full support of Windows 10 OS
• Bug fixes in the PC-3000 utilities

Win7 Disk (For PC-3000 SAS)

• The HDDs that are connected to the PC-3000 SAS ports can now be mounted into the operational system due to the new driver. In case of a crash of a PC-3000 process, the drive turns off automatically

All authorized technical support users will be able to get the latest software version for their PC-3000 products.
Please contact us to find out how to become an authorized technical support user.