The 1st of February, 2012
Letter of Information to all North American customers
See more

The 10th of January, 2012
Update for PC-3000 UDMA Ver. 4.9.1 and Data Extractor Ver. 4.7.1 is released! See more





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PC-3000 for SCSI
SCSI Hard Disk Drives are very essential part of the modern IT business due to their growing popularity and increasing number of ready data storage business solutions. The SCSI standard is quite widespread in PC servers and high-end PC workstations. Fast SCSI bus lets you put multiple items on one bus, that's why more and more companies use SCSI technology to store their important data.


 What is PC-3000 for SCSI?

PC-3000 for SCSI is a first-to-market professional hardware-software solution for testing, diagnosing the failures and recovering data from Hard Disk Drives with SCSI and SAS interfaces in tandem with Data Extractor SCSI.

  • SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) are supported.
  • SCSI-2, Ultra SCSI, Ultra2 SCSI, Ultra 160 SCSI, Ultra 320 SCSI are supported. See the list of all SCSI HDD models supported by PC-3000 for SCSI.
  • Original user-friendly interface similar to that one of PC-3000 for Windows.
  • PC-3000 for SCSI can work with 1 up to 15 Hard Disk Drives simultaneously, make tests and service operations for each of them and independently from all the other drives.
  • New PC-KEY2 (Power supplier) card can control power supply of one HDD.
  • Three external power sources of ATX standard, you can connect several HDDs to each of them.
  • DBMS for resource storage - one of the most safe database of all existing ones.
  • PC-3000 for SCSI hardware-software product can function under these Operating systems: Microsoft Windows 98/ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP. Requirements to your PC hardware are determined by the requirements to the OS. SCSI adapter must be installed.
  • Know-how manuals with different methodologies of data recovery, recommendations on interchangeability of PCBs, succession of making hot-swap and many other knowledgeable methods which you won't find anywhere else in the world.

PC-KEY 2 power controller


See general list of problems which PC-3000 for SCSI can solve


 Principles of operation

Image creation

With PC-3000 for SCSI you can both make the image of HDD (full sector-by-sector copy) and save any area of the surface of SCSI HDD being restored to file onto another HDD and then write these data to the chosen HDD. You can make copy from one hard drive to several drives simultaneously. This possibility is very useful for HDD cloning and data recovery when HDD has defective sectors and it is necessary to recover data from it but hanging and malfunctions do not allow to do it by the standard ways.

Wide possibilities of copying

Test operations are available - reading, writing, verification, replication (copying information from one HDD to any number of connected HDDs). In HDD replication it is possible to copy from SCSI/SAS to SCSI/SAS, from SCSI/SAS to ATA/SATA, from ATA/SATA to SCSI/SAS, from ATA/SATA to ATA/SATA, in other words, any combinations are available.

Sector editor

Hardware-software solution has a Sector editor which helps you to view and edit selected surface areas, and to save them to files or to database.

Visualization

All operations are logged. PC-3000 for SCSI tests HDD performance and displays it in a diagram. The exchange rate is shown in Mb/s for commands not connected with data exchange or in the number of processed LBA per second for tests which do not transfer data, for example, about surface verification.

Maximum speed of work

One of the advantages of PC-3000 for SCSI is the maximum possible speed of working with your SCSI/SAS HDD. It is defined by HOST SCSI/SAS controller possibilities and does not depend on the number of the Hard Disk Drives connected to the PC-3000 for SCSI. Thus, when you use modern Ultra320 controllers with data transfer rate between HDD buffer and controller making 320 Mb/s, the transfer rate will be limited now not by the controller, but the maximum rate of transferring data of HDD reading channel between HDD surface and its buffer which does not exceed 90 Mb/s in the modern HDD.
Therefore, if you connect, for example, four Ultra320 HDD to the controller and launch all four reading tests or create data image of one HDD to three another ones, then the data transfer rate on each HDD will the maximum possible - 60-80 Mb/s and will equal to the rate that will be displyed when you connect the only one HDD to the controller. For example, speed of verification or reading of all HDD surface with 73 Gb will be about 24 minutes. The speed of simultaneous verification of the whole surface of fifteen HDD with the same capacity will make the same 24 minutes.

For advanced users

PC-3000 for SCSI allows to extend the functionalities of the product by the users themselves - you can write your own tests in the built-in programming language Visual Basic Script. The built-in script system allows to get the access to all PC-3000 for SCSI functions like windows interface, work with database, issuing any commands to SCSI (including technological mode), work with clipboard etc.

Profiles

All results of the tests can be saved to files or database. For this aim, a separate catalogue with its unique name is generated for each HDD - profile. You can view or use the results in the other tests. All operations are logged.


 PC-3000 for SCSI software

PC-3000 for SCSI software has the universal utility and specialized utilities.
Universal utility quickly diagnoses any damaged HDD and determines how to repair HDD.
Specialized utilities repair HDD, they are unique for each HDD manufacturer.

Universal utility
  • supports SCSI HDD of all manufacturers - Seagate, IBM, Maxtor-Quantum, Fujitsu, Hitachi-HGST.
  • helps to simultaneously test all HDD connected to the system, for one channel SCSI it is 15 HDD, for two channels - 30 etc and do tests and service operations for each of them independently of all others, for example you can start read test on one and write test on the other one.
  • tests HDD capacity and shows it as a diagram.
  • has convenient sector editor which enables to view and edit selected parts of the surface and also to save it to the file.
  • all results of the tests can be saved into files or database. During operation all actions are logged.
Universal Utility Possibilities:
  1. Running of elementary tests (readiness check, recalibration, self-diagnostics, drive ID reading, spindle stop/start).
  2. Surface verification
  3. Read test
  4. Write test
  5. Search test
  6. Complex HDD test including all of the above
  7. Reading of PLIST and GLIST defect tables
  8. Seek and assign of surface defects
  9. Switching on/off the automatic reassignment of defects at reading and writing, changing of hardware quantity of reading attempts and writing of bad sectors
  10. SMART parameters indication and clearance of error logs
  11. HPA changing
  12. Low-level HDD format with possibility of defect relocation and erasing GLIST.
  13. Launch of short HDD self-test
  14. Replication (image creation) of HDD - copying data from one HDD to any quantity of HDD connected to the system.
  15. Other possibilities are described in the user manuals.

What's new in the Universal utility?

  • Added possibility of simultaneous and independent operation with all HDDs connected to the standard ports ATA and SATA in Win2K and Windows XP operating systems. Available test operations - read, write, verification, replication (copying information from one HDD to any number of connected HDDs). At HDD replication it is possible to copy from SCSI/SAS to SCSI/SAS, from SCSI/SAS to ATA/SATA, from ATA/SATA to SCSI/SAS, from ATA/SATA to ATA/SATA, i. e. any combinations.

  • Added possibility of using the command of "long" reading instead of the command of standard reading into reading and image creation. It could be applied in some data recovery cases at the damaged translator or unstable reading.

  • Added possibility to choose the quantity of LBA read data by one command into HDD replication. It's vital for HDDs with unstable reading.

  • In formatting command we added possibility to load defect table in LBA format.

  • Added indication of LBA-PCHS and PCHS-LBA conversion to investigate the operation of the translator.

  • Added possibility to form soft BAD-sector by "long" writing.

  • Added menu "HDD configuration" in which the following possibilities are realized:
    • indication of physical parameters - quantity of cylinders, heads, speed of rotation. Zone distribution table identification, hardware quantity of attempts of reading, writing, verification on bad sectors.
    • In mode select command it is possible to permit/inhibit automatic defect relocation at reading and writing, change of hardware quantity of attempts of reading and writing of BAD sectors and time limit of processing these sectors.
    • Permitting/inhibiting of data cashing in read-write operations.


  • Added Log sense command by which a list of supported configuration pages and their content is indicated. Here we also give decoding of many actual parameters: date of HDD manufacturing, number of start-stop cycles, HDD temperature, total number of read, written sectors and also SMART parameters - number of mistakes in data processing and codes of SMART state. Here you can also clear error logs.

  • Added possibility of HPA change (HDD capacity) and setting the capacity on default (maximum capacity).

  • Added button in toolbar by which we implemented rapid access to the elementary operations - check of readiness, recalibration, start/stop. This same button is available in all specialized utilities.


Specialized utilities

PC-3000 for SCSI has specialized utilities: IBM, Maxtor-Quantum, Seagate, Fujitsu which allow to test these HDD in the factory mode, check and recover service information. If errors are detected, the additional list of Unit Error Code (UEC) is used, inaccessible for the universal utility. This UEC-list gives details of errors and in many cases it helps to very precisely determine the possible ways to repair HDD or recover data.

Specialized utilities have the individual set of functions various for the different utilities, the main utilities are:
  • HDD testing in factory mode
  • service information testing and recovery
  • HDD Flash ROM reading and writing
  • translator regeneration
  • reading/writing on physical parameters
IBM utility

Utility possibilities:
  1. Service area surface checking
  2. Service information structure checking
  3. Service information module reading
  4. Service information module writing
  5. NV-RAM and RAM reading
  6. Zone distribution table viewing
  7. Self-tests IBM launching information testing and recovery
What's new in IBM utility?
  1. Changed procedure of entrance into the utility at loading the module table from file or database.
  2. Added physical head test
  3. Implemented defect relocation from G-List into P-List with translator regeneration.
  4. There is a possibility to set up the option "Format degraded disable" in HDD configuration which enables to get access to the user data in HDD with the error "Medium Format Corrupted" or the similar ones connected with the format error.
  5. Added possibility to read modules by ignoring the error and by the composition method.
  6. Overviewed list of additional codes of errors which detail the defect cause. This list helps in many cases to define exactly the cause of HDD damage.
Maxtor-Quantum utility

Utility possibilities:
  1. Service information structure check
  2. Service information module reading/writing
  3. SA track reading/writing
  4. Reading CP (Config Pages), writing CP into memory
  5. Loading of microcode into service area and memory.
  6. Reading/writing on physical parameters
  7. LBA-CHS conversion indication
What's new in Maxtor-Quantum utility?
  1. Changed procedure of the utility initialization at loading the resources necessary for utility loading, from file or database.
  2. Added physical head test
  3. Added saving of offline-resources into files or database
  4. Added check of service area surface
  5. Added possibility to read modules by ignoring the error and by the composition method
  6. In reading on physical parameters we added the possibility to read in LBA logical sequence (i. e. in that one in which data were written by the user) and considering P-List with the possibility of writing the read information into the file.
  7. In reading on logical parameters we added the possibility of "long" reading with the possibility to write the read information into file.
  8. In writing on logical parameters we added the possibility of writing from early saved files with the read user data to another good HDD.
Seagate utility

Utility possibilities:
  1. Regeneration of damaged translator. The user data are saved.
  2. Reading-writing of SA tracks including both methods: by error ignoring and by compositional method
  3. Service area surface checking
  4. Reading on physical parameters, also in LBA logical sequence (i. e. in that one in which data were written by the user) and considering P-list with the possibility of writing the read information into the file
  5. In reading on logical parameters we added the possibility of "long" reading with the possibility to write the read information into file.
  6. Writing on logical and physical parameters, also from early saved files with the read user data to another good HDD
  7. Head and surface testing on physical parameters
  8. Editing of HDD serial number
The documentation for the utility describes the features in detail, thus you can determine the damage of the translator (that is often the reason why Seagate HDD does not work) and the methods of its restoration while user data are saved. We analyzed the methods of reading the information on physical parameters into file in case when HDD can't read on logical parameters.

Fujitsu utility:

Utility possibilities:
  1. Reading-writing of service tracks.
  2. Reading-writing of service information modules.
  3. Reading-writing of config pages.
  4. Reading on logical parameters including long reading with possibility to write the read information into file.
  5. Reading-writing on physical parameters.
  6. Testing of heads and surface on physical parameters.
  7. HDD serial number editing.
  8. S.M.A.R.T. data reading.
  9. Extended diagnostics.
The documentation for the utility describes the features in detail according to which you can determine the damage of the translator (that is often the reason of HDD Seagate non-operation) and the methods of its restoration while user data is saved. We analyzed the methodologies of reading the information on physical parameters into file in case when HDD can't read on logical parameters.


 Main differences between PC-3000 for SCSI Ver.2x and NEW PC-3000 for SCSI Ver.3x.

Functionality PC-3000 for SCSI
Ver.2x		 New PC-3000 for SCSI
Ver.3x
PC-KEY2 card (Power supplier):
  • controls power of 1 HDD and 3 external power supplies of ATX standard.
— +
Universal utility:
  • basic functions of working with any SCSI HDD: check of readiness, recalibration, self-diagnostics, identification, stop/start of spindle; - surface verification, reading, writing, complex test;
  • defect table reading, search and assignment of surface defects;
  • low-level formatting;
  • HDD self-test launching;
  • replication (image creation) of HDD and saving of any area to file.
+ +
Universal utility:
  • reading, writing, verification, replication (image creation) operations with ATA and SATA HDD;
  • possibility to use "long" reading in reading and replication operations;
  • LBA-PCHS and PCHS-LBA conversion indication;
  • indication of HDD physical parameters;
  • permission/inhibition of automatic assignment of defects on reading and writing, changing of hardware quantity of reading attempts and writing of bad sectors;
  • indication of SMART parameters and clearance of error logs;
  • HPA changing.
— +
IBM Utility:
  • checking of service area surface and service information structure;
  • service information reading/writing;
  • NV-RAM and RAM reading;
  • zone allocation table viewing;
  • self-tests IBM launching.
+ +
IBM Utility:
  • new algorithm of utility launching at loading module table from file or database;
  • physical head test;
  • defect relocation from G-List into P-List with translator regeneration;
  • "Format integrity checking disable" option;
  • Possibility to read modules by ignoring the error and by the composition method;
  • More exact list of additional error codes;
— +
Maxtor-Quantum Utility:
  • service information structure checking;
  • reading/writing of service information modules and service tracks;
  • CP (Config Pages) reading, writing CP into memory;
  • loading of microcode into service area and memory;
  • reading/writing on physical parameters;
  • LBA-CHS conversion indication.
+ +
Maxtor-Quantum Utility:
  • new algorithm of utility launching at loading resources necessary for launching the utility from file or database;
  • physical head test;
  • saving offline-start resources to files or database;
  • service area surface checking;
  • possibility to read modules by ignoring the error and by the composition method;
  • reading on physical parameters, also in LBA logical sequence (i. e. in that one in which data were written by the user) with the possibility of writing the read information into the file;
  • reading on logical parameters, also by "long" reading with the possibility of writing the read information into the file;
  • writing on logical parameters, also from earlier saved files with read user data to another good HDD.
— +
Seagate Utility:
  • restoration of damaged translator. The user data are saved (the problem when capacity = 0);
  • reading/writing of service tracks also by ignoring the error and by the composition method;
  • service area surface checking;
  • reading on physical parameters, also in LBA logical sequence (i. e. in that one in which data were written by the user) with the possibility of writing the read information into the file;
  • reading on logical parameters, also by "long" reading with the possibility of writing the read information into the file;
  • writing on logical or physical parameters, also from earlier saved files with read user data to another good HDD;
  • testing of heads and surface on physical parameters;
  • editing HDD serial number.
— +

We have done really great job. Functionally we have elaborated all the utilities - universal one, IBM, Maxtor-Quantum and added utility for Seagate, Fujitsu. We have also changed the user interface in its unification, set of utilities, menu view etc. and have built-in a new database.

 Work with SAS HDD in PC-3000 for SCSI

The "PC-3000 for SCSI" Universal utility enables the work with SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) HDD of all manufacturers. It can do all functions: reading, writing, verification, formatting, work with defects and parameter pages, replication etc.

We are researching to adding SAS HDD into the specialized utilities.

PC-3000 SCSI was tested on these controllers.

For PCI-Express bus:
  • Adaptec ASC-1405
  • Adaptec ASC-1045

  • Currently, only controllers Adaptec ASC-1405 (ASC-1045 are similar but they have the external slot) are checked at work together with PC-3000 for SCSI.
    Other above-mentioned controllers also work with the physically hard disks, Adaptec and LSI companies say, and they execute all SCSI commands. But we haven't tested them yet.

    All other controllers manufactured by Adaptec and LSI companies are developed for working with RAIDs and they contain the specialized hardware RAID controller. As a result, they do not work with physically hard drives but only with logical partitions, that's why they can be used only together with PC-3000 for SCSI.

  • While purchasing SAS controller, you should remember that controllers are developed for PCI-Express x4 or x8 buses, or for PCI-X 133 3.3V 64-bit, and motherboard should have such slots. Not all motherboards have such slots. It especially refers to PCI-X slots which are made in the limited number of motherboards mostly in the server ones. Now it is preferably to buy controllers for PCI-Express bus because there are corresponding slots in many modern motherboards.

    You'd better purchase the controllers with cables to avoid connection problems because some controllers have specific slots and it's quite difficult to buy such cables without the controller.

 PC-3000 for SCSI kit.

  • PC-KEY2 (Power Supplier) card
  • Power cable
  • Mini-Fit cable of power supply PC ATX
  • PC-3000 for SCSI software
  • User manual
  • Envelope with license and installation key

PC-3000 for SCSI kit


1 year guaranty is given for the hardware. 3 months guarantee is given for all adapters.


Restoring SCSI Hard Disk Drives with such efficiency provides you great chances to meet most sophisticated demands of your customers!


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