The AceLAB PC3000: the best tool for data recovery

[@rossmanngroup]

We've been buying these tools since early 2017 and Steve does what he does best everytime we buy one... bargain. There is sometimes wiggleroom on pricing since these tools are $5k-$10k, and after buying enough of them we haggle for returning customer discounts. One of the conditions for this round of discounts, show the tool on camera. To be safe, I marked it as "paid promotion", since I can't be sure how much of the discount they gave us had to do with the potential for it showing up on camera. We've been using these tools for 3 and a half years, and creating videos on & off doing data recoveries with PC3000 prior to acelab knowing we had a youtube channel. To be clear, I would be using them regardless of whether it was "paid promotion", and I know Steve would haggle the crap out of them for a few bucks off regardless of whether we had a youtube channel. That disclaimer being out of the way, post the questions you have on how to use these tools and I'll haggle Steve to answer them.

[@paulgray1318]

Things sure have moved on in the past 30 years, though I do miss the days when spinrite and DD covered all your software needs for drives.

[@hyoenmadan]

@@paulgray1318 Meh, never has been that easy when the drive has serious problems (on which with actual drives this tool helps to solve). Just check @CuriousMarc channel what takes to recover these old MFM drives.

[@frydaym.8726]

Verison Adv

[@chandigarhdatarecovery]

For Acelab, Paid Promotion does not help ,Just because louis has audience ,does not mean Acelab can sell more of these ,Louis is steve on some forums if yes what id i would love to interact with him to teach him some good stuff

[@tiruialon]

After reading your explanation, I revoke my dislike. Well done sir.

[@George030ful]

This is a device I really want to aquire at some point. For those who don't know this is a device for deployment on site with very limited features, the full package can do so much more. Like you can recover data directly from the NAND Flash in case your SSD/USB/SD card have broken controller, it can also remove password protection and for both the portable and the full package you can use the terminal adaptors to issue manufacturer-specific commands like to reset the heads and their global position and an extremely RAW backup of the drive in cases the motherboard controller can't communicate. With PC3000 you can pretty much recover 99% of the data in all cases except total HDD MB failure or extreme cases like dropped HDD while working. Any data recovery expert or beginner OWES him/herself this kit.

[@AC3handle]

can this deal with enterprise drives?

[@deeperlayer]

yea sure but this portable versionis shit, 100$ yea sure but thoasands lol it is the same as free software you can download but is a fancier bag

[@George030ful]

@@AC3handle I don't think this particular one can do it. You need the special SAS card unless the drive is a SATA, like the WD Gold which is SATA but enterprice level.

[@George030ful]

@@deeperlayer Ummmm.... If I understand correctly what you are typing, you think that this kit isn't worth the money. No, what you pay isn't just the hardware, which is quality made and you have warranty, but also you pay for an entire suite of software that you can't just download. The terminal commands and special modes you must put certain drives and SSDs aren't freely available to the public or the ones circulating the internet are outdated for older drives. I tried them myself.

[@deeperlayer]

@@George030ful no you didnt understand correctly... if this unit being portable doesnt support anything other than reading sectors and copy paste then it is trash.. i know the pc3000 full suite is good but this spefic portable device is trash

[@monkeymanstones1]

Thank you for this video. It enables viewers to then look up the devices and prices which shows why the work is so expensive. These are not the most expensive tool in such work, but are anything except easily affordable. Makes the work performed price easier to swallow.

[@beepboopbaplawl]

is it just me or is louis extra buff in this video?

[@r.l.royalljr.3905]

You build 11 new e-bikes a week and see what shape you're in afterwards.

[@RanNero]

Fuck, you prick !!!!! :):):) I just went to the start of the video (...and back) to check, what the hell are you talking about..... you have nooooo idea how stupid you made me feel, when I realized, how stupid I am..... and the day just stared for me :):):)

[@asdfhun]

The power connector of it makes me cringe. It should be a screw in type (also to be on the top, not on the side), so you can't accidentally unplug it during a backup.

[@chuckvanderbildt]

For the price this thing costs, I would be thinking a nice locking LEMO connector or something like that.

[@cyan0xide]

@@chuckvanderbildt and be made of gold

[@jebait8437]

Is Steve your cousin Louis?

[@oleggritsev]

We use software like "WD explorer" or "Seagate data stream". Actually they much better for hard drive over 4 TB and up to 20 Tb hi-end new hard drives with SMR technology. PC3000 do not supported some new hard drives and SSD.

[@djafk]

Hit the nail on the head, "There is not a lot of information on how to do data recovery on the internet." Aside from an expensive object like this, any recommendations on software and diy-hardware to accomplish a similar feat for bricked firmware and other internal diagnostics? I have a very good history just using cloning tools with sector retry and ignore to pull images from mostly-failed disks. Some are broken beyond that.

[@FrozenHollowFox]

These tool videos kick ass. You should produce some more often when you get new ones.

[@SteveFrenchWoodNStuff]

You say you guys have been buying those tools for a long time. Exactly how many of them to you have? Doesn't one last for years? Or is it that you want to be able to have more than one working at once?

[@rossmanngroup]

More than one person works here doing data recovery now. They have different tools for SAS vs normal SATA as well.

[@cognetic]

Wow. That easy mode looks very similar to the Atola Insight software.

[@anonymousarmadillo6589]

Steve sounds EXACTLY like Louis!!!

[@jothain]

You might want to check out some new audio equipment :)

[@anonymousarmadillo6589]

@@jothain I'm not from the USA. Their accents sound extremely similar to me

[@jothain]

@@anonymousarmadillo6589 I'm not either. I noticed difference even on my mobile which had sounds at very low level. Though I gotta admit that at very beginning, I thought for couple seconds that they sound similar.

[@sprocket5526]

I have a background in electronics repair general repar, radar and VHF systems and engineering. Been seriously thinking about data recovery as a business, since there literally no one in my area doing that. But this type of data recovery equipment is very very expensive unfortunately

[@christophervanzetta]

Got to start somewhere though. Could try basic recovery and then save up for bigger paying jobs

[@jaaps772]

Go to a bank; they can easily buy it for you.

[@sprocket5526]

@@jaaps772 nice. pointless coment on a 2 year old youtube video

[@lucianoceansamericanmichig2464]

thank much Friend , can i buy this tool and where, what is the prise , please, thank you.

[@FamilyForge3D]

Do you have any videos for using PC3 to extract/bypass/reset SSDs that are locked with password?

[@JRis44]

I'm curious what the software is based off and if there are opensource alternatives just aggregated to work in one convenient box. Like a super adrino or raspberry pi with a bunch of Linux based forensics tools turned into scripted for automation based user friendly interaction.

[@UberAlphaSirus]

Hey Steve! Can you plug this into a laptop/pc and use it like you would with the card and software?

[@crackwitz]

that's what he said

[@gabakusa]

Better Thant Louis he does not say bad words

[@jcv71]

how much is the portable PC3000?

[@rikvdmark]

There was a time where Steve would go to the toilet at Starbucks to avoid the camera. Luckily those times are no more :)

[@Tom5TomEntertainment]

Instructions unclear, ordered the PC9001

[@tomtrantham7777]

what's the bootleg version of this tool? gparted live or hirens???

[@hyoenmadan]

None of them will allow you to do anything with a f*cked SA/Firmware area drive, nor when you have to configure drive parameters for things like enabling/disabling internal heads or reconstructing vital parts of the control data stored in the drive.

[@tomtrantham7777]

@@hyoenmadan So is there a bootleg version of that tool that doesn't cost 5 -10k?

[@hyoenmadan]

@@tomtrantham7777 Check for MRT (pc3000 chinese version) or DFL prices. But i doubt you will find anything for less that $5k

[@tomtrantham7777]

@@hyoenmadan Thanks!

[@evilgremlin]

PC3000 is cheapest one out there, and don't really have analogs

[@equinox576]

This is cool device

[@DumahBrazorf]

I always assumed that PC-3000 was the entire pc you have there, not that docking station. Does it have multiple ports to do multiple disks independently or is for raid?

[@varaprasadkapu9]

How to buy this I'm India

[@diresDPL]

Thank you steve

[@juanete69]

How much is it?

[@djrival819]

Lol! Mapped drive called //f***off 🤣

[@c182SkylaneRG]

Hey Louis, Steve: what's the hard drive brand/size that you NEVER see, or see the least of (by a noticeable amount)? I have a couple of Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD's which have encountered the same error, 2 months apart: "uninitialized" and Disk Management sees 0MB size. Strangely, I left the 1st one on my desk for 2 months while I procrastinated getting the data recovered, and when someone suggested I check it in the BIOS, I plugged it back in and it worked again like nothing was wrong (and I got to see that only my Steam library was on it, and none of the files that I thought were on it. Those turned up on the OS SSD). I currently have the 2nd failed drive (which doesn't even show up in BIOS, and shows as "uninitialized, 0MB" in Disk Management) sitting on my desk, where it'll wait for two months for any capacitance to bleed off and for it to hopefully forget that it failed, like the 1st one seems to have... In reading reviews for 3-8 TB hard drives, trying to get replacements (of which there'll be two, in a mirrored RAID array, instead of being used separately), seemingly every hard drive from every manufacturer has about 20% negative reviews which claim to have had several of the same drive in a row, and all failed, and "we'll never go with X brand again. Everyone should go with Y and Z instead". The fact that ALL THREE major manufacturers (Toshiba, Seagate, WD) seem to have the same ratio of negative reviews and similar types of problems, I'm wondering if there's a drive you recommend that won't fail so quickly. Seagate 3TB drives, for example, seem to be some of the worst, but one review claims "other sizes are okay, just not the 3TB drives", while others insist they'll never use Seagate again...

[@XLessThanZ]

Could make a good sysadmin tool.

[@hyoenmadan]

There are more affordable imagers (with write protect and fullspeed duplication without the hassles of operating system driver stack bottleneck) for simpler duplication tasks. A sysadmin doesn't really require all what this package offers. This is for serious data recovery and forensic analysis.

[@XLessThanZ]

@@hyoenmadan We do have imaging products. That's why this would make a good sysadmin tool. I guess it depends on what your company defines a sysadmin's responsibilities. Where I work, we wear many hats, which keeps it interesting.

[@hyoenmadan]

@@XLessThanZ Oks then, you are already in another level of sysadmin. But you have to agree there aren't really many workplaces like yours, that's why made the comment before. Unfortunately, your place or Louis place are the exception, not the rule :-/.

[@XLessThanZ]

@@hyoenmadan I have to say, I guess it would be nice to not wear too many hats. Maybe things are changing. That actually sounds like it would be for the better. Tough, though, when it's your hobby. No biggy.

[@trumanhw]

I'd almost BET that Ace Labs spoke to the mfr of ATOLA ... (brilliant dude also) and purchased the interface from him as Atola has switched off to "FORENSIC IMAGING (and is non-competitive) for the "easy" interface. I think INTUITIVE would be a better descriptor for some of the differences ... as many visual aspects of the layout don't prohibit expert manipulation ... but rather, just do so in a less ridiculously difficult manner. Would've loved to have seen the PCIe (NVMe) aspects to this ......

[@lewisalexander]

Hi, a great and informative review, a question for you... the software demonstrated, is this windows only or mac compatible?

[@rossmanngroup]

Windows 7

[@ikshulbethur5689]

F

[@ImBoredToo]

Omg pull off the film

[@abderrahimaourir]

blud's using Win7, fucking legend

[@outseeker]

very cool! i'd like to see you fix something with it, but i can appreciate you've got shit to do as it is :)

[@SpeedProg]

So it can't really do anything I couldn't just do with my pc and a linux distro? Just more convenient form factor?

[@PureAlcatraz]

I could be wrong, but this looks like it is super simplifying a lot of the disc tools you'd normally get in Kali Linux, and providing a more user friendly experience. Which if you are doing data recovery professionally, $10k isn't that bad.

[@hyoenmadan]

Any Linux distro sucks when you need something more advanced that imaging a healthy drive. If the firmware/SA area of the drive is f*cked due any reason, no Loonix distro will help you to image your drive. There is a deep and extensive reason why this device and software costs $10k.

[@SpeedProg]

@@hyoenmadan i replaced corrupted firmware of my HDD before so no you don't

[@hyoenmadan]

@@SpeedProg How do you did it (using your linux tools ofc)? We are all hears. Tell the secret or never happened :-P

[@SpeedProg]

@@hyoenmadan one was with a tool the vendors support gave me and the other time it was with hdparm if I remember (the one with hdparm was just updating a none really broken firmware through)

[@dwilliams2068]

SCSI?

[@garyslatter9854]

I'd like to recovery to data recovery from #ssd or other sold state storage

[@UberAlphaSirus]

Aye?

[@DanielsGameVault]

Great device - something we'd never get close to owning in the sh!thole I work in.The power connector SUCKS though....it just sucks, bottom line :))) For something that costs as much as a new car, I'm expecting more than a simple barrel plug that can come loose :))

[@MsSymantec]

thanks

[@troutrou0]

Hi Louis/ Steve, Question : why do you even own / need a portable system ? Non-native here so maybe I missed something, sorry. What is the point of having portable system when you do the work in the shop with a computer and large screen and real keyboard mouse, which is much more comfortable and productive, and feature-ful as well ? Does that mean you offer to do recovery work at the customer place ? ... but doing it on their kitchen table I guess is no good, need a clean "room" like you have at the shop... so well I just don't understand, please shed some light, portable or not :-) Regards, Vincent Trouilliez from Frog land

[@hyoenmadan]

One example would be that, sometimes the drive only suffers from password locked, SA software only corruption, or some minor electronics problem, but the mechanics of the drive and most of the electronics are fine. Then you can do an express recovery in place. You may also only want to do some express imaging of a fine drive for forensic analysis, like in criminal cases, but you don't want to carry an extra imager for only that.

[@sleeptyper]

They can have a table with 5 or 10 portables doing their stuff at their own pace and have the worker focus on something else on the computer.

[@trumanhw]

COMPARABLE TO MRT..? lol. Well ... I guess in that the MRT is technically able to do Firmware..? :) But of course, none of the others (MRT, DFL, nor even PC3K UDMA nor Express) can do PCI (NVMe) drives.

[@viktorgyory3826]

just one sad think nobody mention is once u invest $10k for this kind of equipment you won't be able to sell it if u go out off business....there is no resale value unfortunately

[@UnicornCryptoTech]

lol I'll be glad to buy if off you if you go out of business... i think you don't realise how much people are ready to pay for data recovery jobs if their data is valuable. There's no better tool on the planet than this one...

[@recuperaciondedatos]

@@UnicornCryptoTech But, as Viktor says, there is no resale value. ACELab gives you no support if you are not the original buyer. No updates, etc...

[@Ri-eb1ns]

@@UnicornCryptoTech well this is blatantly false. This tool is actually not that good.

[@AlexeyFilippenkoPlummet]

The device name kinda sounds like it's ultra politically correct :D

[@techluvin7691]

🤔🤔The mask is protecting ………… the cameraman?

[@CJonestheSteam72]

5mins in... This video is longer than I intended.... Cue 15min video

[@joefowble]

Nice tour and neat little device Steve. 5 min in "this is already longer than I wanted it to be" ... it's OK, I've watched buildzoid videos (including his recent one attempting to reflow a Vega 56 GPU, apparently using a not-shown toaster oven). kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKjYg4isedt5kLM lol at the comment - My life goals: 1. Get a photo of The Toster Core Reflowing Station 2. Send it to Louis Rossmann

[@TheXleny]

Acelab = a slab xd

[@DetectiveOnan]

Pc-3000.. and 3000 is not even the price...

[@MarinTheFirestarter]

Not worth the price

[@itsprivate3061]

10k for something a pc can do? huh...

[@MichaelS-vy1ku]

should probably watch the video

[@christophervanzetta]

Not at all.

[@kostaskaranatsis1889]

just download UBCD and use your computer... and its free

[@deeperlayer]

This tool is simply useless

[@Adam-bw4lw]

Just like you

[@UberAlphaSirus]

@@Adam-bw4lw You will have someones eye out with that handbag.