Atola Bandura User Manual

High-speed disk duplicator

Hide thumbs

Table Of Contents

Table of Contents

Quick Links

Download this manual

Bandura

High-speed disk duplicator

User's Manual v1.4

Table of Contents

Need help?

Do you have a question about the Bandura and is the answer not in the manual?

Questions and answers

Summary of Contents for Atola Bandura

Page 1 Bandura High-speed disk duplicator User’s Manual v1.4...
Page 2 This product is operated via a color touch screen. The Bandura is designed for data recovery applications where data may need to be extracted from severely damaged hard drives. It comes equipped with a write-...
Page 3: Table Of Contents
Table of Contents Getting Started & Basic Operation Imaging Hard Drives Imaging Settings Storing imaging progress and log files Diagnosing Hard Drives Erasing Hard Drive Comparing Hard Drives Updating Bandura Firmware Calibrating Bandura Screen...
Page 4: Getting Started & Basic Operation
2 x HDD power cable 2 x HDD SATA power adapter (cable) Caution: to avoid overheating of the Bandura unit, do not cover the fan exhaust or any ventilation holes. Atola Bandura does not require connection with a PC. Simply plug the unit into the wall outlet with any common voltage (100–240V AC 50-60Hz) and turn it on by...
Page 5: Imaging Hard Drives
Imaging hard drives To create an exact copy of a hard drive, tap the Image button on the Main Menu. The following screen will then appear: Imaging menu To start imaging: • Tap Start Imaging to immediately start the duplication process based on the settings used during the previous duplication session •...
Page 6: Imaging Settings
This mode sometimes improves success rates when imaging unstable hard drives. Pass settings: The Bandura is capable of applying 1 to 5 imaging passes to maximize data extraction. Each pass applies different values for the below settings in order to suit different data recovery scenarios.
Page 7 drive, and later imaging passes apply slower, more precise settings in order to make sure every possible bit of data is being extracted. Timeout: length of pause after error encountered Sector Skip: length of forward jump after read error or timeout encountered 2 pass (few or no defects): Works best for hard drives that do not have many uncorrectable (bad) sectors.
Page 8 Pass #2 Timeout: 20 seconds Sector Skip: 100,000 sectors Pass #3 Timeout: 60 seconds Sector Skip: 0 sectors (no skip) 5 pass (unstable disk): Extracts data quickly in first pass, and then slows down on subsequent passes to optimize data extraction. Pass #1 Timeout: 20 seconds...
Page 9 Power cycles are applied when the Bandura fails to reset a frozen hard drive during imaging (Bandura cuts power to the hard drive and restarts it). Setting options: 2, 5, 10, 100.
Page 10 Fill unreadable sectors: Whether to fill unreadable sectors with the specified pattern. When disabled, Bandura will not write anything onto target media on source read error. This feature was added in the firmware version 1.0.4. Diagnose before imaging: Run a diagnostic sequence on the Source drive before imaging is started.
Page 11: Storing Imaging Progress And Log Files
In order to pause imaging and then resume it at a later time, or to save log files, plug a USB flash media device into the rear USB port of the Bandura unit. Use any USB flash media (formatted as FAT-16 or FAT-32) with at least 1 GB of free space.
Page 12: Diagnosing Hard Drives
Diagnosing hard drives The Bandura has a powerful and fully automated hard drive diagnosis engine. It applies a very complex and effective chain of diagnostic measures with one simple tap of the display screen. To launch Diagnostics, simply tap Diagnose in the Main menu. The Bandura will...
Page 13 Real-time log A results screen will appear after the circuit board, headstack, media surface, firmware, and partitions/file systems have been diagnosed: Results Screen...
Page 14 The user then has the option of continuing on to a full media scan by tapping Continue: Media Scan The media scan verifies every sector on the HDD surface area in order to identify possible errors (bad sectors).
Page 15: Erasing Hard Drive
Erasing hard drives The Bandura securely wipes/erases data from hard drives. After wiping, it verifies that the data has been properly erased by scanning selected sectors (spot-checking). To start erasing, plug the hard drive into the Target HDD channel. Disks can only be erased when plugged in to the Target channel because the Source channel is write- protected to ensure data security.
Page 16 Fill with pattern: Specify custom patterns of any length up to 512 bytes. The specified pattern will be written repetitively to the Target hard drive. If no pattern is specified, the Bandura will write zero pattern (0000) to all sectors of the Target hard drive.
Page 17 Security Erase: Executes the hard drive’s Security Erase function (manufacturer specific). Notes: 1. Once this function is started, it cannot be stopped until the erase sequence is complete. If the hard drive is shut down before the sequence is complete, the hard drive might be locked with an empty password.
Page 18 After the function is started, the Erasing in progress, display will appear: Erasing in Progress • To terminate the function, tap Stop • To view real-time log files of the process, tap Show log...
Page 19: Comparing Hard Drives
Comparing hard drives The Bandura’s disk comparison feature compares each sector of the Source disk to the corresponding sector of the Target disk and identifies any sectors that have differences (non-matching bits). To start the function, tap Compare on the Main Menu (function will start...
Page 20 After the function is complete, the Comparison Results screen will appear: Comparison Results...
Page 21: Updating Bandura Firmware
Updating Bandura Firmware Atola Technology periodically releases firmware updates with bug fixes, new features and speed improvements. Follow the below instructions to update the Bandura’s firmware: 1. Obtain the Firmware Update file from Atola Technology 2. Upload the file onto a USB flash device 3.
Page 22: Calibrating Bandura Screen
Follow the below instructions to calibrate the touch screen panel: 1. Create a file Calibrate.me on a USB flash media 2. Plug the USB Flash Device into the Bandura 3. Power on the Bandura 4. Calibration wizard will launch automatically...