Atola Insight Forensic Data Recovery Tool

Atola Insight Forensic Data Recovery Tool

Atola Insight Forensic is a fast forensic imager with the capacity to perform 3 imaging sessions at up to 500 MB/s (30 GB/min) each using server-grade motherboard & CPU, ECC RAM. It combines high-speed imaging capabilities with automated recovery functions, making it a powerful solution for professionals in the field. The tool boasts a user-friendly interface, providing a seamless experience for both experienced forensic experts and novice users.

Components of Atola Insight Forensic System

The Atola Insight Forensic system consists of three main components:

1. Insight Forensic software: This software runs on a Windows PC and forms the backbone of the data recovery process. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools and features to facilitate efficient forensic analysis and recovery.
2. DiskSense 2 hardware unit: Released in July 2021, the DiskSense 2 hardware unit is a crucial component of the system. It offers high-performance capabilities and enables seamless communication between the software and the storage devices.
3. Hardware extensions included: Atola Insight Forensic supports optional hardware extensions, such as SAS, Apple PCIe (2013 - recent models), NVMe, and M.2 PCIe SSDs. These extensions expand the rangeForensic data recovery of supported storage devices, ensuring versatility in forensic investigations.

Parallel Imaging: Unleashing the Power of Simultaneous Sessions

One of the standout features of Atola Insight Forensic is its ability to sustain multiple imaging sessions simultaneously. This means you can process up to three imaging sessions at once, all while multitasking efficiently. Equipped with a server-grade motherboard and CPU, Atola Insight Forensic achieves top native speeds for evidence drives, regardless of their condition. Here are some key features of the parallel imaging functionality:

• Three Simultaneous Imaging Sessions: Perform three imaging sessions concurrently, maximizing your productivity and saving valuable time.
• Built-in 10Gb Ethernet Ports: Benefit from high-speed connectivity with two built-in 10Gb Ethernet ports, ensuring fast and reliable data transfer.
• Imaging Session Speed: Achieve imaging session speeds of up to 500 MB/s, allowing for swift data acquisition.
• Multiple Image Formats: Create E01, AFF4, or Raw target images either on the network or directly on target drives, providing flexibility for your specific requirements.
• Support for Various Drive Types: Atola Insight Forensic supports a wide range of drive types, including SATA, IDE, and USB drives. With hardware extensions, you can extend support to SAS, Apple PCIe (2013 - recent models), NVMe, and M.2 PCIe SSDs.
• Built-in Hardware Write Blocker: Ensure data integrity and prevent accidental modifications with the built-in hardware write blocker for all source ports.

Supporting Damaged Drives: Overcoming Media Errors

Atola Insight Forensic is engineered to support damaged media effectively. While other imagers may stall or abort imaging when encountering media errors, Atola Insight Forensic is designed to acquire usable images in such scenarios. Let's explore the types of damage supported by this robust tool:

• Degraded or Damaged Heads: Atola Insight Forensic can handle drives with degraded or damaged heads, ensuring successful data recovery even in challenging situations.
• Scratches on Platters: Scratches on platters can cause significant data loss. However, Atola Insight Forensic is equipped to tackle this issue and recover data from scratched drives.
• Logical Errors: Logical errors can render a drive inaccessible, but with Atola Insight Forensic, you can overcome these errors and retrieve critical data.
• Freezing Drives: Some drives may freeze during the imaging process. Atola Insight Forensic automates the imaging of freezing media, ensuring you can still acquire the necessary data.
• Old Drives with Worn-out Magnetic Layer: Worn-out magnetic layers can pose challenges for data recovery. Atola Insight Forensic is designed to handle old drives with worn-out magnetic layers, allowing you to recover valuable information.

Forensic Tools in Atola Insight Forensic

Atola Insight Forensic provides a comprehensive set of forensic tools that empower data recovery specialists to perform in-depth analysis and recovery. These tools include:

• In-depth Automated Drive Diagnostics: Atola Insight Forensic automatically evaluates a drive's health and identifies specific issues related to its PCB, heads, media surface, firmware, and partitions. This detailed diagnostic process aids in making informed decisions during the imaging process.
• Multi-pass Imaging of Damaged Drives: With multi-pass imaging, Atola Insight Forensic ensures the recovery of every fragment of data from damaged drives, maximizing the chances of successful data retrieval.
• Automated Imaging of Freezing Media: By automating the imaging process of freezing media, Atola Insight Forensic enables you to overcome the challenges associated with such drives and recover valuable evidence.
• Bad Sector Recovery: Atola Insight Forensic features advanced algorithms for bad sector recovery, increasing the chances of retrieving critical data from drives with damaged sectors.
• Segmented Hashing for Image Verification: Atola Insight Forensic employs segmented hashing techniques to verify the integrity of the acquired images, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the recovered data.
• HDD Current Monitoring for Continuous Diagnosis: Continuous monitoring of HDD currents allows for real-time diagnosis of drive health and performance, enabling timely interventions and decision-making.

Low-Level Forensic Features: Unleashing Advanced Capabilities

Forensic data recovery specialists can leverage Atola Insight Forensic's low-level features to perform highly detailed and advanced analysis. Let's explore these features in detail:

• Unknown ATA Password Extraction: Atola Insight Forensic is the only forensic hardware tool in the world that offers unknown ATA password extraction. This feature allows you to access password-protected drives efficiently.
• Locate Sectors: With the Locate Sectors feature, Atola Insight Forensic can detect which files and partitions belong to specified drive sectors. This capability is invaluable for pinpointing specific data within a drive.
• On-the-fly Sector-level Artifact Finder: Atola Insight Forensic features an on-the-fly sector-level Artifact Finder based on the Intel Hyperscan engine. This powerful tool allows for efficient identification of forensic artifacts during the imaging process.
• Hash Calculation: Atola Insight Forensic supports linear and segmented hashing for various hash algorithms, including MD5, SHA1, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512. This ensures accurate and reliable hash calculation for verification purposes.
• Wiping Methods: Atola Insight Forensic offers various wiping methods, including DoD 5220.22-M, Secure Erase, NIST 800-88, and Pattern Erase. These methods allow for secure data erasure when required.
• Forensic File Recovery: Atola Insight Forensic supports forensic file recovery for multiple file systems, including NTFS, APFS (with encrypted volumes), XFS, ext4/3/2, ExFAT, HFS/HFS+, FAT32, and FAT16. This wide compatibility ensures you can recover data from various sources.
• Case Management System: Atola Insight Forensic includes a comprehensive case management system that automatically generates detailed reports. This system streamlines the documentation process, making it easier to manage and present findings.
• Comparison of 1 Drive against 3 Drives or Images: Atola Insight Forensic allows for the comparison of one drive or image against up to three drives or images. This feature facilitates data analysis and identification of discrepancies or similarities.
• Detection and Lifting of HPA and DCO Restricted Areas: Atola Insight Forensic can detect and lift Hidden Protected Areas (HPA) and Device Configuration Overlay (DCO) restricted areas, ensuring no valuable data is overlooked during the recovery process.
• SSD Trim: Atola Insight Forensic supports SSD Trim functionality, allowing for efficient management and optimization of SSD performance.

With these advanced low-level features, Atola Insight Forensic provides forensic data recovery specialists with the tools they need to tackle complex data recovery challenges and uncover critical evidence.

Workflow: Seamless Data Recovery Process

The workflow of Atola Insight Forensic ensures a seamless and efficient data recovery process. Let's explore the key steps involved:

1. Drive Diagnostics: Atola Insight Forensic automatically evaluates the health of the drive, analyzing its PCB, heads, media surface, firmware, and partitions. The Diagnostics module generates a detailed report that aids in decision-making.
2. ATA Password Removal: Atola Insight Forensic simplifies the process of removing ATA passwords from hard drives. With just one click of a button, ATA passwords can be removed within minutes, providing access to protected drives.
3. Evidence Drive Imaging: Atola Insight Forensic enables the retrieval of every fragment of data from a drive. It allows for customized imaging processes, even for damaged or unstable media. The selective head imaging feature allows for an individualized approach based on the condition of specific heads.
4. Forensic File Recovery: The file recovery module integrated within Atola Insight Forensic is simple, intuitive, and effective. It seamlessly works with the imaging functionality and the Case Management system, facilitating efficient data retrieval.

By performing sector-level analysis with Artifact Finder and Locate Sectors, Atola Insight Forensic ensures that no forensic artifacts in unallocated and hidden spaces are missed during the recovery process.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Here are some common questions and answers about Atola Insight Forensic:

Q: Can Atola Insight Forensic handle damaged drives?
A: Yes, Atola Insight Forensic is designed to support and recover data from damaged drives, including those with degraded or damaged heads, scratches on platters, logical errors, freezing drives, and old drives with worn-out magnetic layers.

Q: Does Atola Insight Forensic support multiple imaging sessions?
A: Yes, Atola Insight Forensic can perform three simultaneous imaging sessions, allowing for efficient processing of multiple drives.

Q: What file systems does Atola Insight Forensic support for forensic file recovery?
A: Atola Insight Forensic supports forensic file recovery for NTFS, APFS (with encrypted volumes), XFS, ext4/3/2, ExFAT, HFS/HFS+, FAT32, and FAT16 file systems.

Q: Can Atola Insight Forensic extract unknown ATA passwords?
A: Yes, Atola Insight Forensic is the only forensic hardware tool in the world that offers unknown ATA password extraction, providing access to password-protected drives.

Q: Does Atola Insight Forensic generate detailed reports?
A: Yes, Atola Insight Forensic includes a comprehensive case management system that automatically generates detailed reports, making it easier to document and present findings.

Q: What is the warranty for Atola Insight Forensic hardware?
A: The DiskSense 2 hardware unit of Atola Insight Forensic comes with a 3-year warranty, providing peace of mind and ensuring the reliability of the tool.