" Some might say that SP 2 is like iDVD 3 on steroids and in Basic Mode SP 2 does resemble iDVD in look and ease of use but that is where the similarity ends. The awesome power and flexibility of SP 2 Basic Mode goes far beyond iDVD. Basic Mode of SP 2 sits on top of a completely re- written application and draws from the full feature set of SP 2 Advanced Mode which lies just beneath the surface. The integration of the Advanced feature set is so seamless that you will find yourself using Advanced features, like the Inspector, without even leaving Basic Mode... "

The article is dated Sept. 8th, but I didn't spot it until today when it appeared at the Apple hot news page.

(As a FYI - I've updated the earlier news item on Data Rescue with two more reader reports on using it.)

"New Hitachi-IBM 7K250 250 GB 7200 RPM ATA-6 8MB Cache IDE Disk Drive $299
FireWire F800 Version Combo External (FireWire/USB 2.0/1.1) $449
FireWire F400 Version Combo External (FireWire /USB 2.0/1.1)$349"

" A customer recently installed a Tango 2.0 Firewire/USB card into his Rev A Beige G3 Power Macintosh. The Tango 2.0 cards look just like a Tempo Trio card, just missing the ATA components. His symptoms were that the card would work fine in OS 9.1, but would not work in OS 9.2.2, which was required for some of his software.

Upon reviewing his list of USB extensions active in his system folder, the USB Mass Storage Extension and USB Mass Storage Support were different revisions from each other. His USB Device Extension and USB Software Locator were version 1.5.9. When I asked for the details of the 1.5.9 extensions, they were listed as CPU Disk version 5.0. These obviously were unique to a specific computer install CD.

I installed a Sonnet Tango 2.0 card into a Power Macintosh 8600 we have here at OWC, and installed Mac OS 9.1. I then ran the updates to 9.2.2 using OS 9 Helper. And finally, I installed USB Adapter Card Support 1.4.1.
Upon restart the USB hard drive I had attached showed up. The versions of the USB Extensions that were installed on the 8600 were:

• USB Device Extension 1.5.6
• USB Software Locator 1.5.6
• USB Support 1.4.1
• USB Mass Storage Extension 2.0.4
• USB Mass Storage Support 2.0.4

I sent these 5 extensions to the customer, told him to replace the existing extensions he had, and see if it corrected his problem. It did! I have never seen a reference as to the base 9.2.2 extensions needed for USB Mass storage support with an add-on USB PCI card, so this appears to be the answer.

The 5 USB drivers that fixed his problem are located here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/tech/ftp/usb/usbextensions.sit
Thanks!
Tom Lundvall
Mac Support Technician
Other World Computing "

I've also recently had a Beige G3 (rev C) owner report he could not get the Sonnet Trio card working in a Beige G3 even though it is listed as a compatible model on the Trio product page compatible mac models listing. Update: Sonnet wrote to say they have an added disclaimer/compatibility note (††) for rev C's on the page - but unlike the "‡" (bolded) note for the PowerMac G4 about custom cables, it's not under the listing of compatible macs, but is all the way at the bottom of the web page. Scroll down (about a foot) farther on the web page (below the compatible Macs listing, the Mac System Requirements, the "Windows System Requirements" and past the long specs table) to see the following compatibility note:

"†† Beige Power Macintosh G3 Minitower and Desktop machines with a revision 3 logic board may experience incompatibility issues with the Trio card. Sonnet is currently working to resolve this issue; check back here periodically for updates. To determine your machine's logic board revision, check the ROM revision information listed in Apple System Profiler; if it is $77D.45F2, your machine has a revision 3 logic board. "

Actually that's the ROM dimm revision. (I'm not sure there is any change to the logic board from rev B to rev C, although there may be. Rev B changed the ATI chip to a RagePro vs RageII.) I wrote Sonnet to highly suggest they put this important compatibility note directly under the table of compatible Mac models. Some buyers have clearly missed it at the very bottom of the web page. If they don't move it where it should be, at least add a hyperlink on the "††" to jump to the note at the bottom of the page. (But directly under the compatible Mac model table is where it really belongs to avoid anyone else missing it.)

As a FYI to others - the Trio and their other Sonnet non-RAID PCI IDE cards also had firmware updates to address issues with 10.2.x originally noted here last August.

"Data rescue is by far the best and the slowest recovery software I have ever used. Long after norton and diskwarrior have quit, data rescue saves the day. On large drives with multiple hundreds of thousands of files I have let it run for 36+ hours. It does find everything though, even files that are damaged. I only use it as a last resort. I can't wait for the new version!
George T."

" I would also like to add that Data Rescue truly is an essential utility when all else fails. I had a 128 GB disk suddenly go flaky and like the others mentioned, it would not mount and no other utility even saw the drive. The drive was about 70% full of mostly video, photo, and mp3 files. I am happy to say that I had a 100% success in recovery and it really didnít take very long at all.
When you start the app, you have a choice of a quick scan or a thorough scan. At first I selected the thorough option but soon realized that it would take quite a while. I exited and tried the quick scan. (thinking that if it didnít work I would use the thorough option later) Well the quick scan only takes a few minutes, but managed to find all the files. Of course the actually recovery process takes much longer, about an hour or two if I remember correctly, but still a very good job.
The loss of that data would have been devastating, especially all the photos and videos that were irreplaceable.

All I can say is before you give up and toss that crashed hard drive in the rubbish bin, give this app a try and you might be pleasantly surprised. Especially if you are as lazy as me about not backing up your data.
Alan W. "

" Hi Mike, you were looking for feedback on Data Rescue from Prosoft.
I work as a troubleshooter (you could call it a service technician) at an Apple Center, and usually come across lots of software related problems. Simple directory damage and catalog tree inconsistencies can be solved with DiskWarrior and Norton Disk Doctor, which were always my first choice. Once, a client of ours brought a full 80 gig hard drive to us, on which he had a complete audio master recording of two concerts, with no backups and about 3 days of work on them. (He was preparing it for TV broadcast). The disk wouldn't mount, DiskWarrior didn't even see it, Norton Volume Recovery could only see around 30 megabytes of data, so it was a no-go situation. Our last hope seemed to be a data recovery firm, which would cost $2000+ and take three days at least.

Then a friend of mine recommended Data Rescue, which he used for a long time, and let me borrow his copy for that day. I installed a spare 80 gig drive along with the bad one into a MDD G4, and let Data Rescue do it's job. The bad one was designated read only, the blank 80 gig as the destination disk for the recovered files. It took more than six hours, but it succeeded and we only lost about 10% of the data, which was corrupted probably due to earlier data damage.

So, it saved a lot of time, money, and we added it to our repair repertoire.
Cheers, Benedek "

" my general comments on using previous releases are very positive. the application was originally developed by Sylvain Demongeot of Wildbits.com. so a respect to him. it fills a gap in any Mac Tech's armoury that is not covered by any other utility. where a disk drive is so badly damaged that even Disk Warrior, nevermind Norton, cant see it; Data Rescue is your last hope. And I have used it successfully to restore data from totally wiped out drives. I dont actually know how it works but even passing it over the damage drive or partition has restored it enough to a point where Disk Warrior has then been able to grab it and do its suff.

what it does is scan the drive at a much lower level than other utilities and provide you with list of folders within folders duplicated many times over in which you can find complete files / applications / folders etc of lost data which then can be copied over to a good drive. you can wing it and recover to other partitions but this is not recommended as it might over write. i have lucked out when necessary.
it may or may not recover delete data. I have had experience both ways and it does state that this is not what it is meant to do. but sometimes it does work.

what i must say is that it takes a very, very, long time to scan a disk especially where there is a damaged sector or a lot of files. think 2 to 8 hours. (yesterday's update PR claimed up to 300% faster than the previous version). sometimes I have had to leave it all night. i would hate to think how long it might take on a OS X drive.

i would say that with this application any competent tech could start to advertise data recover in perhaps 90% of critical situations and certainly be bailed out of many other hard drive failures. i have even managed to use it on a damaged native ATA connected to a PCI card. may be if you contact Sylvain he might explain how it worked.
excellent. a life saver.
john a. "

I welcome other reports on this software (or other brands of data recovery utilities).

CDRW Drives:
• IDE LG GCE-8523B 52x24x52 in B&W G3 (OS 9.2)
  (using burn support file from FAQ)
• IDE LG GCE-8523B 52x24x52 in B&W G3 (OS X)
  (using burn support file from FAQ)
• IDE Liteon LTR-52327 (52x32x52x) in B&W G3 (OS 9.2)
  (didn't test for boot from CD)
• IDE Liteon LTR-52327 (52x32x52x) in G4/AGP (OS X)
  (FAQ has burn support plugin for 10.2.6, bootable only from startup disk control panel he said - not C key)
• IDE Sony CRX225A-U (didn't note speed rating) in G4 no AGP (OS X)
  (no itunes/db burn support, didn't note if bootable from CD)
• IDE Teac CD-W216E (16x10x24x) in iMac (OS 9.2)
  (using burn support file from MCE)
• IDE Yamaha CRW-F1ZE (44x24x44x) in B&W G3 (OS X)
  
  Combo DVD+CDR Drives:
• IDE Buslink DVRW412RL Buslink DVRW412RL (4x4x12x DVD+RW/+R/DVD-ROM, + 40x24x40x CDR/CDRW/CDROM) in Dual G4 DDR (OS X) (listed under "other" brands, no itunes/db/iDVD burn support - reported as Liteon model but he didn't mention which liteon model number. FAQ has some liteon DVD burner support files.)
• IDE Toshiba SD-R1312 (32x10x40 + 12x DVD-ROM) in eMac (OS X)
  
  DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives:
• Firewire (IDE drive in FW case) Pioneer DVR-106 used w/Powerbook G3 2000 (OS X) (noted buffer underrun errors in Toast 5 w/DVD-Rs, as others have reported with this drive. One report w/Toast 6 also noted no buffer underrun protection when burning DVD-Rs)
• IDE Pioneer DVR-106 in G4/AGP (OS X)
  (using modified burn support plugin from FAQ here for 10.2.6. Next OS X update should have native support and 10.3 will.)
• IDE Sony (OEM) DW-U10A in Powermac G5 (OS X)
  (to date all single G5 owners have reported this is the OEM superdrive, although the page on the Dual G5 2GHz report here notes it had a Pioneer DVR-106 drive.)
• IDE Sony (OEM) DW-U10A in G4/AGP (OS X)
  (noted unable to burn at more than 1x rates with some media)
  (Illustrated CD drive install guide here covers G4 towers up to the Digital Audio Model, Beige G3 MT, and B&W G3 Macs)
  
  Hard Drives:
• SCSI Seagate ST118202LC 18GB in B&W G3 (OS X)
  (noted not bootable from HD, a 80pin SCA to 68pin adapted drive)

You can find full owner reports (latest shown first) by searching the database by drive/brand/interface/mac models (the latest reports are shown first in searches). For guides to installing CD/CDRW/DVD drives or Hard drives in many mac models, see the IDE Articles page. The Firewire articles page also has guides on case kits, installing drives, etc.
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database. (If you post an updated entry - make sure you use the same name, etc. as you did before so I can find your past entry. Thanks.)
(Incomplete entries are deleted. Do not post questions in the database, it's for drive reports not questions on what drive to buy - for that try searching the database for reports from owners of your mac model on the drive type/brand/interface, etc. you're interested in.)

• Giga Designs G4 1.4GHz in G4/AGP (rated 10)
• PowerLogix G4 Dual 1.2GHz in (sawtooth) G4/AGP (rated 9)
  (My full reviews of G4 and G3 upgrades w/apps/game tests, install info, etc. are linked here.)

(Warning - Overclocking may not be reliable and could lead to hardware failure or corrupted data.) You can find the full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand). For detailed reviews with performance tests and install tips, see the CPU Upgrades page.)

• 1 year ago today
• 2 years ago today
• 3 years ago today