FAQ

Imaging

How do I clone a drive and create multiple identical copies?

TaskForce 2 is perfectly suited for cloning! Here is how to clone into 4 SATA drives and 1 RAW file simultaneously.

When you need to create multiple copies, simply:

  1. Go to Image.
  2. Select a source device.
  3. Select up to 5 targets (SATA, USB, SAS or RAW, E01 files) and click Continue.
  4. Click Start.

What's more, TaskForce 2 has 26 ports in total including IDE and Extension ports in combination with huge overhead capacity to handle many imaging sessions or other operations concurrently. So if you start a 1-to-5 cloning, you still have at least 20 ports left for additional cloning/imaging sessions to run simultaneously. TaskForce is designed to minimize the imaging time.

How do I image to an E01 or a RAW file?

When selecting targets in the slide-out panel, click the Select file tile. It only works if TaskForce 2 is connected to a network and with an accessible network folder.

How can I create an E01 image?

To image a source evidence drive to an E01 file, you have to create a new target file:

  1. Go to Image.
  2. Select the source evidence drive.
  3. On the Select target devices panel, click Select file.
  4. In the file selector, find the folder to store the image and click Create file.
  5. In the Create image file dialog, select the E01 file type.
  6. Fill in E01 file information, and then click Create.
  7. On the Select target devices panel, click Continue.

How do I set up an automated launch of AXIOM after imaging?

You cannot launch a third-party software from TaskForce 2 itself. However, there are automation tools that allow TaskForce to be integrated into a workflow with Magnet AXIOM. For instance, Magnet AUTOMATE. Atola team closely cooperates with Magnet's developers to support and enhance this integration. See how it works.

Another option is a folder monitor/watchdog. Use an app that tracks when a new image file appears in a specific folder. After that, such an app can launch Magnet AXIOM against the newly created image. There are many watchdog tools on the web.

Is there a way to delete an imaging session and start imaging all over again?

When you select source and target drives that were previously used in an imaging session, TaskForce 2 will indicate the progress status of the previous session and you will be allowed to resume it.

To start a new imaging session with the same source and target, you will need to delete the previous one:

  1. Go to Image.
  2. Select the source drive.
  3. On the Select target devices panel, select the target and click Continue.
  4. Right-click the imaging session.
  5. In the context menu, click Allow imaging map deletion. A Trash icon appears in each imaging progress status tile.
  6. To delete the previous imaging session, click the Trash icon. Now you are able to start a new session to the same target.

To disable imaging map deletion, click the imaging session again and select the option in the context menu.


RAID configuration autodetection & imaging

Can TaskForce 2 identify a RAID’s configuration if I include drives that are not RAID members (the drives are not marked properly)?

Normally, TaskForce 2 can identify the type of an unknown RAID within a minute. TaskForce reads data from the initial 3 million sectors of each drive and searches for the correct relation between the RAID members.

With an odd drive, the module will need more time to identify the configuration.

  • In case of RAID 1 or 10, detected mirrors will be arranged into groups, the odd drive will be placed separately, partitions will be mounted successfully.
  • If it is a JBOD, the partitions will likely be identified and the order of the drives will be correct, with the odd drive placed at the end.
  • As for RAID 0 or 5, TaskForce won't reassemble such array: data from the odd drive is taken into account when TaskForce combines data from all members.

NB The autodetection module attemps identifying configuration from scratch each time you remove or add a drive. Try removing a drive that seems odd. Normally, RAID members are drives of the same capacity and usually, of the same type, made by the same manufacturer, etc.

Can I image a RAID array that contains a damaged drive?

RAID assembly module requires good, readable drives to find a configuration. When one of the RAID's drives is damaged, it's best to image the drive first and attempt the reassembly using the image.

However, if the configuration is known and no search is required, you can try to mount the RAID even with a malfunctioning device. In this case, specify the configuration manually and proceed with imaging. TaskForce's multipass imaging engine copes with RAID arrays with such issues effectively.

If you are dealing with a RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 1, TaskForce 2 will use the RAID's redundancy when encountering internal read errors.

When one of the drives in a RAID 5 array is seriously damaged, you can add a virtual Missing device instead of the damaged device. Next, it is possible to reassemble and image the RAID 5 array from the remaining healthy drives and 1 "stub" device. TaskForce reconstructs data from such arrays on-the-fly in the course of imaging.


Performance

How to reach 25 TB/h?

TaskForce 2 was designed as an ultimate multitasking tool with huge overhead capacity. Given that most imaged devices are HDDs, whose data transfer rate is 200 - 220 MB/s at best, it is not frequently that you will be seeing TaskForce reach the limits of its capacity.

Our QA team achieves the speed of 25 TB/hour with this specific setup:

  • imaging 8 SAS ports to 8 SATA ports (all SSD drives)
  • imaging 2 NVMe ports to 2 NVMe ports
  • imaging 1 USB ports to 1 USB ports (all SSD drives)
  • imaging 2 USB ports to network files (10Gb connection)
  • imaging IDE port (with an IDE drive attached) to a network file (10Gb connection)

Instead of cloning, target drives can be formatted as Storage for E01/AFF4/RAW image files.

In most cases, you deal with HDDs as source devices, and they are half as fast as SSDs, which creates a bottleneck.

Another potential performance bottleneck is network bandwidth. To achieve maximum throughput, connect ETH1 port to a network or NAS, and ETH2 port to another network or NAS. It will give you 20Gb/s of throughput. It also depends on your network hardware and setup.

To learn about network throughput optimization, read the official TaskForce manual:

Performance when imaging to a remote USB drive (write cache + exFAT)

There are two ways to boost imaging performance:

  1. Format the target drive to exFAT. It works faster than NTFS.
  2. Enable Windows write cache:
    1. Go to Device Manager.
    2. In the Disk Drives category, select your drive.
    3. On the Policies tab, switch to Better performance.
    4. Confirm the reboot of the PC.

Important: When the last imaging session completes, use Eject Removable media icon in the system tray to guarantee cache-flushing of the last portions of written data. Here is an article explaining how it works.


Connectivity

How do I extend my server network with a DHCP-enabled switch

Here is an example of switch that supports static IP setup via simple web admin. To set the IP addresses for each current server network node:

Ubiquiiti EdgeSwitch 16 XG
Four 10Gb Ethernet ports, twelve 10Gb SFP ports

To configure a Ubiquiti DHCP server:

  1. Connect PC and TaskForce to Ubiquiti switch.
  2. Set static IP address of PC to 192.168.1.4.
  3. Open a browser and enter 192.168.1.2 (default Ubiquiti switch IP).
  4. Log in with default credentials: ubnt (both name and password).
  5. Go to System > Advanced Configuration > DHCP server > Global.
  6. Activate Admin mode by checking the required checkbox and clicking the Submit button.
  7. Go to Pool Summary and click Add to make a new address pool
  8. Enter your:
    • pool name
    • network base address (192.168.1.0 for example)
    • network mask (255.255.255.0)
    • put Default Router Address and DNS

    After creating your pool, you can change it via Pool configuration tab.

  9. Click the Save configuration button in the right upper corner of the window and then Save.

Alternatively, there is a tutorial on Youtube.

To enable 10Gb with jumbo frames:

  1. Go to Basic > Port summary.
  2. Select ports 0/13, 0/14, 0/15, 0/16 and click Edit.
  3. In the Edit Port configuration window, change Maximum Frame Size to 9014.

There is no DHCP server on our internal lab network. How do I assign a static IP address to TaskForce 2?

  1. In TaskForce, click the menu button in the top right corner.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. In the Network section, you will find IP settings for both 10Gb Ethernet cards.
  4. Click the pencil button to see Use static IP checkbox.

Atola TaskForce demo video includes a basic explanation of the network settings. Here's a Youtube video on that.

How do I set up Windows Server share?

In Control panel:

  1. Enable Guest account (Administrative tools - AD users and computers - Users)
  2. Next, go to Network and sharing center - Change advanced sharing settings - Turn On network discovery + Turn on sharing (file and printers + public folders)
  3. In the shared folder access options, add Guest or Everyone

If the shared folder demands restricted access, please follow this guide.

How do I connect TaskForce 2 to a network domain?

TaskForce 2 does not require a preliminary setup for working in a domain. Instead, your flow would be:

  1. Click the Image icon in the left-side taskbar
  2. Select the source in the left slideout panel
  3. To select the target, click Select file in the FILE section
  4. In the file manager's Local network section, click Connect button
  5. A new dialog will appear with the Domain field

The entered server will remain in the Local Network section list.

Additionally, in Web API, there's a targetFolderDomain parameter of /start-image command that may be of use.

How do I setup Synology DS218?

  1. Go to Control panel > File services > SMB > Advanced settings.
  2. Set Maximum protocol to SMB3.
  3. Go to Control panel > Shared folder.
  4. Click Create button and specify network folder details.

If you need to get a guest account working, run the next actions:

  1. Go to Control panel > User.
  2. Edit for Guest user.
  3. Untick Disable this account.

Wiping

How does SSD Trim work and does it wipe a drive completely?

SSD Trim doesn't instantly wipe sectors (NAND memory cells) of a drive. It instructs SSD's firmware which sectors can be wiped by marking them as 'dirty'.

Time of erasure of 'dirty' sectors depends on the SSD manufacturer and firmware. For instance, recent Samsung SSDs have a so-called foreground garbage collection. It wipes any erased file almost immediately thanks to a TRIM command proactively executed by the operating system. In older SSDs, trimmed sectors can remain intact for minutes or even hours.

The most secure way to erase an SSD entirely is using one of the following methods:

  • Secure Erase - for SATA drives
  • Format NVM - for NVMe drives
The drive's internal implementation of these commands is vendor-specific. In most drives, it ensures full erasure of an SSD including non-addressable areas.


Case management & reports

Can all reports listed in the main page be sorted, managed, or deleted?

Yes, they can be filtered, sorted, exported, and deleted. The quickest way to perform a search is by using the Search field above the reports on the main page. Entering task name (Image, Diagnose, Wipe) and/or device model/serial helps getting a more specific output.

To sort, export, or delete reports, you can go to Reports in the top menu, where all case reports are shown in a table view. Save to helps download the selected reports in a single ZIP file. There is also a Delete button in the bottom right corner for your needs.

Can reports only be exported in PDF, can I export them into RTF format instead?

It should be possible to save a page into RTF. For example, in this Chrome AddOn you can select the reports and click Print. It will generate a single page with all selected reports, which can be exported to .RTF file.


Subscription

How do I activate my unit in a network-free environment?

There is a single way to perform TaskForce 2 activation or subscription extension:

  1. Enter the TaskForce 2 serial number. It can be found at the bottom of the unit.
  2. TaskForce 2 generates a license key (Internet connection is not required).
  3. You find an Internet-connected PC and visit the website: a.atola.com.
  4. You enter the license key and several other details.
  5. The website generates a TaskForce activation code.
  6. You write the code down or take a photo, and then enter it in TaskForce activation screen.
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