Hard Disk Sentinel

What's new in this version:

IMPROVEMENTS AND NEW FEATURES:
- added new disk testing method: Disk menu -> Surface test -> Repair disk drive
- designed to repair weak/pending sectors: forces the hard disk to stabilize problems and force reallocation of bad sectors
- (if required). Can be used on even system drive with running operating system (registered Pro version only)

added manual repair of any disk sector in Disk Contents Inspector:
- use Disk menu -> Surface test -> View (or start any surface test) and click on the disk surface map to view the raw contents of any sector. Go to the appropriate sector and if it is unreadable/reports error, the Repair button attempts to repair that (Pro version only)
- added option to provide disk status information via WMI
- (Configuration -> Advanced options -> Provide status information by WMI)
- (disk information, status, health, temperature, text description, power on hours, bad sector count, weak sector count, comm.issue count, spin retry count, trim status, and complete S.M.A.R.T.) (registered Pro version only)
- added option to test multiple hard disks by Disk menu -> Short self test / Extended self test (registered Pro version only)
- added option to test multiple hard disks by Disk menu -> Surface test functions, by same test methods/options (registered Pro version only)
- added support of high-DPI displays, including but not limited to 4K displays with high DPI scaling
- added option to use TLS / STARTTLS in e-mail configuration regardless of port (previously used automatically only when port 587 specified)
- added option to specify maximum try count in Disk menu -> Surface test functions before starting the test (Configuration tab)
- added "lifetime writes" to TXT / HTML / XML reports
- added option to perform write testing with any byte, byte/character sequence
- Disk menu -> Surface test -> Write test -> Configuration page -> Write pattern
- Specify 0xAA 0xBB etc. to specify hexadecimal sequence

added option to automatically save all results of disk tests:
- Configuration -> Advanced options -> Automatically save disk test results to folder
- saves images/graphs, log, results, block performance details after Disk menu -> Surface test functions
- saves image after Disk menu -> Random seek test function
- saves text report and brief log after Disk menu -> Short self test / Extended self test functions
- automatic save of complete report upon disk status change/degradation (registered Pro version only)
- added option: Configuration -> Advanced options -> Automatic detection based on disk utilization
- automatically prevent detection if the disk utilization shows that the hard disk is inactive (sleeping), there is no data transfer, no read/write commands (based on the Disk Performance page)

added option to log alerts to Windows event log: Configuration -> Message settings -> Add to Windows event log (registered version only)
- added option to Configuration -> Message settings to execute external command (or BAT file) when alert triggered (registered Pro version only). The following environment variables set to be accessible from the started external command (or BAT file):
- HDS_TimeStamp : date and time of the actual alert in fixed format yyyymmdd hhmmss
- HDS_TimeStampClean : date and time of the alert in user-friendly format (current Windows regional setting)
- HDS_Host : current host (computer) name
- HDS_Alert : the alert (eg. Overheat)
- HDS_Disk : affected disk(s)
- HDS_Threshold : threshold configured (contain Celsius/Fahrenheit or % symbols)
- HDS_ThresholdValue : threshold configured (only the number)
- HDS_Health : generic health information of all drives
- HDS_Partition : generic partition information of all drives
- HDS_LowestDiskHealth: the lowest health % value of all drives

IMPROVED HARDWARE SUPPORT:
- added support for InnoDisk industrial (micro) SD memory cards: detection of complete status, health, lifetime writes and additional statistics of (micro) SD memory card.
- added support for Delkin industrial (micro) SD memory cards: detection of complete status, health, lifetime writes and additional statistics of (micro) SD memory card.
- added support for MagicRAM industrial (micro) SD memory cards: detection of complete status, health, lifetime writes and additional statistics.
- added support for industrial (micro) SD memory cards and USB devices based on Hyperstone controllers: detection of complete status, health, lifetime writes and additional statistics.
- To enable status detection of industrial micro SD card detection, please select the card reader device from the list of drives and click on the Control device-specific detection label on the right, below the text description area. A new window appears, where it is possible to enable the detection. You may click on the Auto Detect button to verify if the device is responding to the detection. If yes, then the device type will be automatically selected.
- Note: in the unregistered version, the above procedure need to be done every time the software started.
- More information and example: How to: monitor (micro) SD card health and status
- added detection of LTO tape drives: detect and display health, temperature, cleaning / media status. Tested with IBM Ultrium LTO5, Tandberg LTO5 tape drives
- added support of HP Smart Array H240, P440, B140i RAID controllers: detect status of SATA / SAS hard disks, SSDs managed and configured into RAID array(s)
- added support of Supermicro SMC2008, SMC LSI 2208 SAS/SATA RAID controller: detect status of SATA / SAS hard disks, SSDs managed and configured into RAID array(s)
- added support of FTS PRAID EP400i SAS/SATA RAID controller
- detection and support of non-standard byte-per-sector values: SAS hard disks formatted with 520 bytes/sector or 528 bytes/sector. Show bytes-per-sector for SCSI/SAS drives too.
- all disk tests (Disk menu -> Surface test functions, Disk menu -> Random seek test, Disk menu -> Short/Extended self tests) work with hard disks formatted with 520 bytes/sector or 528 bytes/sector
- improved UASP handling, showing USB Attached SCSI (UASP) in the Interface line on the Information page
- improved compatibility with Areca SAS/SATA RAID controllers, detection of SAS drives in addition to SATA drives on ARECA RAID controllers
- improved compatibility with Intel / LSI embedded Megaraid controllers and newer drivers
- improved support of HighPoint RAID controllers
- improved support of Sandisk Extreme pendrives (reported 0% health, indicating failure on new devices due to special S.M.A.R.T. attributes)
- improved support of Sandisk, Kingston, ADATA, Samsung, OCZ, Intel, Toshiba, Intenso, Zheino SSDs
- improved support of external Orico, Sabrent, Sharkoon DriveLink Combo devices
- added detection again of Via Labs Inc VL711 bridge chip - if the detection is safe (detection completely disabled in 4.71 version)
- improved support of older SCSI HP Smart Array 642, 6400 controllers
- improved support of LSI/Dell/Avago SATA/SAS RAID controllers and HBAs (Host Bus Adapters), improved power on state and disk self test functions with such controllers
- improved support of JMicron external RAID enclosures and standalone devices with JMicron 56x chipsets
- improved detection and compatibility with Marvell 9230 RAID controllers
- added support of newer SanDisk CloudSpeed SSDs, Kingston SSDs
- added support of NVMe SSDs from various manufacturers (Intel, OCZ, Liteon, Samsung, Toshiba, etc.)
- added support for Toshiba OCZ RD400 NVMe SSD
- improved power on time detection and display of many SAS/SCSI hard disks and SAS SSDs
- improved support of 1.8" hard disk drives
- improved support of Maxtor ATLAS SCSI / SAS hard disks
- added support of Prolific PL3507 IDE-USB bridge
- improved support of VIA, JMicron RAID controllers

BUG FIXES, FURTHER MODIFICATIONS:
- improved detection and reporting of file information if file(s) located on unreadable/repaired sectors
- improved write tests / disk wipe functions (Disk menu -> Surface test -> Write test, Write+Read test, Reinitialise disk surface test)
- increased Configuration window to improve readability and visibility
- fixed: status window display with high resolution
- fixed: disk tray icon could be completely missing if the comment was too long
- fixed: Copy to clipboard function on logical disk information page was not working
- fixed: disk alert window health list of all disk drives connected
- fixed: LSI/Intel embedded controllers may lock up systems completely when accessed. Do not attempt detection when such controller found
- fixed: do not show capacity-warning if Paragon GPT loader used
- fixed: working again under Windows 98, ME, NT4 (previous version did not start)
- show started test type after the test completes in the popup window
- improved XML report output with Portable version
- show comment field in the Open status of offline disk(s) window to help identify drives
- user interface fixes, modifications
- changed warranty check links
- updated installer and signature
- improved Russian, Chinese language support