HDS 4.5 & Bitlocker

[ulicky]

Hi, I have all drives encrypted with bitlocker.
I want to do surface test and these are results:
1)If drive is not unlocked, tests cannot proceed
2)If drive is unlocked test read will sometimes work, sometimes fail in middle (disk is fine without bitlocker)
3)Worse thing REFRESH data area test will DESTROY disk DATA and fail at beginning.

At point 3) Please disable this test if bitlocker is detected, or solve the problem.
Problem is, that bitlocker driver is sitting on top of the disk driver so all commands to dirve goes thru bitlocker driver.

My last question is for what is HDSentinel.sys driver good for? I dont like loading drivers without knowledge what they do.

Thanks

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for your message and excuse me for the possible troubles.

This sounds interesting. Personally during testing there were no such problems experienced and no other users reported similar.

The only known issue is #1 you wrote, which is completely expected: exactly as you wrote, when bitlocker is active, all disk related commands need to pass through the bitlocker driver and it may block access of other software. So then tests and some special functions (like adjusting disk features from the Disk menu) can't be performed.

But if it's in unlocked state, things should work with no problems.

Can you please use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option? This may help to check the actual situation.
Also if you see an error message during situation #2 you wrote (read testing when the drive unlocked) this may give further information, for example by checking the error code(s), message(s) and so.

The Refresh data area is USUALLY safe for stored information, but during special conditions there may be problems.
If you experienced problem during the read test, then it is possible that the hard disk is not working properly and/or there is a problem with data cables/connections, system memory, which may result in unstable operation.
If this happens, it is possible that during the refresh test, the drive may have written back invalid data instead of the correct information (like the original partition table, directory structure, MFT and so) resulting that the file system is unavailable.
It is possible that the bitlocker driver (even if the drive is unlocked) may caused that the data written back was replaced / modified / encrypted somehow and this resulted the problem.

I'm really sorry for that - if it is possible to investigate the situation and reproduce problem(s) (and it is related to the tests, not a bug in bitlocker itself), then things can be improved in all possible ways as soon as possible of course.

> My last question is for what is HDSentinel.sys driver good for? I dont like loading drivers without knowledge what they do.

I can confirm that this is a driver to access information about some hardware devices, like the motherboard chipset and hard disk controller(s) used in the system. It is a 32 bit driver (so only loaded under 32 bit Windows, not really sure if you have that) and kept mostly for compatibility and features for older systems like Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and older hard disks (eg. IDE/PATA devices).
If you prefer, you can any time remove that - as it is not essential for the operation, just with it, the software may report more accurate information for such older systems. If you use 64 bit Windows, then it is never loaded.

[ulicky]

Hi, I usually test software in vmware before production deploy. Could vmware be the problem? I really dont know if i want to test it on production drives before successful test.

For locked state no problem, im ok, that this will not work.
For unlocked state and data corruption im not ok

For info other tools doing similar job working fine.
Other observation - if i remove bitlocker encryption read and write finish without problems, so it could be easily reproducible for your.

Thanks for driver explanation, I dont like 3rd party drivers, but I have x64 system

[hdsentinel]

Generally the software should work under virtual environment, just may not be able to provide status information if it's separated from the hardware.
If there were random problems with read test and also troubles with the read-write-read test, then yes, it can be related to VMWare.

I'll perform further testing with bitlocker both under VMWare and in real environment to verify the situation, examine it with more details.
I'd suggest to use Report menu -> Send test report to deveoper option - as it helps to check the actual situation and reproduce in same / similar conditions (eg. same VMWare, same guest OS, hard disk types/sizes configured etc.)

> For info other tools doing similar job working fine.

Sorry, I can't understand.
Other S.M.A.R.T. monitoring tools? As I read, that part of Hard Disk Sentinel works fine, without problems.
Other tools performing similar job (same kind of Read-write-read test)?

To be safe, yes, it may be better to avoid using the Read-write-read test in this situation. You may consider using the Disk menu -> Short self test / Extended self test and Read test option. The latest is 100% safe (performing a read operation only), so it should run with no problems.
If you see problems during Read test, then I'm afraid the system may not be stable - and this may resulted data corruption during the write test as well.

> Thanks for driver explanation, I dont like 3rd party drivers, but I have x64 system

Then you can even delete the HDSentinel.sys file if you prefer, it's never used on your system