Hard Disk Monitoring

This topic contains general information and news about any version of Hard Disk Sentinel software, or the webpage.

Hard Disk Sentinel version 2.70 is available.
If you have some time, please download from www.hdsentinel.com
or update the existing version by the updater.

If you have successfully registered and activated any previous version,
the updated version will be also registered and activated.
If you plan to download manually, please make sure you download the
correct version (standard or PRO).


The list of updates in this version:

- Added support for newer NVidia chipsets and different previously unsupported controllers
- Added 300+ new hard disks to database
- Proper Dutch and Ukrainian language support
- Improved speed and responsiveness of the software
- Detecting and displaying hard disk controller and location information
- Detecting and displaying new disk features (free-fall control, NV cache size, etc.)
- Detecting and displaying more version and transport details
- Menu and report changes, improvements

and of course it contains all finalised updates of version 2.60b
(RAID and USB support, more flexible and configurable backup operations,
disk usage icons and so).

For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/rev.php


NEW: The Enterprise server solution allows monitoring and managing disk
information of remote hosts from a centralized administration console.
Free demo is available on the webpage.
If you or your company is interested, please let me know by e-mail.


NEW: Hard Disk Sentinel international forum is finally on-line!
I'd like to invite you to come and let me know your ideas, questions and thougths
about the software or your experiences about storage devices.
It would be nice if we can share our thoughts and help each other to prevent
data loss.

Hard Disk Sentinel version 2.81 is available.
If you have some time, please download from www.hdsentinel.com
or update the existing version by the updater.

If you have successfully registered and activated any previous version,
the updated version will be also registered and activated.
If you plan to download manually, please make sure you download the
correct version (standard or PRO).

There are lots of fixes and improvements in this new version.
It is recommended to update it.

Complete list of updates: http://www.hdsentinel.com/rev.php

If you ever experienced any problems by checking hard disk details under Windows or if you wanted to modify the acoustic level of your drive(s) but Hard Disk Sentinel returned an error, then the problem was caused by the hard disk controller driver. Such driver may limit the functionality of software because it may not allow to send commands to the hard disk itself.

In such cases, you may try HDSDos. By using a bootable device (floppy/CD) you can access the information of IDE/SATA drives and can modify the acoustic levels also. For example, a HDSDOS /SETAAM ALL QUIET command can make all drives silent. In contrast, HDSDOS /SETAAM ALL LOUD enables more performance (faster speed) but the drives may cause more noise during seeking.

For more details and download, please check: http://www.hdsentinel.com/hdsdos.php

If you are a system administrator and you need to maintain more computers, the Enterprise Server can help your work with its features: to display storage and system-related information in a centralised management console and issue alers upon any problem.
From this console it is also possible to manage and control the hard disks and the Hard DIsk Sentinel client software running on the remote computers.

For a demo version of the management console (the Enterprise Server) please check: http://www.hdsentinel.com/enterprise.php

If you are interested, please send an e-mail with the amount of computers you want to monitor and control.

The registered version offers the following features compared to demo:
- status area with worst health and temperature found with the corresponding host
- configurable system tray icons showing worst health and temperature values found in any client
- more displaying and filtering/managing options
- option to execute projects on remote computers (if PRO client is used), even on more or all clients with some clicks
- verify project execution and results from the Enterprise console
- remote configuration of Hard Disk Sentinel software running on the clients and auto-apply configuration on selected clients
- modify acoustic levels on hard disks in client computers
- detailed statistics with graphical display (chart) of information provided by clients: checking how disk health/temperature/free space or system-parameters (CPU/RAM/Virtual memory usage) changes with time
- Linux client is also available which can be also monitored from the Enterprise Server management console

New screenshots and details will be available soon on the page of the Enterprise Server. If you have any ideas, questions, please send a mail.

Dear Friend,

I want to inform you that Hard Disk Sentinel version 2.90 is available for download.
If you have some time, please download from http://www.hdsentinel.com
or update the existing version by the updater.

If you have successfully registered and activated any previous version,
the updated version will be also registered and activated.
If you plan to download manually, please make sure you download the
correct version (standard or PRO).

For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/rev.php
For images about updates, please check http://www.hdsentinel.com/screenshots.php
Download the new version from http://www.hdsentinel.com

The Hardware Support page is updated and separated to different sections.
If you encounter any compatibility issues, please check http://www.hdsentinel.com/compat.php

Dear users,

Because of the excessive amount of reports and questions received (thanks for all users for them , the processing of the reports may take 7-14 business days if un-registered versions are installed. Registered users should receive answers in 1 business day.

If you experience some issues (for example, not detected drive information) please check the updated Hardware compatibility page at http://www.hdsentinel.com/compat.php or read the Frequently Asked Questions at http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php because most of such questions are already answered there.

Dear Friend,

I want to inform you that Hard Disk Sentinel version 3.00 is available for download.
If you have some time, please download from www.hdsentinel.com or update the existing version by the updater.

If you have successfully registered and activated any previous version, the updated version will be also registered and activated.
If you plan to download manually, please make sure you download the correct version (standard or PRO).

The updates in this version (compared to latest version 2.90):

Improvements and new features:

- (*) disk surface test functions (accessible from File menu or by quick button) to test hard disk and solid state disk surface
with different read and write test methods.

Destructive and non-destructive tests are possible and many settings are available including complete simple read tests,
disk re-initialisation (**), data area refresh (**), industry standard data-destruction (**) and so to help
disk diagnostics and repair.

Temperature and data transfer speed is measured and displayed during the test to analyse disk operation
and slowly accessible regions

- (*) Disk Contents Inspector allows to check stored information on the disk

- detection of both SATA and SAS disks configured to RAID arrays on HighPoint 1xxx and 2xxx series RAID controllers
(SAS only if applicable, for example by the 2640x4 controller)

- detection of new USB drives, SATA multipliers, external enclosures, SAS drives

- more SSD specific information and attributes displayed for various SSD devices
(for example OCZ, Corsair, Super Talent, Intel, Samsung, Crucial and so)

- added detection of new SSD devices

- (*) verify results online: compare details of a drive with reports received online, to check if the drive
is better or worse than average ("globe" with HDD icon)

- (*) right click over list of logical drives to hide drives or select button sizes

- displaying highest temperature ever found in the entire lifespan of
the disk, option to reset measured highest/lowest temperatures

- configurable tray icon font (Configuration -> Thresholds/tray icon)

- option to prevent disks from spin down (Configuration -> Disk control)

- (*) Hard Disk Sentinel API: 3rd party software can get disk information from the software for further processing

- many user interface fixes and improvements

- 150+ new hard disks in database

- various minor bug fixes and improvements

- fixed: random seek time test resulted errors on some disks over 1 TB

- improved support for ARECA RAID controllers with STORPORT drivers

- added Bulgarian language support - thanks for Georgi Nenov for the translation

- added Greek language support - thanks for dancer_69 for the translation

- added Swedish language support - thanks for Ulf for the translation

- added Russian language support - thanks for Andrey Nikolaev for the translation


(*): available only in registered Hard Disk Sentinel and Hard Disk Sentinel Professional
(**): available only in registered Hard Disk Sentinel Professional



For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/rev.php
For images about updates, please check http://www.hdsentinel.com/screenshots.php
Download the new version from the completely re-designed website: http://www.hdsentinel.com

Dear Friend,

I want to inform you that Hard Disk Sentinel version 3.20 is released and available for download.
If you have some time, please download from www.hdsentinel.com
or update the existing version by the automatic update from the File menu.

If you have successfully registered and activated any previous version,
the updated version will be also registered and activated.
If you plan to download manually, please make sure you download the
correct version you already have installed (standard or PRO).

The updates in this version (compared to latest version 3.10):

- detection of SATA and SAS disks configured to
RAID arrays on LSI RAID controllers

- detection of SATA and SAS disks configured to
RAID arrays on DELL RAID controllers

- detection of SATA disks configured to
RAID arrays on nForce RAID controllers

- added support for USB 3.0 hard disk enclosures, docking stations

- added support for RAIDSONIC USB 3.0 products

- using Media wearout indicator attribute in health calculation for SSDs

- more accurate information reported for hard disks and solid state disks

- improved health and power on time calculation for various devices

- improved support for Promise hard disk controllers

- user interface improvements

- improved compatibility with older OSes (Win98, WinME, WinNT4)

- improved network reliability

- improved surface test reliability

- 100+ new drives added to hard disk database


For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/rev.php
For screenshots, please check http://www.hdsentinel.com/screenshots.php
Download the new version from website: http://www.hdsentinel.com

Dear Friend,

I want to inform you that Hard Disk Sentinel version 3.30 is released and available for download.
Please download from www.hdsentinel.com or update the existing version by the automatic update from the File menu.

If you have successfully registered and activated any previous version, the updated version will be also registered and activated.
If you plan to download manually, please make sure you download the correct version you already have installed (standard or PRO).

The updates in this version (compared to latest version 3.20):

Improvements and new features:

- added DISK menu to main menu with disk related functions
- added Advanced Power Management of individual disks (*)
- added Free Fall control management for 2.5" hard disk drives supporting this feature (*)
- option to configure custom yellow / red temperature threshold levels for each drives
- option to delay startup when started with Windows
- option to disable popup before shutdown
- improved network drive detection and support
- added Load Activation Keyfile button to make offline activation easier
- displaying and reporting NTFS mount points for drives

Improved hardware support:

- detection of hard disks configured to RAID arrays on Silicon Image controllers
- improved detection of large RAID arrays
- added detection of SSD controllers:
SandForce, Marvell, Indilinx, Amigos, JMicron, Samsung, Toshiba, Intel, Phison controllers
- improved detection of SSD specific attributes, health and temperature
- improved detection of exclusively locked drives
- improved JMicron JMB36X / Gigabyte GBB36X hard disk controller support

Bug fixes:

- date display fixed
- various minor bug fixes
- improved Windows 98/ME/NT4 support


(*): requires support of hard disk controller driver also

Dear Friend,

I want to inform you that Hard Disk Sentinel version 3.40 is
released and available for download.
If you have some time, please download from www.hdsentinel.com
or update the existing version by the automatic update from the File menu.

If you have successfully registered and activated any previous version,
the updated version will be also registered and activated.
If you plan to download manually, please make sure you download the
correct version you already have installed (standard or PRO).

The updates in this version (compared to latest version 3.30):

- after excessive amount of requests, now it is available:
detecting hard disks and SSDs configured into RAID arrays on
Intel Matrix RAID controllers (ICH7R, ICH8R, ICH9R, ICH10R)
Note: Intel RAID controller must have driver 9.6.5.1001 or newer installed

- Driver Zone launched where drivers can be downloaded (including the above)
Further tested and recommended drivers will be continuously uploaded onto the Driver Zone
More information: http://www.hdsentinel.com/driverzone.php

- improved health calculation and information reporting for various SSD and HDD devices

- reporting Advanced Format: physical sectors with 4096 bytes

- improved surface test

- user interface fixes and improvements

- bug fixed with attribute database

Dear Friend,

I want to inform you that Hard Disk Sentinel version 3.50 is
released and available for download.
If you have some time, please download from www.hdsentinel.com
or update the existing version by the automatic update from the File menu.

If you have successfully registered and activated any previous version,
the updated version will be also registered and activated.
If you plan to download manually, please make sure you download the
correct version you already have installed (standard or PRO).

The updates in this version (compared to previous version 3.40):

- detection of SATA/PATA disks configured to RAID arrays on
JMicron JMB36X / Gigabyte GBB36X RAID controllers
Driver update is required from the Driver Zone to get all information.

- support for dual drive enclosures with standalone (port multiplier)
mode (Welland ME-280J, Welland ME-580J, etc.)

- added Turkish language support,
thanks for oFLee team : Sadri Sadi Berber ve Behçet Berber

- compatibility enhancements with various SSDs and RAID controllers

- improved Advanced Format support

- enhanced disk test on Advanced Format drives

- improved surface tests, write tests for Windows 7/2008/Vista

- improved dynamic DNS update functions

- improved compatibility with external devices added/removed
during sleep or hibernation state

- improved tray icon support for Windows 7/2008/Vista

- improved sidebar gadget (displays coloured temperature
values, logical disk information, etc.)

- user interface fixes and improvements


For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/rev.php
Download the new version from http://www.hdsentinel.com


Using unregistered version of Hard Disk Sentinel?
The special offer introduced in version 3.40 continues: upgrade now for registered
version with 20% discount.
Please check the special offers in the new version and on the website.

Dear Hard Disk Sentinel user,

Do not miss the special offer powered by BitsDuJour (www.bitsdujour.com):

Hard Disk Sentinel Professional Family package is available just for USD $29.99, with 52% discount!

The offer is available only for 24 hours, only on 10 March 2011.

Do not miss the opportunity to get Hard Disk Sentinel Professional for computers in your family (or even small office) for this exceptional low price!

For further information and ordering, please visit:

http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/hard ... af=504931/


The license grants all rights you would receive on the full price: the software may be used indefinitely after purchase and all further version upgrades are free.

Hard Disk Sentinel version 3.60 released with new functions, improvements and enhanced hardware support!

For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/rev.php

Download the new version from http://www.hdsentinel.com
or by using the automatic update from File menu.

Hard Disk Sentinel version 3.70 released with updates, improvements and enhanced hardware support!

For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/rev.php

Download the new version from http://www.hdsentinel.com or by using the automatic update from File menu.

Hard Disk Sentinel version 4.00 released with lots of new functions, updates, improvements and enhanced hardware support!
Now Hard Disk Sentinel Professional is available as Portable version (separate download available on the Download page: www.hdsentinel.com/download.php )

For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/revision.php

Download the new version from http://www.hdsentinel.com or by using the automatic update from File menu.

Hard Disk Sentinel version 4.10 released with new functions, updates, hardware compatibility improvements, 4 new languages and enhanced hardware support!

For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/revision.php

Download the new version after clicking on DOWNLOAD button at http://www.hdsentinel.com or by using the automatic update from File menu.

Hard Disk Sentinel version 4.20 released with new functions, updates, hardware compatibility improvements and enhanced hardware support!

For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/revision.php

Download the new version after clicking on DOWNLOAD button at http://www.hdsentinel.com or by using the automatic update from File menu.

Hard Disk Sentinel version 4.30 released with important, critical updates and changes for various hardware devices and also it has improved hardware support in general.

For the full list of updates, please view http://www.hdsentinel.com/revision.php

Download the new version after clicking on DOWNLOAD button at http://www.hdsentinel.com or by using the automatic update from File menu.