Hard Disk Sentinel Professional Family License PC Software with a 30% off Discount Coupon Code - Detect Hard Drive Issues Before Catastrophe Strikes

The Conversation

Albert C. HI! I bought this one in last August's promotion here @ BDJ and I have to say that I fully recommend this program! ^_^

Very nice, detects USB drivers if you want, fast and reliable. As a past user of Active SMART and Hard Drive Inspector, I stayed with Sentinel because of its features and reliability,

One thing that bothers me though is the online activation. If I buy a family pack and install it in 3 computers of mine (one of which holds a dual boot, so it would be a total of 4 installs) how many times will I be able to activate it? Is it 10x3 computers = 30 times? And if so, is it possible to reset the counter?

I'm asking this because I format and reinstall my machines very frequently and have suffered the pains of such kind of protections (especially chez RoboForm who made me buy my multiple licenses twice because of this).

Thanks for taking your time in answering my question and good luck in the sale! ^_^

Mar 3 2011 at 8:59pm

Janos Mathe Thanks for your message and your kind words!

Different hardware configurations increase the activation counter. So if you re-install the operating system on your computer(s) regularly, it is no problem: you can activate the software as many times as you want.

Also after a successful activation, you may use the Configuration - Update - Backup Configuration button. This saves all statistics, settings and registration details so after re-install, you can use the Restore Configuration button there. This way there is no need to manually configure (and re-activate) the software.

Anyway, if the number of possible activations reached, just send an e-mail and I'll reset the counter.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 4 2011 at 3:27am

Janos Mathe Important note about hardware compatibility: the current version of the software supports more RAID controllers to detect HDD / SSD status information connected to these RAID controllers.
This includes (for example but not limited to) Intel Matrix controllers as it was asked by many users (a driver update may be required).

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 4 2011 at 3:33am

Albert C. Thanks so much Janos! Following your advice, I will save all my configs into CFG files so I can restore them at future times.

It's a nice way to protect your software. Hopefully many would follow this method.

Thanks again! ^_^

Mar 4 2011 at 4:16am

Brian W Janos, thank you very much for your product that's #1.
Couple of questions. Is there going to be a limit as to the total number of these deals available on the 10th of March?

Second, I have a small server cluster + several media PCs, and laptops for my family. Would I be able to buy (2) of these deals? And get a total of 10 licenses then?

Mar 5 2011 at 1:42pm

Janos Mathe Thanks!

There is no limit for the available licenses on 10th March.

Yes of course, you can get 2 of the packages to protect all your systems. Ordering 2 or more packages will result even a slight more discount.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 5 2011 at 8:52pm

joel kens How many computers can be covered by Family License?

Mar 8 2011 at 3:40pm

Janos Mathe The license can be used on up to 5 computers.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 8 2011 at 4:28pm

Janos Mathe There are no restrictions about the use of this license: the computers do not need to be in the same building and of course the license can be used in business / office environments also.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 8 2011 at 5:50pm

Bud Gallagher I just tried to order 2 packages expecting to see the sightly extra discount Janos mentioned in his comments 4 comments above. When I request 1 package the order page correctly calculates the $29.99 price. If you change the quantity to 2 packages The order changes the price to $56.00 per unit and then deducts 32.51 from the gross price leaving the final price as $79.49 for 2 packages. Based on Janos's above comments, I expected to a final price for 2 packages to less than $ 59.98. If the discount remains at 52% then I would expect that 2 packages would have a net cost of $53.76 calculated as follows: 2 packages times $56.00 times 48% = $53.76.

So whats the deal on the 2 package deal and how do I get it?

Bud

Mar 9 2011 at 4:57pm

Janos Mathe You're absolutely right. There was a problem with the discount setting for 2 or more packages, now it is fixed.

Now the total is calculated correctly and the total net cost of 2 packages is $ 53.65.

Excuse for this trouble.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 9 2011 at 5:40pm

Bud Gallagher Thank for quick reply, just completed the order without problems.

Mar 9 2011 at 6:07pm

Janos Mathe Thanks, and sorry again for the problem.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 9 2011 at 6:36pm

Roberto thanks Albert for comment about online register. I dont like them.. bad experience in some shareware that i bought in the past.

Mar 9 2011 at 7:26pm

Richard Andersen This is a great program. I've been having problems with a rather new WD disk for a long time, I/O operations regularly slow down to a few Kb/s for long periods and I haven't been able to pinpoint the problem.

Now I can see that the disk has 33 weak sectors which must be the cause of the problem. I suspected it might be something like that, but WDs diagnostics program always reports everything is OK, and the problem is not mentioned under SMART info. Great to know what's actually wrong with the disk, don't think i'd ever have figured it out without your program!

Unfortunately your program also says it's not enough to having the disk replaced, so I can only hope it breaks down at some point for these slow-downs are really annnoying.

In general I don't trust WDs diagnostics program very much anymore, since it once reported one of my Studio drives having bad sectors and therefore should be replaced. During that test the drive was connected via the e-SATA plug, which has no SMART support. I then ran the test again over the USB plug which has SMART support, and here it tested OK. It showed up it was just the e-SATA cable that was bad, after replacing it the disk also tested OK via e-SATA.

Thanks for the deal!
Richard

Mar 9 2011 at 9:02pm

Janos Mathe In some cases, such weak sectors may be caused by power failure / power loss or drive connection issues.

In these situations, the Disk menu - Surface test - Reinitialise disk surface test forces the drive to re-test such sectors and fix their status. This usually results in better functionality (reduced amount of such weak sectors, increased health and performance).
More information: http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests

I completely understand the situation: tests showed that some combo (eSATA + USB) drives can work better on USB and provide disk SMART information also, which is not true on the eSATA line (even if we'd expect that eSATA should offer better connection, higher performance, reliability and functionality).

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 9 2011 at 9:42pm

Gonzo Hi,

I have 2 questions prior to purchasing:
1-Is it really free lifetime upgrades?
2-If I purchase a single license, can I transfer it if I change my computer in the future?

Thanks!

Mar 9 2011 at 10:08pm

R Walker Hi Janos,

I would like to ask if the program is able to restore an external HDD to its factory capacity storage? I have a new 320HB HDD but it was reduced to 80GB after cloning for my DELL notebook and I am not able to reset the capacity back to 320GB thereafter. There is a software HDD Capacity Restore but it only can work for internal HDD(which I cannot get it work with a notebook).

If there is not such feature, is there a plan to include it in the next upgrade of the program?

Thanks.

Mar 9 2011 at 10:24pm

Janos Mathe Hi Gonzalo,

1) Yes, the upgrade is free to all future released versions.
2) Yes, the license can be transferred to a new system if it is removed previously from the other computer.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 9 2011 at 10:27pm

Janos Mathe Hi R Walker,

The missing capacity can't be restored by the current version.

This can be caused by different issues, for example:
- the clone software created a 80 GB partition only (and the remainder of the HDD is empty so you can create an empty partition on that space).
- the drive capacity is limited, then it may be "unlocked". This function may be available in a later version of the software.

If possible, can you please use the Report menu Send test report to developer option with the trial version of Hard Disk Sentinel when the appropriate drive is connected?
This way I can check the possibilities and may advice in e-mail.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 9 2011 at 10:32pm

Stan Lewis @Janos Mathe: Can I save the HDSentinel.hdk instead of saving the whole configuration for backing up the current activation?

Mar 9 2011 at 11:17pm

Richard Andersen Thanks Janos, will see if that can fix the weak sectors...

Mar 9 2011 at 11:21pm

Frank Stephens I wasn't going to bother with this since there are numerous utilities, including a number of free ones, which can read S.M.A.R.T. data. But then I saw that this can read S.M.A.R.T. data on my RAID array, which otherwise I only have limited access to from my BIOS. For me, it's a bit pricey since I don't need the family license, but it's probably worth it. Requesting information on a RAID drive can cause Hard Disk Sentinel to hang for a very long time. It's also unaware that Intel Rapid Storage Technology supports two volumes per array, it's only associating the drives with the first volume. Based on the reported values, I may swap out one of the drives.

Mar 9 2011 at 11:21pm

Richard Andersen @R Walker

If all else fails, you could try BING, it has USB support. I imagine it can do the trick (the trail version is fully functional AFAIR):

http://www.terabyteunlimi...ration.htm

Mar 9 2011 at 11:25pm

Janos Mathe @Stan: no, only saving the HDK file is not enough.
The recommended method is Configuration - Update - Save Configuration to save the registration details.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 9 2011 at 11:28pm

Janos Mathe @Frank: Most other solutions (especially the free ones) provide no information for RAID arrays, USB drives, SCSI/SAS drives, provide no disk testing, trend analysis, reporting and so.

The detection of RAID information may take a bit longer time than detection of regular drives, this depends on the actual controller, disks and configuration. Of course, should not take very long time.

If you can use Report menu Send test report to developer option (from the trial version) I can verify the situation and these reports always help to improve detection and performance.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 9 2011 at 11:33pm

R Walker Thanks Janos and Richard.

By cloning some OEM notebook HDD, the old HDD which contains the limiting HPA settings would shrink the bigger-sized new HDD to be the same size as the old HDD and the "loss" capacity would be completely invisible with any computer or software. No visible empty partition or unallocated space. The only way to restore to the factory capacity is to reset the firmware on the HDD (restore LPA48, HPA, DCO settings).

I also understand that it is nowadays quite common for the newer big-size HDD to have similar problem when mishandled (shrinked capacity). In addition, many HDD show less than their factory capacity and we do not know it.

Thus I think a feature to restore HDD factory capacity for an external HDD (Freeware "HDD Capacity Restore" can restore factory capacity only for internal HDD but many like myself use notebooks only nowadays) would be useful for many. I look forward to the inclusion of this feature in the next revision of the software.

I would be buying the HDD Sentinel software as I feel it is a great application. And will email the report in due course. It would be great if you can help resolve my problem. Thanks!

Mar 10 2011 at 12:02am

bob roos This sounds very interesting. I will have to check it out. Smart data over USB is especially valuable.

Activation based on hardware configuration -- is a disk drive part of that configuration? I have a bunch of hard drives that I swap in and out of the sata connection depending on my needs. (No need to power data I am not using.) Does changing the hard drive change the configuration? BTW, I really, really like the quick support answers I see here.

On the subject of reduced capacity after cloning. It is a known problem with Dell "instant media" machines (where you can play a DVD without booting the OS). I worked with Seagate tech support after my drive's capacity was zapped and nothing we did would restore it. It doesn't make sense since software destroyed it then it should be able to restore it. Seagate replaced the drive.

Mar 10 2011 at 12:09am

Janos Mathe The missing capacity is a really interesting question. According your information, I thought that capacity limit is related to the Host Protected Area (HPA) feature, which should be unlocked by software. I'm curious about the report(s) of such drive(s) to verify if this caused the missing space or if there's an other issue.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 12:18am

Janos Mathe The SMART data can be acquired on most newer USB enclosures / hard disks (older models usually have no functions to allow the detection of such information).

On http://www.hdsentinel.com...ddisks.php there is more information about USB drive support and a huge list of known USB bridge chips which can or can't provide the required information.
Reports help lots as that way I can examine if other (currently unknown) USB enclosures could be supported.

The activation is connected to the system hard disk only. So if you modify / replace any other component or add / replace other (secondary) hard disks, there are no problems and no need to activate the software again. You can have any number of disks (both active and spare), this does not cause problems with the license.

Thanks, I'm trying to help as much as possible :-)

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 12:25am

bob roos I worked with Seagate Tech Support and even using SeaTools for DOS "restore original capacity" function failed with an error code and they could not tell the meaning of that error code so they said they would replace the drive and I sent it to them. We tried every kind of clear and reset that was on any program available.

Thanks for info on activation.

I had a drive that started giving me very slow response (SATA with throughput of 38-40MB/Sec. I replaced the drive and got 96MB/Sec. Smart data shows nothing wrong. HDS shown no problems yet the drive is SLOW. It says "Real time performance data is not supported on theis disk". Is this a drive limitation or a connection limitation or a program limitation? The drive is connected via eSATA and was previously connected via USB. I switched because under USB I got the same performance not supported and figured it was the usb connection.

Mar 10 2011 at 12:59am

Janos Mathe The "Real time performance data is not supported on this disk" is related to the current operating system (Windows), not the software and not the drive / connection.
This with possible solutions described at http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#q12

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 1:09am

bob roos Thanks for that info. Are there any plans for performance monitoring/testing independent of windows? Performance is an important part of health.

Mar 10 2011 at 1:33am

Janos Mathe There is an independent Performance % value for each drives (displayed just above the Health % value) which shows if the drive does not perform well (for example, on older IDE drives it quickly showed if there is a 40 conductor cable present which limits the transfer speed).

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 1:50am

Scott Hamilton How useful is HD Sentinel for SSD's (in this case 80G Intel X25's?

Mar 10 2011 at 2:31am

Janos Mathe HD Sentinel supports the detection of SSDs, provides accurate status information for various models.
Please see http://www.hdsentinel.com...ty_ssd.php for the currently tested and supported products, the list is constantly expanding (Intel X25 is also supported of course).

Most SSDs have no temperature sensors, so their temperature may not be available, but other parameters, including health (especially if decreased due wearout) can be examined, monitored.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 2:37am

Frank Stephens I like the information that Hard Disk Sentinel provides but I'm not happy that it changes so much behavior. Changes to how people's PCs work should be opt-in, not opt-out. And I doubt that it's following my Windows Power Scheme. The delays which I was seeing appear to be due to external USB drives, but I'm not prepared to point the finger at Hard Disk Sentinel since I've also installed other USB-related software recently.

Mar 10 2011 at 4:40am

Janos Mathe Thanks for your opinion and feedback. Can you please describe what do you feel "changes so much behaviour"?

I feel you mention that
- HD Sentinel automatically starts with Windows (to keep the data protected and alert upon issues like other data protection software, eg. as antivirus software, firewalls and so)
- HD Sentinel shows the disk status on Windows Explorer icons to reflect disk usage and health.

Of course both can be disabled on Configuration - Preferences and Configuration - Disk Control pages, however according to the feedback of users, more users see the benefits of these default settings. Excuse me if these settings are different that you would prefer.

HD Sentinel follows the Windows Power Scheme as does not wake up sleeping drives on periodic updates.
But to detect hard disk status information, the software regularly issues SMART command which (like a disk read/write command) may prevent the drive(s) from entering standby mode. (I suspect this is what you feel "not following the Windows Power Scheme".)
If you set the status detection frequency (Configuration - Advanced options) to a value larger than the hard disk sleep timeout, things will work as expected.
(however, by default the software updates disk information regularly to follow the changes in status, especially temperature).

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 4:57am

K X I don't know if I need this program or not, but I'm following the discussion and it's great to see the developer answering so many technical questions.

Mar 10 2011 at 5:35am

Frank Stephens Actually, Hard Disk Sentinel appears to be spinning down some drives. There's a power/activity light on one of my external USB drives which has never turned off while my PC was awake until I installed Hard Disk Sentinel, although sometimes installing software will cause some part of Windows which wasn't functioning properly to start working. There's an option not to spin down drives under Configuration, Disk Control, which leads one to suspect that it may ignore the settings in Windows Power Options for when drives should spin down, if at all. It changes the drive icons by default. I don't mind having additional features, but they should be clearly described in the Help without applying them without my permission. In Vista and higher, open the Control Panel to Power Options, you'll see Power Plans, each with a Change Plan Settings option. There are very basic settings, with an option to Change Advanced Power Settings. There are yet more options under Change Settings that are Currently Unavailable.

Mar 10 2011 at 5:45am

Janos Mathe I can make sure Hard Disk Sentinel does not spin _down_ drives at all. I do not really think the issue with the USB drive is related to Hard Disk Sentinel but if you can use Report menu Send test report to developer option when it is connected and active (and an other when the drive is turned off / spin down) I can examine the situation and check what can cause the issue and/or what could be done to prevent that.

The option to "prevent spin down" is designed especially for some (mostly USB drives) which show themselves as active (spinning) but spin down internally. This may be annoying as when the user wants to read/write a file, he needs to wait before each access to the disk to spin up again, so the software can be used to prevent this spin down. Eg. older WD MyBooks may work better if that option is enabled.
Of course, if that option is enabled, it overrides the Windows Power Options as we'd expect (as does not allow the dirve to spin down). That's exactly the meaning of that option.

Thanks for your opinion about the icons, I'll keep in mind that!

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 5:56am

w s Obviously HDS has better and more functionality/user interface than Spinrite5, but please compare HDS to Spinrite5 as to detection and repair of HD problems. Thanks.

Mar 10 2011 at 5:59am

Frank Stephens Janos Mathe, thank you for your detailed response. You just gained another customer (if you don't see my name it's because I don't use my real name in public forums).

Mar 10 2011 at 6:03am

kjbill bill Any sales on the PRO version?

Mar 10 2011 at 6:06am

Janos Mathe @w s: Thanks!
In HDS, the following tests are possible to reveal and fix HDD problems:
- hardware short test
- hardware extended test
- hardware conveyance test (supported only on some models)
- seek time test to verify access time and noise after acoustic level adjustment
- software read test
- software write test
- software combined write + read (with verify) test
- refresh data area test
- reinitialise disk surface
and with high number of options for the last ones, eg. repeat count, overwrite passes and patterns, test of specific area and so.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 6:19am

Janos Mathe @Frank: Thanks so much for your support and just let me know if I can help in any situation. The report(s) may help to investigate any issues and that way I can immediately respond in email.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 6:21am

Janos Mathe @kjbill: today it is more economic to choose this license as it's price is better than the (single computer) Pro license.
Thanks to BitsDuJour for the promotion !

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 6:23am

Bud Gallagher @kjbill - Today's family package price is about the same cost as a discounted one license purchase. As I see it @ $30 for 5 licenses equals $6 each. I don't think you will find a better price anywhere. I bought 2 family licenses last night for less than the cost of a single family license at regular price.

I have already gotten my monies worth as HDS discovered a failing hard drive on one of my laptops.

Mar 10 2011 at 6:25am

Staley I have a question about the activation process... normally I am very much against them, but from a statement about stating the activation "profile" can be backed-up and restored, thus eliminating the need for a Internet connection for future installs on a computer. How is this determined, is it a pure foot-print of the configuration during activation or can some components be upgraded and changed within a period of time without requiring re-activation? (Similar to Windows XP activation policy for retail copies.)

Mar 10 2011 at 6:58am

Janos Mathe You are right: after a successful activation, you can use Configuration - Update - Backup Configuration to save the activation details (and current settings, statistics).
After restoring that configuration (possibly on a new system), there's no need to activate again.

The activation footprint is generated by using the system hard disk model, serial number and revision only.. So you can modify / replace any other hardware component or add / replace other (secondary) hard disks, there are no problems and no need to activate the software again.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 7:30am

Staley @Janos - "After restoring that configuration (possibly on a new system), there's no need to activate again."

I'm confused... so the restore can be on a different computer and not trigger another activation??? Since the hard drive would be possibly different. (In most cases I personally would need to restore due to a failing or damaged drive.)

Mar 10 2011 at 7:43am

Janos Mathe Sorry for the confusion, I wrote incorrectly: I wanted to mean on a new OS installation but in the same system you do not need to activate again.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 7:52am

bob roos I'm sold. I just bought a license.

Let me say again what a pleasure it is to see a developer so open to questions and responding so promptly. It is now very late in Hungary so I would not expect any answer. I am interested in hearing more about how this works and what it does for "repair" in comparison to SpinRite (perhaps an FAQ entry?). That is a splendid (but unfinished) program. Perhaps you can use your knowledge of HDD systems to expand on the recovery of data. Bigger drives mean more data and more data to be lost in a crash.

Mar 10 2011 at 8:15am

Janos Mathe Thanks! Yes, it's getting late :-)
To be honest, I can't say too much about SpinRite.

However, I can make sure that during the development of Hard Disk Sentinel, got high amount of reports, information, technical details from various fields including leading data recovery companies in our area. The whole disk monitoring, testing and repair features were designed to detect even minor issues and fix the situation if possible.
The technical reports and information (complete S.M.A.R.T. details) about failed drives greatly helped this development.

For more information and technical descriptions, I recommend to visit:
www.hdsentinel.com/smart
for general information and the details how Hard Disk Sentinel is different compared to other solutions

http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests
for information about possible tests to reveal and fix problems

and Help - Hard Disk Tests sections.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 8:29am

bob roos My issue with SpinRite was that it was recovering (refreshing) data on the hard drive and was at 95% of the way through the disk when the hardware totally died. IF it had been copying off that data to a clean drive at the same time it was refreshing it, I would have had nearly all of my files. As it is I lost everything.

This was before the readily available disk imaging software of today, but that software gives up and SpinRite used statistical analysis to determine the data bits rather than giving up.

Mar 10 2011 at 10:04am

Brian W. @ Janos
Hi Janos.
Thanks for answering my questions and having a discount for two sets.
I opened up another browser to come to this page. I got all the way to the final checkout (using PAYPAL) -- I wish this place excepted Discover card... Bc it allows one time (safe credit cards)
ANYWAY, it's just stuck giving me the hour-glass saying "processing your order - Please stand by..." I've been standing by for about 5 minutes now?
I don't want to end up not getting my order or getting a double order so I haven't clicked anything. I'm using the latest Firefox to place the order ... hope it goes through?

Mar 10 2011 at 3:29pm

Janos Mathe Thanks Brian, I'm glad if I could help.

Sometimes there can be some (bigger) delays in processing the order but usually it is completed in less than 5 minutes.

I completely understand the situation and I can make sure that if there is a problem with processing and this cause that the transaction is not completed (or by error, completed twice), it can be fixed (even if the promotion ends).

It seems it is not completed so you may try to Refresh the page.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 3:37pm

Stan Lewis @Brian W: Your order will be accepted after you have confirmed the payment. So you can try it again (with another browser).

edit: I see... Janos never sleeps ;)

Mar 10 2011 at 3:42pm

Janos Mathe @Stan: I had some offline hours, just came back :-))

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 3:48pm

Stan Lewis @Janos: You made a good job.. here at BDJ and with HDS. Thanks!

Mar 10 2011 at 3:55pm

Brian W. Edit, NVM Janos. Not sure what the hiccup was but I looked in my email and checked with Paypal and the charge went through + Plus I received the email with the two keys. So YEAH!!!!

I want to say thank you very much for sending me the email to this sale a few days back. You have been very helpful in emails over the years and now I can put this on all my PCs & laptops.

I began using this program after I saw some pictures of your program, several years ago showing a hard drive about to fail, and asked what program that was. I thought WOW, I don't have anything like that on my PCs.
I have watched as you have grown your program in so many positive ways. I've only one time before ever been in contact with program creator like this and I feel like every time I send you the data for a hard drive internal or external, that I'm contributing to your data base and in turn helping you to make the program better for all of us.

Your program is simply a MUST have for me, I apologize because I meant to publicize it more around the web. If you ever email me again about something like this I will do a better job.

Mar 10 2011 at 3:57pm

Janos Mathe @Stan: Thank you very much for your kind words!

@Brian: Thanks, I'm glad to see there were no problems with the transaction.

Yes, all reports, information are helpful as they help in investigating specific issues for some HDDs / SSDs (or controllers, enclosures) and by this, the analysis procedure can be constantly improved.
This may help effectively to prevent data loss and this is the most important.

Your help and support is really appreciated!

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Mar 10 2011 at 4:05pm

SoftCollector Dear Janos,

Thank you for investing the time to answer users' questions on this forum. I have several questions of my own regarding the software offered.

1. Is it possible to buy a single license at a discounted price?
2. I have an external HDD (WD My Passport Essential 1TB) for which Hard Disk Sentinel shows a health status of 18% due to a higher number of relocated sectors count. If I buy a license, would the registered version be able to help with this kind of error?

Kind regards,

Aug 10 2011 at 1:56pm

Janos Mathe Dear SoftCollector,

Thanks for your message and question.
There is a discount available at this BDJ page:
http://www.bitsdujour.com...ofessional

About the hard disk with errors:

Yes, Hard Disk Sentinel offers several tests and methods to both improve the hard disk usability
and to make it more healthy.

It is important to know that the bad (reallocated) sectors reported are already repaired
by the hard disk. They are no longer accessible, the hard disk no longer reads or writes
those sectors but instead, it uses the spare area instead.
So if all such sectors are known by the drive (and marked as bad), there should be no problems,
as the drive is fixed. Testing the hard disk surface should show no problems in this case
(as it does not access the bad sectors at all).

I suspect on "repair" you mean to completely hide these bad sectors.
This is possible in registered version of Hard Disk Sentinel Pro:
by using the "Offset" column on the S.M.A.R.T. page for the attributes
marked with yellow ! symbol. Please let me know if I can assist in that
(maybe a Report menu - Send test report to developer option would be nice as then
I can check the disk status and advise step-by-step).

However, this does not repair the hard disk, just confirms that you acknowledge the problems
reported, you know the drive is stable and you want to restore the drive to 100% health
and want to be notified about only new problems.

Disk "repairing" is a different thing: that forces the drive to examine the complete surface
and if required, reallocate as much sectors as possible. This may increase the bad sector counter
but generally, the resulting drive will be usable as the remaining disk surface (and the spare area) will
work without problems. By using Disk - Surface tests (available in the registered version of
Hard Disk Sentinel) you can make sure that the drive is stable and there are no further
problems reported in the future use.

I recommend to click on the "?" button next to the text description for more information about
the bad sectors and how these work. Also you may get more details at:
http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health

For the recommended steps to really repair the hard disk with the tests in Hard Disk Sentinel,
please check the following topic:
http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests

After these tests are completed and the surface area is really repaired (the Disk - Surface test - Read test
shows no yellow / red blocks at all) you can use the "Offset" method described above to acknowledge
the problems, confirm that the drive is fully functional and restore the drive health to 100%
(clearing the indication of bad sectors from the text description also).

I hope I could help.
If you have any questions, please just let me know.

Ps. I sent an e-mail also.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Aug 11 2011 at 6:31am

SoftCollector Dear Janos,

Thank you for your prompt reply - and your email.

1. I will follow the steps proposed and let you know if they have helped me solve the problem.

2. By "repairing the HDD" I meant functionality similar to the one offered by Spinrite 6 and HDD Regenerator. They perform some low-level magic on the surface of the HDD and actually "repair" bad sectors - not just mark them as such or relocate them. Spinrite is especially effective in my opinion.

Kind regards,
SC

Aug 11 2011 at 7:20am

Janos Mathe Thanks!

About "repairing the HDD": the software you mentioned do exactly the same what I wrote (and what is included in Hard Disk Sentinel at Disk - Surface test - Write test): they perform a disk surface analysis by overwriting the surface. The result is that the drive is more stable and more usable. Then if you create partition(s) on the proper hard disk, they have less (preferably 0 bad sectors).
Some other software may call this function (incorrectly) as low-level format.

This functionality is included in Hard Disk Sentinel of course. Just Hard Disk Sentinel offers more such functions and options, for example to

a) extend the data availablity (even if the hard disk contains stored data) by using Disk - Surface test - Read+write+read (refresh data area)

b) perform a full overwrite with special patterns and clear all data to force the drive to reset its surface to factory default state (Disk - Surface test - Reinitialise disk surface).

c) offer different write patterns, limit testing to specific area, specify number of passes and direction, etc.

Please select the above functions and check the detailed description displayed about each tests for more information about them and which test is (approximately) same (or even better) than functionality included in other software.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Aug 11 2011 at 8:45am

Eddie Tex Hi Janos, I purchased the single license before realizing the family pack was available. I just sent you an email through your website. I hope you can help me. Thanks.

Oct 3 2011 at 2:10pm

Janos Mathe Hi Eddie,
Thanks for your message, I just sent an answer in email.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Oct 3 2011 at 2:19pm

Eddie Tex Everyone, without question, Janos is one of the most responsive developers I've seen here. If you like this fine product, I encourage you to support it in order to help sustain great developers like him!

Oct 3 2011 at 2:50pm

Ron. Wow, now that I've had time to try this out after being alerted to today's deal, I wish I had paid more attention to THIS deal back in March!

Oct 3 2011 at 9:34pm

Matthias Wagner Hello Janos! First of all, thank you for your support and responds.
I have an Adaptec RAID controller 31205, which I don't find in the compatibility list. Is it because not tested yet or because of incompatibility? I'm very interested in HDS, if it could take care of my SAS ans SATA drives connected as RAID-arrays.
Thanks!
Matthias

Dec 20 2011 at 1:31am

Janos Mathe Hello Matthias!
Thanks for your message and question.
Yes, I can confirm 31205 is not yet tested.
However, improved compatibility is very important and support for RAID controllers are constantly added to HDS.
I suspect Adaptec will be also supported in a future version :-)

If you agree, in e-mail I'll provide a test version as soon as it will available.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Dec 20 2011 at 9:51am

John Terdik IMHO this is a must have utility!!!! The early warning you get for drives that are failing is SUPER. Numerous times HDS has saved me and it is SO nice to discover HD issues before the drive fails. In a recent drive failure I had my boot drive in one week go from 100% good to where I encountered several drive errors in a day.

I currently have about 50 HD ranging from 500GB to 3TB (I just donated all of the smaller drives to my local college) and before any drive goes into production I first run the HDS scan at the highest level (this level will destroy the data on the drive). I've actually discovered bad NEW hard drives with this function. Recently I RMA and received 8 Seagate drives all of which are currently being tested. Because I have so many hard drives I have one system that is devoted to only testing hard drives.

Dec 20 2011 at 1:28pm

Matthias Wagner Hello Janos! For support and further development I now purchase HDS. Hopefully it will take not that long time until my RAID arrays are supported. :-)
Matthias

Dec 21 2011 at 3:10am

Janos Mathe @John: Hi, thanks for your kind words :-)
I'm glad to hear the software is useful!

@Matthias: Thanks for your support! I'll immediately let you know the progress. If possible, you may even use the Report - Send test report to developer option now. Even if only limited information detected on the 31205 controller, the report may help in development. Thanks again!

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Dec 21 2011 at 7:42am

Matthias Wagner Hello Janos!

Happy New Year! :-)

As I found out the payment processor share-it doesn't write the correct license form "Family License" in the corresponding emails and their invoice. If you read the license information standalone without been here it's only the single license. Could you please check this at share-it and maybe initiate sending the buyers a correct license confirmation email?

Share-it replied to me, that they cannot correct this on their own, only cancel and process a new purchase.

Thank you in advance
Matthias

Jan 1 at 5:45am

Janos Mathe Hello Matthias !

Thanks, I also wish happy, healthy new year to you and all users of Hard Disk Sentinel :-)

Excuse me for the troubles in the email and the invoice!
Of course I can confirm that the "Family license" offers use on multiple computers.

Can you please send the e-mail / invoice to me (to info@hdsentinel.com address) so I can immediately check where the incorrect information may appear and fix it asap.

Excuse me again for the confusion and thanks for your attention!

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Jan 1 at 8:58am

VLM I'm just a bit confused. In the discussion, I see a price of about USD 30, but in this offer it appears as USD 43.xx. Did I miss something?

Jan 3 at 9:06am

Janos Mathe Excuse me for the confusion.
BitsDuJour offered Hard Disk Sentinel Professional Family license with 52% discount (slightly under USD 30) for 24 hours, during a special promotion only.
After that promotion finished, they offer the license with 30% discount "only" compared to the retail price, this is why the price is now USD 43.75.

H.D.S. Hungary Vendor - Jan 3 at 9:39am

VLM Oh, so I MISSED the deal! Ack!!! Still a good deal though, I think!

Thanks Janos!

Jan 3 at 5:31pm

Hard Disk Sentinel Professional Family License

Posting here will also email H.D.S. Hungary directly.

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