Hard Disk Sentinel Professional Review

[tarekma7]

Overview:

Hard Disk Sentinel Professional automatically monitors your hard disk status, health and performance, including temperature and S.M.A.R.T. values for each of your hard drives. Using this data it can predict possible disk failures and alert you of these conditions before they can become a serious problem.

Homepage:

http://www.hdsentinel.com/



Must important feature in toolbar, menu bar:

Open status of offline disk(s)
Load and display previously saved disk status and statistics for any hard disk / SSD previously connected
Windows Volume/RAID Information
Display Windows Logical Disk Management information including software RAID status
Drive Connection/Removal Event Log
The log shows all drive(s) connected and removed during active periods of Hard Disk Sentinel and shows changes in disk configuration when the software was inactive (detected on next startup).
Acoustic Management Configuration
or Automatic acoustic management (AAM) is a method for reducing acoustic emanations in AT Attachment (ATA) mass storage devices for computer data storage, such as ATA hard disk drives and ATAPI optical disc drives. AAM is an optional feature set for ATA/ATAPI devices; when a device supports AAM, the acoustic management parameters are adjustable through a software or firmware user interface
Advanced Power Management and Free Fall Control
Advanced Power Management level and adjust Free Fall Control sensitivity of hard disks to maximise hard disk performance and data safety.
Hard Disk Hardware and Software Tests
By using Hard Disk Sentinel, it is possible to start hardware hard disk self tests. These tests can be used to effectively find all hard disk problems because built-in hardware methods are used to verify hard disk components (for example heads, servo, internal buffer in the Short self test). The Extended self test also verifies the complete hard disk surface, finds and repairs all weak areas and re-allocates the possible bad sectors. This is not possible with the software-based hard disk surface scan methods (for example, by using scandisk).
The self tests are non-destructive, they do not affect the data stored on the hard disk. During the test, the hard disk is still usable but may be slower (and vice versa: hard disk usage may make the test much longer. It may be important for a system hard disk where the op. system or other software may cause much read/write operations).
Short self test verifies the major components of the hard disk (read/write heads, servo, electronics, internal memory, etc). This test takes only some minutes.
Extended self test performs the above and it has a complete surface scan which reveals the problematic areas (if any) and forces the bad sector reallocation. It is recommended to periodically use this test to verify the disk health - especially on a hard disk with less than 100% health.
Random Seek Test
it is possible to verify the noise level, track-to-track seek time and temperature levels of the hard disk, especially under excessive disk usage.
Surface Test
the surface of the hard disk can be examined with different methods. Some of these methods are safe for the stored data but others are destructive: the stored information are permanently erased during the test operation.
Report Menu
can be used for saveing and sending report to text and html format
 
Main Features of professionall version:

Displaying disk and partition information
Support IDE/SATA/SCSI/SAS/USB drives
Display status on tray, disk icons, sidebar
Run as Application or Service
Hardware disk tests
Hard disk seek time, stress tests
XML export, API for developers
Information by web browser
Customizable interface and reports
Backup and restore configuration, statistics
Password protection
Wide range of alerts (e-mail, sound, message, etc.)
Daily status reports
Clock synchronization with atomic clock
Hot keys to reach features
SMART parameter offset calibration
Surface check
Complete surface analysis, refresh, reinitialise
Industry-standard data destruction
Portable version (no installation required)
Perform scheduled backup projects
Panic backup - backup upon failure or problem
Burn data to CD/DVD by NERO
Compress files by WinRAR or 7-ZIP
Export registry sections
Transfer files by FTP or e-mail
Scheduled hardware disk tests

License price EUR 28 (USD $29.95)
 
User Interface:

Main interface of Hard Disk Sentinel have at least 2 bar depending how much hard drive or other storage you have installed it can be different first bar show logical drive status health and temp which include following tab: Overview, Temperature, S.M.A.R.T., information, log ,disk performance, alerts


Overview:

which easily show to user health of drive and it performance, power on time, estimated remaining lifetime, total start/stop count of drive
user can use repeat test for power on time, estimated remaining lifetime feature
if any additional help need can click help button to go to linked help page
and by double click on performance or health user can set custom threshold (which is limited in free version)
and finally user can save health status to image by click on save button



Temperature:

Show user Temperature of disk is good or not

Features available in this tab include:

Current Temperature, Average Temperature (today),Maximum Temperature (today),Maximum Temperature (during entire lifespan)
Maximum Temperature (ever measured),Minimum Temperature (ever measured)
Set custom temperature thresholds and output temperature diagram to picture



S.M.A.R.T.:

Depending on your disk model can show different Attribute like Raw Read Error Rate, Spin Up Time, Start/Stop Count, Reallocated Sectors Count ,Seek Error Rate ,Power On Time Count ,Spin Retry Count, Drive Power Cycle Count, Reported Uncorrectable Errors, High Fly Writes, Airflow Temperature, Disk Temperature,Hardware ECC Recovered, Current Pending Sector Count, Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count, Ultra ATA CRC Error Count, Write Error Rate, Data Address Mark Errors which each part has it own graph



Information:

Show very detailled information about Hard Disk Summary,Logical Drive(s),Acoustic Management Configuration,ATA Features,SSD Features,S.M.A.R.T. Details,Security Mode,Serial ATA Features,Disk Information



log:

Display log of event like shutdown pc,email notificaton ....



Disk Performance:

Which show disk activity and transfer rate, if you copy large file you can get accurate transfer rate
Transfer Rate Information
Total Data Read, Total Data Write, Average Reads Per Day, Average Writes Per Day
Current Transfer Rate, Average Transfer Rate, Maximum Transfer Rate, Current Read Rate
Current Write Rate, Current Disk Activity, Average Disk Activity, Estimated Max. Transfer Rate



Alerts:

Display log about event like sound alert ,send display message, backup and shut down



Second bar show psychical drive status free space and used space include detailed Partition Information and Volume Information



Hard Disk Sentinel settings:
 
Hard Disk Drives:

Which user can select hard dick want to view status windows and some more options...



Preferences:

This tab include information about unit, language starting of program and display of its user interface
Display status window at start
Load with Windows
Display main window when started
Show application on both Task Bar and system tray
Language
Temperature Unit
Transferred data unit
Hard Disk Size Unit
Partition Size Unit
Pre-start delay (seconds)



Status Window:

In this tab user can customize bar or called it Status Window on their need
options are
Background Color Select
Background Image
Snap to screen edges
Transparency
Send mouse clicks to window under status window
Display information on desktop Fully transparent background
Always on top
Hard disk information to display
Gadget



Thresholds / Tray Icon:

This page is for customizing Thresholds and Tray Icon
options are
Display hard disk temperature on tray icon
Use classic (digital) tray icon numbers
Display hard disk health sign on tray icon



Alerts:

It can be used When failure expected, When disk condition is low, When temperature is high, When a new log entry is added, When free disk space is low
happen it give you sound alert or send or display message creating backup or shutdown PC.
There are some other option in this page can be customized.



Message Settings:

If Hard Disk Sentinel find a problem, it can send or show alert. here you define your alert.
Options are:

Send E-mail
Dial up the default internet connection before sending Close connection after sending
Detailed report components: Log System Management Information
Send message to remote computer (NET SEND):
Display message on screen
Display custom message from text file also
Add to Windows event log



E-mail Configuration:

Here, you have to define email account information or if you have already defined account in outlook you just have to seclet mail account
so you can then receive email notification



Registration:

Program registration can easily be completed online using your registration details (name and license) that were sent to you after purchase. This is fast and more comfortable method. Other methods of activation are also available. You can activate the program using email or keyfile.



Update:

Hard Disk Sentinel is set to automatically check for new version every week. You can manually check for updates at any time you want using "check button".
In this dialog user can backup and restore configuration of Hard Disk Sentinel



Advanced Options:

This setting includes options related to program it self such as the time between redetecting S.M.A.R.T. information, Health calculation method and the performance and more... and some windows modification like Disable automatic scandisk, Delay before scandisk, Synchronizing clock



Disk Control:

This setting can be used to modify hard disk network disk or removable disk icon.

Options are:

Modify default hard disk icons in Windows Explorer
Monitor space on network disks
Change default system icon for network disks
Monitor space on removable disks
Change default system icon for removable disks
Do not examine space information of the following disks
Do not change default system icon of the following disks
Do not allow spin down of disks
Disk icon set



Hot Keys:

Enabling system hot key can used globally to view immediately some part of Hard Disk Sentinel when it running
Hard Disk Overview, Partition Information, Hard Disk Temperature, History Configuration, Show Status Window / Hide Status Window, About



Operations:

One of the most powerful feature of Hard Disk Sentinel which can help user to create backup turn on and turn off pc and many more...



Integration:

Password protection which restrict access to main windows of program or opening configuration windows or closing Hard Disk Sentinel
and can define timeout to auto clear password so restriction will be activated again
use as service in vista above user can not access directly to window and icon of program so if user want back to
application mode must use Stop Service in start menu folder of Hard Disk Sentinel.
remote control can be help to remotely analyze hard disk and verify hard disk status.
it even support dynamic IP with help of no IP and other service..



Send Test Report:

This report is have more detail and automatically will be send to developer. In addition, if there is no internet connection it can be saved and manually send



Explorer and taskbar integration:

Hard Disk Sentinel register itself in to explorer so you can see health of hard disk easily by opening my computer
plus it show temperate and health of any hard disk you have in taskbar and blinking if your hard disk have any problem





Languages:

Currently more than 25 different languages are supported (Bulgarian, Czech, English, Hungarian, Italian, French, Romanian, Russian, German, Chinese, Chinese (traditional), Spanish, Portuguese-Brazil, Dutch, Greek, etc.) languages are supported. To download the newest language files, please check the language support page or use the latest possible version which contains the most recent language files.
 
System Requirements:

Windows 10,8,7,Vista,2012,2008,XP,2003,2000,NT4

Windows 98/98SE/ME users: The operating system does not have S.M.A.R.T. driver loaded by default. Before installation, you need to copy the file Smartvsd.vxd from Windows\System folder to Windows\System\IoSubsys folder and restart your computer. Please install Hard Disk Sentinel only after this procedure. (the problem is described on the webpage of Microsoft

Linux And Dos is For free

Home Page

Size:22.4mb
 
Download Installer Size:22.4mb
 
Download Portable Size: 22mb
 
 
latest change log:

- added support for InnoDisk industrial (micro) SD memory cards: detection of complete status, health,
  lifetime writes and additional statistics.
- added support for Delkin 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.
- added support for KINGSTON SUV400S37120G SSD
- added support for additional NVMe SSDs, complete status detection of Samsung PM951 SSD
- added support for Toshiba OCZ RD400 NVMe SSD
- added support of HP Smart Array H240 RAID controllers
- improved support of Intense SSDs
- improved support of Maxtor ATLAS SCSI / SAS hard disks
- updated installer
- updated digital signature

Conclusion:

Hard Disk Sentinel really easy to use program that handle work from novice user to advansed user and it have everthing you need to handle your problem with hard drive

Review by baziroll

[dinosaur07]

Nice work, baziroll. Congrats, very good.

[baziroll]

your welcome.reviewing is really hard work .much appreciate to official reviewer that do review for us

[Askanag]

Welcome to the team baziroll. Good review.

[asus73]

Super review  , baziroll   

[Mike]

Great job baziroll