There are many ways and software tools to recover data lost due to a disk malfunction or failure, but there is only one way not to get that far – monitor your hard disks to detect any potential damage well before it happens. Hard Disk Sentinel Pro is a tool designed for IT professionals and knowledgeable users alike who want to keep an eye on their external and internal drives’ behavior and performance and thus foresee any potential malfunction ahead of time.
Hard Disk Sentinel Pro is useful on many levels. As an “information tool”, its tabbed main interface provides you with at-a-glance information on your disks’ performance, health, estimated remaining lifetime, temperature, specific product data, a list with all the S.M.A.R.T. values, numerical and graphical information about your disks’ activity and transfer rates, etc.
As a “warning tool”, the program offers IT managers a large combination of technical data and graphical information on your disks’ health and overall status for you to interpret and analyze. Users with a different background will benefit from the program’s exhaustive range of graphs and alert messages, which will let them know immediately if anything is not going as it should.
As a “disk testing tool”, Hard Disk Sentinel Pro counts with a long list of self-tests to check certain hardware components, such as the heads, the servo, the internal buffer, etc.; to verify the entire disk’s surface, bad-sector re-allocation included; to verify the disk noise, the temperature, and the seek time performance, and even to perform an intensive stress-test. Additionally, to all these tests, the program also offers solutions to fix certain hard disk problems, usually those related to potential surface damages.
Finally, as a “data loss prevention” tool, this high-end utility provides you with full backup functionality with various automatic backup options, including backing up data from remote computers in a network. Besides, it comes with a useful shutdown feature that will turn off your computer automatically in case of disk failure, disk overheat, or any hint of disk health degradation.
The list of features does not end here – this is but a summary of Hard Disk Sentinel Pro’s main functionality. The rest is for you to discover. Except for a few remote disk management functions, this Professional version of the program mirrors the superior Enterprise edition. Other less demanding users may want to opt for the Standard edition, which includes the program’s basic functionality. In any case, I cannot recommend highly enough to anyone interested in HDD monitoring to download and install the Trial edition and see the wealth of features and functions that the program offers for themselves.
v4.6 [Jan 17, 2015]
Improvements and new features:
showing current driver version and date on Information page for the current hard disk controller / motherboard chipset
showing Disk Controller and controller capability for USB drives on Information page
automatically install HDSentinel.ini (pre-configured configuration file) if available in the folder of the installer
advanced hard disk surface test error detection / reporting method
improved hard disk error logs
improved real-time performance monitoring
improved capacity-check: reporting if drives over 2 TB can't be properly utilised due to OS / controller restrictions
Improved hardware support:
added support for HP Smart Array RAID controllers: detecting and reporting error counters, temperature and health status, possible changes/degradations, SSD wearout provided by the RAID controller for SATA / SAS hard disks, SSDs.
Tested with HP Smart Array E200, P400, P410, P420 and embedded B120i controllers.
added support for Accusys hardware RAID enclosures: detection of hard disk status of Accusys 76510, 75170, etc.
added support for RaidON MR2020-2S-S2R hardware RAID enclosure: detection of hard disk status configured in RAID 0 / RAID 1
added support for CineRAID CR-H212 RAID enclosure and RAID enclosures with Prolific USB RAID chipset: showing complete hard disk status of both hard disks in all (standalone, BIG / JBOD, RAID0, RAID1) modes
added support of Intel RMS25CB080 RAID controller (complete hard disk status detection of drives configured in RAID mode)
added support of WD Black 2 hybrid drives
improved compatibility with ASMedia SATA controllers (integrated and add-on cards) with newer drivers
improved support for LSI MegaRAID 9361 SAS controller, Dell PERC H710P RAID controller
improved reporting of TRIM function on different motherboard chipsets, disk controllers
improved SAS expander / enclosure temperature detection
improved support of Adaptec, Avago, Intel, Promise, LSI SAS RAID controllers
improved support of various Samsung hard disks
improved support and status reporting of hard disks with Lenovo-specific firmware
improved support of AData, Corsair, Crucial, Intel, Kingmax, Kingfast, Kingston, LiteOn, OCZ, Plextor, PNY, Samsung, Sandisk, Smartbuy, Toshiba, Transcend SSDs
improved support of SanDisk Extreme pendrives
improved compatibility with Intel RST driver 12.9 and newer
improved compatibility with Toshiba SAS hard disks
improved compatibility with USB 3.0 IDE/SATA "combo" adapters
improved support of Silicon Image RAID controllers with mutliple array / standalone disk configuration
improved compatibility with external RAID enclosures with JMicron chipsets, do not display hard disks twice when they hard disks are in standalone (non-RAID, port multiplier) mode
improved support of 2 TB 2.5" notebook hard disks
improved compatibility with Seagate Freeagent Dekstop drives, external USB 3.0 hard disks / enclosures / docking stations
improved reporting of CF Card status (with CF->IDE or CF->SATA adapters)
improved S.M.A.R.T. reporting for SCSI / SAS hard disks: showing accumulated power condition transitions, load/unload cycles (if supported by HDD)
Bug fixes, further modifications:
fixed slow write test performance with LSI / Avago / Dell PERC / IBM / Intel SAS RAID controllers
fixed online warranty check link for Seagate, Hitachi drives
database updates, modifications
improved multi-language support
Create, extend shrink, resize, move, delete, merge, & hide hard disk partitions
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