Advanced SMART logs, other smartctl-like features?

[ginbot86]

Some things that I'd think would greatly extend HDSentinel's abilities would be:

* Advanced parsing of S.M.A.R.T. error logs. Perhaps, an extension to the Log tab in HDS?
* A means of starting off-line data collection (Execute Off-Line Immediate).
* Button to send Standby Immediate command to power-down a drive.

By the way, great work on HDS! I love the software and its ability to diagnose and monitor drives I attach to my computers, even ones that I plug in for a short test. A friend of mine picked up a copy of HDS Standard when the sale went on a few months ago, and he really loves it too. Keep up the great work!

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for your message and suggestions !

1) logs:
Working on such functions and features Some of them are not too easy to implement, especially with the special disk controllers/RAID controllers supported by only Hard Disk Sentinel.
Generally, according the experiences the error logs may not be too useful in most cases. Even if we'd expect real errors, usually it is full with "soft" errors which are not really related the the hard disk (eg. timeouts caused by improper drivers, cables/connections or so).
So even if this sounds surprising, in many cases, these do not help too much in diagnosing problems.

But working on detection and reporting more such information, may be useful for advanced users.


2) These are already available: the Disk menu -> Short self test, Extended self test functions are exactly these, these start the off-line data collection functions as defined in the ATA standard


3) Thanks, yes, still checking the possibilties about forcing a drive to go standby, as some controllers/drivers do not really tolerate well such function, so need to check extensively how and when (with whic devices) it can be used.