Lack of compatibility with Paragon GPT Loader

[brosmith]

I use Windows XP Pro SP3 on my computers.

A couple of months back I installed a 6TB WD internal hard drive in one of my computers. I bought Paragon's GPT Loader so that the full 6TB would be recognized by Windows XP. I also updated the firmware in my BIOS so that the BIOS would recognize the full 6TB as well. The drive is in GPT format (obviously) with 512 byte sectors. I have the drive partitioned into 8 partitions. It was initialized, partitioned, and formatted using AOMEI Partition Assistant 6.0 WINPE bootable disc. All partitions are fully readable and writeable through Windows Explorer. Disk Management recognizes the drive as 6TB and reports that all 8 partitions are healthy.

However, Hard Disk Sentinel (v 4.71) tells me that the detected total capacity of 1492 GB is not correct and that the capacity should be 5588 GB and that if I continue to use the drive then I could experience file system corruption and/or data loss. Disk Management reports that the disk has a total capacity of 5589 GB.

A test report was sent to the developer but I have yet to hear anything from them as to a solution to this compatibility issue. I also asked Paragon for help, but their response was that since all was well in Windows Explorer and Disk Management then everything is fine on their end. Is their a solution to this compatibility issue?

[hdsentinel]

I examined the previous information you sent and still wonder (if things are working correctly) why the incorrect capacity is reported by the system when the hard disk capacity detected - which triggers the alert.

Did you try the latest 4.71.10 version of Hard Disk Sentinel? There were some changes made in that version already.

I'd recommend to use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option with that.

This would confirm things - but if something is still not correct, the developer report would help to investigate things even more.

[hdsentinel]

There was a similar issue ( viewtopic.php?f=32&t=10788&p=14819#p14814 )

There I wrote:

Also you may check this:

1) open a command prompt (CMD.EXE)
2) enter

wmic diskdrive get Caption,DeviceID,Size

The output will be the device model ID, drive number and usable capacity.
Would be good to see what capacity does it report about the appropriate physical hard disk drive.

Not sure what is the output on this system?
This would help to check what exactly the system provides as capacity of the physical drive, which triggers the alert.

[brosmith]

I just sent a test report to the developer using the last version (4.71.10). I used the portable version of Hard Disk Sentinel Pro (I have the family license). In answer to your second question I get the following from wmic diskdrive get Caption,DeviceID,Size:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Admin>wmic diskdrive get Caption,DeviceID,Size
Caption DeviceID Size
WDC WD2003FYPS-27Y2B0 \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0 2000396321280
WDC WD60EZRZ-00GZ5B1 \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 1603090621440

Which means that Hard Disk Sentinel seems to be taking its cue from the wmic results.

However, with the Paragon GPT Loader installed, both Windows Explorer and Disk Management recognize the full 6TB of the drive.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the report and thanks for the information.

I can confirm that by default Hard Disk Sentinel detects the physical geometry directly from the hard disk drive itself (not by using WMIC).
This is why Hard Disk Sentinel can work even if WMI is not accessible (for example on very old systems) or disabled.
If WMI is available then Hard Disk Sentinel can use it too - just to be sure.

I just suggested to try checking this "wmic" method - as this is the easiest way to display what Windows sees, how it can access the complete hard disk.

Hard Disk Sentinel detected (so the system reported) that the corresponding 6 TB hard disk has 3131036370 sectors with 512 bytes/sector.
This is (divided by 1024 x 1024 x 1024) results the 1492 GB - which is far less than the 6 TB and this triggers the capacity-alert.

In most cases, the

1) complete disk capacity (detected by Hard Disk Sentinel)
2) the disk capacity reported by this WMIC method
3) the disk capacity displayed in Windows Disk Management

should be all the same. Please note that the PARTITIONS (and their length) is completely different thing.
The capacity-alert is displayed in other cases exactly because Windows Explorer "sees" the complete logical drive (which is over 2 TB) but the physical disk capacity is much smaller. The result is that when a logical sector over the 2 TB area is written, an other sector (related to other sector in the partition or even to an other partition) is overwritten, causing data loss.

But now as you wrote, we can be 100% sure that all partitions can be completely read/written, so this is not the case - and the disk capacity should be 6 TB reported for both of the above 1+2+3 points.

According this, it seems at Paragon, they made a partial solution: as 6 TB is reported only in Windows Disk Management, but not in other ways where other applications (including Hard Disk Sentinel and WMIC) attempts to detect the hard disk capacity / hard disk geometry.
For me, this means yes, there is a compatibility issue: which caused by Paragon itself.

I'll examine Paragon with more details, verify how things work and attempt to improve the situation in all possible ways: to do not issue capacity-alert in this case. But personally I'd be more comfortable if they'd fix the compatibility issue: to let the system properly report the complete disk capacity: to properly report 6 TB capacity and all sectors for all possible disk-capacity detections (not only in Disk Management).

Personally I'd be more than happy to assist Paragon to provide technical information about which detection(s) should be affected by their soluton, which are the used functions which should report the correct 6 TB capacity.

Thanks for your help and increasing attenton!

[brosmith]

Thank you for your reply and willingness to look into the matter. I would also like to mention that CrystalDiskInfo (v7.0.4) detects the full capacity of my 6TB hard drive without any warnings or conflicts (the reported capacity by CrystalDiskInfo is 6001.1 GB).

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the info.

Yes, this is not surprising. Just I must tell alone this is not an advantage but a limitation.

That tool checks the total capacity of the hard disk from the ATA indentify device information (without checking what capacity Windows can utilize).
This contains the total number of user addressable sectors on the hard disk itself - but does not show information about how the current operating system uses, how Windows can address the sectors on the hard disk drive.

If you check, Hard Disk Sentinel also properly detects and reports 100% similar, see the Information page:

Total Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 11720979633
Bytes Per Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 512
...
Unformatted Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 5723135 MB

which is generally same (5723135 MB x 1024 x 1024 / 1000000000 = 6001.142005760 GB).

But the problem is that according the other detection performed by Hard Disk Sentinel (by using Windows system functions) which determines "how" Windows can use the hard disk, how much capacity it can utilize properly - we got the other result.

This is exactly the reason why the capacity-alert is displayed in Hard Disk Sentinel: because it seems the total 6 TB capacity can't be properly addressed by Windows itself. In this case, I'd worry how disk management tools (for example partitioning tools) can access the total drive.

I'll investigate with Paragon GPT loader, examine the situation and change the alert - just personally I think it would be better if the OS can report that the drive is really properly addressable with its full capacity.

[hdsentinel]

I did further researches and found the solution.
If you have some time, please check this version:

http://www.hdsentinel.com/beta4/hdsenti ... -ekkop.zip

which should no longer display the capacity-warning message in this case as it can identify the capacity of the drive differently in this case.

If possible, please use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option to confirm the situation - but if things are not perfect, it would help further researching.

Thanks for increasing attention to this special case!

[brosmith]

I downloaded and installed the special version that you mentioned. I am happy to report that it does solve the conflict with the Paragon GPT Loader. I am sending a test report to the developer as requested. Thank you and God bless.

[hdsentinel]

Me thanks too for confirmation and excuse me for the troubles.

Thanks again for increasing the attention about this special situation.

[brosmith]

Quick question - How does this affect future versions (upgrades)? Will I be able to upgrade my installation when a new version is released or will I have to continue to use this specialized version?

[hdsentinel]

Of course all future versions (including the 5.00 version coming soon) will also have this change/compatibility improvement.
As the tests confirmed that this should be included, all newer/updated versions will have it - so you can update to future version(s) when possible, no need to continue using this special version (where this fix was first available).