Hard Disk Sentinel Pro (free key) save $35 / hard disk monitoring software with support of HDD/SSD drives (YMMV)

Worked. Thanks.

fixed

These life expectancy estimates are going to make me paranoid, though I know not to take them too literally. Sounds like great software, thanks for raising awareness.

Quote from Arcticat : Giving me this... "There are 1 bad sectors on the disk surface. The contents of these sectors were moved to the spare area. At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further. It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there."

That's pretty common today. Most of my drives before ~2009 / 2010 never had any bad sectors, unless / until they began to fail, but many of the new drives I've bought have come with a bad sector or a few or they surface after you begin using the drive. in the past i've always worked new drives over to at least get a comfort level that the drive at least appears to be operating normally.

Using tests like WD write zeros, dbans drive erasing program, short & long SMART tests from the Seagate & or / WD lifetools, and if time permitted Spin Rites 6.0 program as that erases & then writes each sector twice once as a 1 and once as a 0 and makes sure it can be read (level 5) however some bugs have developed with newer drives or external drives that make a complete run through less likely and more likely that it will crash and stop functioning (taking all the data of it's progress unless i was sitting there watching it while it happened) with it.. HD sentinel has basically added this feature set to it's tools.

This is your current starting point, 1 bad sector. Keep and eye on it, the program will show you if more bad sectors begin appearing. But in & of itself it's NOTHING TO FREAK OUT ABOUT OR WORRY. Your drive has many many (spare sectors) that when it marks one as bad it calls in another one in that ones place.

I have a drive that has 60 bad sectors which normally would cause me some alarm and concern but it's relative because the drive has been fine for 4 + years and not one single additional bad sector has appeared so I just keep my eye on HD Sentinel and keep moving on.

Thanks for the install instructions!

I just got this email. Is there any reason I shouldn't just keep what I have? Do you think they will deactivate? Do you think there is a difference between what I got from SD and "a FULL evaluation license"?

Thank you very much for your interest Hard Disk Sentinel Professional version 4.20

The free evaluation license available on the site where you registered is offered by Komputer Swiat magazine for their readers in Poland. Because of this, that FULL license is available only for readers of Komputer Swiat magazine in Poland. Excuse me for the confusion and the troubles you may experience.

However, to help you to use all features and functions of the FULL version of Hard Disk Sentinel Professional version 4.20, please allow me to offer a free demonstration license to you, just like if you'd receive from that magazine. This allows you to check the FULL Hard Disk Sentinel Professional version 4.20, verify and test your hard disks and SSDs, repair possible problems and to be alerted about possible problems.

To get a FULL evaluation license which allows using the FULL version of Hard Disk Sentinel Professional version 4.20, please right click on the following file and select "Save As" to save the file "HDSentinel.key" file to your computer:

Don't make the mistake of trying to update to 4.30. I kept the old version and it was activated upon re-installation.

Quote from JaggedEdge : Click on help, "enter registration key" then use the option "load activated keyfile" and browse to it

Tried to load the key file as per the instructions of several posters. Got a response saying "please contact the program developer,,,,,,,,, " What am I doing wrong ?

Meanwhile the program I installed seems to be working just fine - although it says "unregistered version."

Quote from WoozyMoose : Tried to load the key file as per the instructions of several posters. Got a response saying "please contact the program developer,,,,,,,,, " What am I doing wrong ? Meanwhile the program I installed seems to be working just fine - although it says "unregistered version."

Same issue here.. key doesn't seem to work anymore. Tried with the portable version v4.20 link on the 1st page

do NOT rename the .key file (rename it back to exactly "hdsentinel.key"

I suspect the "original link to the .key file" is still valid, but that they changed the actual file on the server to be "full version but only until March 31, 2013". If you don't live in Poland and are a subscriber to "Komputer Swiat ", then the right thing to do is use the (now changed) .key file for the full version under "demonstration and evaluation use until March 31", etc.

Farther down in the email, it says this .key file is only good until the end of March now.

Quote from Insouciant : do NOT rename the .key file (rename it back to exactly "hdsentinel.key" I suspect the "original link to the .key file" is still valid, but that they changed the actual file on the server to be "full version but only until March 31, 2013". If you don't live in Poland and are a subscriber to "Komputer Swiat ", then the right thing to do is use the (now changed) .key file for the full version under "demonstration and evaluation use until March 31", etc. Farther down in the email, it says this .key file is only good until the end of March now.

Thanks, changed the name from hdsentinel(2).key to hdsentinel.key and it worked.

Key worked fine for me But when I checked teh registartion in the Help section it says "valid until March 31 2013 so looks like its only 30 day trial even with key activation....

Quote from YoSlick : I just got this email. Is there any reason I shouldn't just keep what I have? Do you think they will deactivate? Do you think there is a difference between what I got from SD and "a FULL evaluation license"? Thank you very much for your interest Hard Disk Sentinel Professional version 4.20 The free evaluation license available on the site where you registered is offered by Komputer Swiat magazine for their readers in Poland. Because of this, that FULL license is available only for readers of Komputer Swiat magazine in Poland. Excuse me for the confusion and the troubles you may experience. However, to help you to use all features and functions of the FULL version of Hard Disk Sentinel Professional version 4.20, please allow me to offer a free demonstration license to you, just like if you'd receive from that magazine. This allows you to check the FULL Hard Disk Sentinel Professional version 4.20, verify and test your hard disks and SSDs, repair possible problems and to be alerted about possible problems. To get a FULL evaluation license which allows using the FULL version of Hard Disk Sentinel Professional version 4.20, please right click on the following file and select "Save As" to save the file "HDSentinel.key" file to your computer:

I received that email as well. The right thing to do is use the new key. I am going to purchase this program, as he is an individual doing his own development. The program itself is wonderful, combining many utilities into one. The $35 US cost, is not that much for a lifetime license.

Find a 4,20 version & install that. Next - use the newest key file (now linked on the Wiki) mentioned today & it should work. Thanks.

BTW it didn't work using the 4.30 version.