• expired

Hard Disk Sentinel 4.71 for FREE (RRP $19.50USD) @ Sharewareonsale

4650

Hello OzB'ers

As an IT professional, I have been using this software for years. I wish every computer had this installed. I've installed it over thousands of machines, personal & corporate.

The number one thing that fails in a computer or cause of slowness is the hard drive. (IMO, strictly speaking about hardware)

PREVENT DATA LOSS!!! This program will tell you your hard drive is about to die, before it goes, before you lose all your data.

This will tell you how healthy your Hard drive is and will help you predict failure if/when your hard drive is failing. It works for traditional hard drives and SSDs. Has internal testing routines to really test your hard drive.

Detect and report the status of hard disks, SSDs, SSHDs with the award winning disk monitoring software!

The software can be used for unlimited time with all functions.
1-computer lifetime license, for noncommercial use with no technical support and with no updates: when updated to future version, switches back to unregistered version.

Not affiliated, just a happy customer.

Direct download link

Related Stores

Shareware On Sale
Shareware On Sale

closed Comments

  • +3

    Reading these comments has me paranoid I need a similar software but for Mac! Any suggestions?

    • +7

      Buy a PC.

      :)

    • +3

      DriveDX or Disk Drill

  • +2

    I have 4 hard drives in my system 1 WD 2 Samsung and 1 Seagate. The WD and Samsungs are 100% health and the Seagate which has my OS on it is at 13% health and will die in 21 days. I have been having a few BSOD's of late. This might explain it

    • +1

      Sure does mate
      Does it fail the 'short test'??
      Time to act :) as painful as it is! Your OS drive, damn.
      I have a bias to WD. They haven't let me down. Where as seatate has always given me issues. But I do keep an opened mind, I keep going back to seagate, only to regret it :(

      • +2

        Try HGST. Had a lot of luck with them.

        • +2

          Agreed. Good disks.

          Although I had two HGST 2Tb disks die on the same day about 1 year ago.

          They were bought at the same time. Same batch. Died same day. After years of sporadic use.

          One was a backup of the other.

          Lucky I had another backup elsewhere :) close call.
          Hdsentinel spotted the impending failure.

          Otherwise HGST, +1.

      • +2

        It passes the short test. It is telling me it has 830 bad sectors. The WD would be the oldest drive in the system. The seagate only has the OS and programs on it so it will only be a nuisance more than a disaster. Might be time to buy a SSD. Any recommendations?

        • +1

          Samsung evo 850 SSD……hands down.

          Omg, I nearly wet my pants when I finally made the switch to these drives.

          Night vs day difference between these beasts and spindle based disks.

          I could never go back. I can barely find words to describe the difference to performance these drives make.

          Not cheap, but worth every cent and more

          http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/co…

        • @rendo:
          Thanks now to wait for a bargain.

        • @marko62: Other good brands; Intel, Sandisk, Micron, Plextor.

  • +2

    Thanks OP. This is one of the best HD temp monitor apps I've seen.

    • +2

      Cheers mate.
      Yes, I didn't really mention the temp monitoring.

      As you pointed out, it is brilliant. One of its best features. Especially the temperature alerting. I tell it to repeat the sound alert using the PC speaker :) sounds horrid, but gets your attention.

      Was very handy for me to monitor several hundred computers across the nation in a retail environment. Helped point out which ones has fan/heat/bad ventilation issues

      Also for home, if I'm doing a massive data copy, watch that temp rise like crazy. Get one of those mini-desk fans an put it on your computer (I typically use a laptop) and it nice & quickly drops the hdd temp :)

      • +3

        You can probably tell that I really like this software hey :)
        Haha
        Been using it for years.
        I had to share it to my fellow OzBargainers when I saw it go free.

        It goes free 2-4 times a year typically. Sometimes even the pro version goes free.

      • +3

        I nearly paid $30 for an app that had only 1/3 the features of this one. OzBargain members deliver once again. (Y) thumbs up.

        • +3

          Now that's made me smile!!!.

          It's been a popular deal this fine & sunny Saturday.

          Glad to give back you guys/girls!! OzB has brought me so many great deals

          Time for a beer!!! (Aldi - Fraser Briggs Lager, $32 a case!! Or $8.99/six pack. Tastes brilliant, German lager, made in New Zealand…..I recommend it)

          https://www.aldi.com.au/en/groceries/liquor/beer-cider/laund…

          Cheers!!

      • +1

        Hey Op thanks for sharing. I learned a lot from the post. With your vast experience could tell us what else you would normally install to keep your PCs happy? Thanks.

        • +5

          Glad to hear it. Love passing on valuable knowledge.

          I don't believe in many "tuning" programs. I feel that mostly they are all rubbish.

          Here are my "must have" programs. Nothing more, nothing less:

          1. hard disk sentinel - to monitor hard drive health, temp, etc
          2. CCleaner - free, brilliant for cleaning your computer of useless cr@p files. Keeps your computer clean
          3. Comodo Internet Security - free, anti-virus, firewall etc. small footprint, good protection
          4. Defraggler - great free defragmenting tool, only use for traditional hard drives, do NOT use on SSDs.

          That's all you need :)

        • @rendo:
          Thanks OP.

          To other fellow OB - there's a lot of unwanted adware when I tried to install Comodo Internet Security.
          All "successfully" uninstalled but I think it's not cool to install without consent.
          Will stick with Avira for now.

  • +2

    Thanks OP. I've heard that HDD failure is extremely unpredictable but getting live alerts from changes in SMART data certainly wouldn't hurt.

    I've heard quite a lot of bad things about Seagate's ST3000DM001. I guess I should be happy it lasted this long. http://i.imgur.com/m1PxcG9.png

    • +1

      Oooh that's nasty.
      Run the short test on it

      Get any crucial data off it that you don't want to lose.

    • +1

      Time to get a new drive ASAP.

    • I have the exact same drive and I haven't had it nearly as long as you sigh http://i.imgur.com/3Dtjgbn.png
      The short test passed though and I haven't noticed any problems.

  • +1

    Why wont it download direct, why does it want me to install a third party to download it like ShareWareOnsale download hub?
    SOunds like we will get bobmarded with all sorts of crap
    Just in case I gave it a miss

    • +2

      The "shareware on sale" installer downloads the exe to C:\Users\<profile>\AppData\Local\Temp

      Otherwise there is an option to save it to your Downloads folder after you download via the Shareware on Sale installer.

    • +1

      Eeew. If it requires its own downloader, I'm passing.

      • There was a direct download link posted above.

  • +1

    Hey, my Norton quarantined the download file and labeled it as "Insight Network Threat with High Risk Impact", and that "there are many indications that this file is untrustworthy". Is this normal? Or is anyone having the same issue as me?

    • +1

      I had the same

    • +6

      It's Norton, you can open Notepad on a fresh install and you'll still get a "High Risk" warning.

  • +2

    I use acronis drive monitor which is free. Does the same thing by monitoring SMART information

    http://www.acronis.com/pl-pl/homecomputing/download/drive-mo…

    • Agreed. My all time favorite for customers computers.
      Can be configured to email you when there is issues detected.

  • +2

    has anyone tried using the HDSentinel.key registration file with the portable version of the application? Agret posted a pretty neat trick last time and it worked for me.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/211693#comment-3059372

  • +1

    Downloaded and now I'm testing all my Hard Drives. I like this program!

  • +2

    Good to see that my 3 WD black 1TBs are showing 100% health. They must be at least 7 years old by now. Cbb checking date. The Sandisk ssd on the other hand is at 77%

    • +1

      WD black, nice drives!!!

  • +1

    Related question.. Does anyone know a good IT store that can attempt to recover data from a corrupt hard drive which won't cost an arm and a leg in Sydney?

    • +2

      At best it will cost a hand and a foot.

      How much depends on what killed the drive, and how difficult it is to extract the contents. It varies from drive to drive. No one can give you an exact quote without seeing it.

      Be prepared to pay at least hundreds if not $1000+.

      In future make backups or use cloud storage.

      • +1

        Thanks for the info.

        It's an old drive with a lot of pictures on it, long before I understood computers.

    • +1

      These guys at Payam are great. Won't rip you off, but it won't be cheap either.

      https://www.payam.com.au

      Not affiliated at all. I just know these guys are good.

      If the data is valuable, especially photos if your family, children etc, then its money well spent. (And a good lesson to have good backups)

  • PREVENT DATA LOSS!!! This program will tell you your hard drive is about to die, before it goes, before you lose all your data.

    Will it automatically warn you, or do you have to manually run it periodically to check? If the latter, I'm going to forget.

    • When you install it, it will automatically run in the background when windows starts.

      So it will warn you.

      But you can setup the alerting to really really warn you

      One time setup

  • +1

    Thanks buddy!
    Will give this a crack and see how close to death my hard drives are.

  • Just had this file deleted by Norton, any idea exactly IF this program is legit or is there actually a dodgey side to it or worse some sort of Trojan / ransomware?!.
    I only have limited Pc experience … Thanks for any help.

  • I'm not really sure if this is really a virus, but the EXE file is shown as a virus on my anti virus software.

    It deleted the file and categorised it as WS.Reputation.1 risk.

    • Added a tray notification with software deals, I opted out and it hasn't come back but probs means is technically ad-ware? maybe? idk

    • WS.Reputation.1 usually happens to new releases when not many people in the community has used. Seeing that its a special build by the author for this shareware sale, that's most likely why its showing. It happens to us all the time if we build a Windows app and give it to people, they get virus "WS.Reputation" warnings… That's why companies now have to resort to buying certificates to sign their program (not cheap!), it authenticates who the owner of the app is. In saying that, don't download the installer (most likely made by the shareware site) as it may not be signed. The direct download as someone posted in page 1 is signed by the author and has no virus warning signs.

    • virustotal.com says it's all clean….

  • +3

    7x 100% health drives some of which are pretty old and one drive with 36 days left on it apparently, important shits backed up but I grabbed the stuff that would be inconvenient to lose, thanks OP.
    Someone reading this 36 days in the future pls comment and remind me!

    • Brilliant :)

  • +2

    Awesome - thanks. Heart in throat, I awaited my scan results - all 100%. PHEW.

  • +1

    Thanks for the reminder about the new Version, I was using the old one for some time now and it works very well.
    To install it over the old version I had to clear out its directory by hand to get over an error message.
    All is working now and it has already recognized my slightly batty drive (all already saved somewhere else the moment the first message told me that it is flaky).

  • Thanks.

    Looks like I'll continue to buy WD.

    I've only ever had issues with Seagate and my two 8 year old WDs are 100% healthy.

    • +1

      It's one of those universal mysteries, I only get dead WD drives and have had a great run with seagate over the last 25 years or so. :)

  • It can only be installed once correct? It doesn't work on USB drives?

  • Nooooooo I can't get to my computer within the time period!

  • Assuming there is no Mac version of this?

    • Correct, unfortunately.

      • I assume it works for the Windows partition of a dual boot?
        I wonder if it only scans the Windows partition or the entire SSD?

    • If you have Windows Bootcamp, you can install it.

  • +2

    Health, 100%
    Performance, 100%
    Temp, 38c
    Power on time, 2025 days, 3hrs
    estimated remaining lifetime, more that 100 days

    original_gangster

  • I am tossing up whether to install this on a Windows Server machine

    • What sort of hard drives?

      Do it :)

      • +1

        Did it. Both server hard drive & backup USB drive, that are 2 years old, are 100%.

  • A lot of posters seem to be getting "imminent" hard drive failures.. Sounds dodgy… (The software that is).
    Is the installer safe or is it one of those dodgy shareware installers that throw in a ton of apps and other BS??

    • +2

      The software seems to give legitimate results for me, all my drives were 100% except for an old 1TB Seagate which apparently only has 4 days to live.
      This sounds about right since it's been failing for the past 6 months or so, and while moving data off (only games) a lot of files have been unreadable.

      • +1

        Please update in 4-5 days as to whether it has died or not. Interesting to see how accurate it is.

    • Good question, but I can confidently say it is legit software. Not in that rubbish shareware category that you mention. I've been there, done that too many times…..ashampoo anyone??
      Lol

      But seriously, it's good & legit.

      Download the installer directly. Don't use the software downloader

      • Cheers folks.

      • Yeah virustotal.com says it's all clean for the direct download version, rather from their downloader…

  • I believe the virus alerts are false positives.
    Reason being sharewareonsale has compiled there own exe with registration key using a program called open inno.

    http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

    Some antivirus programs are sceptical about unusual or uncommon executable files. (rightly so)
    I have extracted the files and scanned them with numerous virus programs and they came up clean.

  • After downloading the installation file my Norton removed it saying "Threat type: Insight Network Threat. There are many indications that the file is untrustworthy and therefore not safe"

    Is it safe? are your scanners reporting the same thing?

  • +1

    Thanks. Just found out my HDD is still at 100% after 6 years.

    • Interested to know What brand/type they are :)

      Do tell

      • +1

        It's a Western Digital 1TB (WDC WD10EALX-089BA0).
        I don't think there's anything special about it.

        • +1

          Yes there is….. it's called western digital :) hehe
          Sorry, I'm a WD fan….can't help but to be biased.

        • +1

          Lol, fair enough. I've never really experienced a HDD failure yet so I don't really have much preference between the different brands.

        • +2

          @ployer:

          not pretty at all mate, I've seen hundreds during my time.

          What really kills me is when it is family photos, pictures of their children, priceless memories all just gone. No warning, nothing, just gone. I do my best to help, but often its too late.

          Hence why I love this software AND a good backup routine. However backups are very boring, not sexy and rarely ever done.

          Anyway…..I wont get on my soap box.

          Even I (Mr.OCD backup man) lost data once to a hard drive crash and I didn't have a backup of the data on it, because I thought it wasn't important, which it wasn't. EXCEPT the video of me doing a 'shark dive', which I forgot about. Such a good memory.

          I lost it all, but I didn't give up. After years of searching, I finally found a logic board from exactly the same model, same batch, same everything from some guy in china. I bought it, took 4 weeks to arrive. Swapped the logic boards and whammo it worked!! I copied that video off and threw the lot in the bin!.

          It happens. Even to the most experienced.

        • @rendo:
          Man, that would really suck for those people who lost photos. Actually, that reminds me of when everyone had to buy a laptop to use in high school and basically around 5 people, including a teacher had hard drive failures and from that point on, a lot of teachers emphasised to make backups. I think even then, few people actually did it. :/

  • +1

    In 20 years I have only ever lost data to hard drive failure once, on a brand new dell alienware with an ssd. I am running a pc at the moment that is a frankenstien of old parts and the hdds are at least 5-10 yrs old (XP on thier factory resets, so that old) and have been shipped about in shoeboxes, used heavily and still have PC Gamer demos on them from years ago. USBs, CDs and Floppies all fail on me all the time, but I am wondering if these results above might be a little alarmist??

    Edit: I just realised I have never thrown an internal hdd away (except for the returned alien ssd, but i didnt chuck it) , only recycled them into other pcs. Am I super lucky or is it because i have always defraged regularly?

    • +1

      Fair point. My view is this.

      How much is your data worth? If not critical then who cares! Run the gauntlet, without doubt! I would/do.

      Or if it isn't affecting performance then also, all good.

      However, if your data is valuable and no backup and/or you feel it's affecting performance then I say, bin/replace the HDD.

      I've seen so many die and also slow a system down. But if it isn't an important workload (data or performance) then …. all good. I've probably worked with tens of thousands of computers, across my career. Meh, it's probably in the hundreds of thousands. Actually, yeah it is 100k+.

      Your action is really a personal choice, but at least the software highlights issues that you would otherwise be unaware of. The people responsible for S.M.A.R.T data need a medal!! How all the manufacturers agreed to adopt it is amazing. Legends.

      • I am more worried about "free" software than anything I pay for really. If it is free, then you are product and all - this rule is golden for software.

  • So its a S.M.A.R.T reader?

    Downloaded and installed: Yep thats exactly what it is

  • +1

    good stuff tyvm

  • 384 votes!!! Wow. I wasn't expecting that :)

    Let's get this thing to 400 :) hehe.

    Glad that many of you have liked this post.

    • Woohoo :)

      We reached 400!!

      Come on Federer, you gotta win this game!!!!! Go go go!!!

      • +1

        Perhaps when we reached 1000, they'll provide lifetime pro to ozb members?

  • +1

    Picks up the eight drives on my cheapo HighPoint RocketRAID 2720 card.
    Good stuff.

  • This was able to also read my Western Digital Elements backup drive connected via USB.
    Does this sound correct?

    • Yep

    • +1

      That's perfect!! All hard drives 100%.

      Have faith, HDSentinel tells the truth. :)

      Happy days for you.

      • Well alright then! Thanks for sharing the deal. This seems like a good peace-of-mind utility for sure. I might see what it has to say about another old external drive I have on the shelf that I don't trust.

    • Yeah my WD Blue has over 900 days of uptime and is also 100%/100%
      Bloody good drive.

  • My direct download link was a bit different? https://downloads.sharewareonsale.com/files/hub/sharewareons…

  • Away from home so can't save the download :(

Login or Join to leave a comment