Atola Insight

Atola Insight Changelog

July 29, 2010
Atola Insight Release 1.4.8

Enhancements:

• Imaging by specific heads support for Seagate
• Added more explanation on Automatic Firmware Recovery tab
• Overall imaging stability and user interface improvements

June 2, 2010
Atola Insight Release 1.4.7

Enhancements:

• Full support for FAT32 and FAT16 in File Recovery and when imaging only occupied sectors
• Image writer allows writing images back to hard drives
• Insight now locates Ethernet units automatically
• Force PIO mode feature

Bug fixes:

• Read Long/Read without ECC has been improved
• Disk comparison speed improved
• Fill/Erase speed improved
• Target media now powers down only when an imaging session finishes without manual interruption
• When selecting target media, Target device now remains not powered until selected
• Device viewer: Update from file function was writing to Source media even if Target media was selected
• Copy only occupied sectors mode: It is now possible to image NTFS volumes with 1KB and 8KB sector size
• Fill or Erase: system disk is now unavailable for selection
• SHA-512 and SHA-384 algorithms provided wrong checksums when imaging more than 8 million sectors at a time
• Many other small fixes

April 22, 2010
Atola Insight Release 1.4.6

Enhancements:

• Automatic firmware update for DiskSense Ethernet
• Disk viewer now works for Target media (Ethernet version) and disks attached to the host PC
• Significant increase of imaging speed (105+ MB/sec on modern hard drives)

Bug fixes:

• Imaging was showing all sectors as errors on badly damaged drives (Ethernet version)
• Software crashes on badly damaged drives (Ethernet version)
• Sporadic unit disconnection while imaging badly damaged drives (Ethernet version)
• Ethernet unit was silently switching to PIO mode on damaged drives
• Registers display is now more accurate on (Ethernet version)
• Re-identification during Media Scan was throwing an exception
• Re-identification during Imaging sometimes caused issues
• "Ethernet Writing Hangup" bug
• Many small fixes

February 19, 2010
Atola Insight Release 1.4.4

Enhancements:

• Disk comparison engine
• Japanese localization

Bug fixes:

• Many small fixes

December 24, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.4.3

Enhancements:

• Windows 7 support

Bug fixes:

• DiskSense Ethernet may hang when writing to Target drive
• Wrong statistics when reverse-imaging to Target drive
• No crashes anymore when run under a non-administrator account
• E-mail settings were not applied immediately when changed during imaging
• Many other fixes

November 20, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.4.2

Enhancements:

• Hard disk manufacturer is now printed on the home screen
• E-mail notifications for imaging
• Hard drive selection screen reworked

Bug fixes:

• Fixed a number of issues when working with terminal
• When reading of public firmware map on Hitachi drivefails, Insight failed to read system firmware map
• Case selection window is now not displayed when there's only one case assigned with the drive
• When closing Insight and saving the current case and there was an error saving the case, Insight silently shut down
• There was no beep when password recovery finishes
• Numbers with commas (as separators) were not accepted
• When copying imaging log into Windows Clipboard, lines were not properly sorted
• When imaging certain drives with read errors (bad blocks), Insight was showing wrong data in Error Register (ABRT+ICRC)
• Partitions can now be found on target drive even if it was smaller than source
• When device was unidentified, certain operations silently finished without a warning
• Media map manager minor fixes
• Media recovery minor fixes
• Insight incorrectly handled the interruption of device location process
• When imaging to disk, imager stopped silently on out-of-space condition on target device
• Security erase procedure was showing an incorrect message on process interruption
• Case history now properly records security erase and fill operations
• Imager now properly logs ranges of sectors
• Switching between Ethernet and USB DiskSense units (when using both) failed occasionally
• Automatic diagnostics process now ignores current burst on HDD power on
• Backspace now properly works in Terminal
• File recovery was creating 0-byte files on out-of-space condition
• While scanning a damaged hard drive with Media Scan in "Fast" mode, DiskSense USB might get "disconnected"
• It was impossible to read/write NVRAM on Hitachi drives that failed to detect
• NVRAM is now being saved first when performing a full firmware backup
• Password recovery sometimes "extracted" wrong password off Seagate drives
• Fill/erase now correctly handles unexpected HDD power off
• Pepare Destination error log fixes
• Status and Error registers not always properly indicated hard drive status when working with DiskSense Ethernet
• DiskSense Ethernet unit hangs when scanning a Slave IDE hard drive
• Reidentification of IDE disks on DiskSense Ethernet sometimes was taking up to 20 seconds
• Crash when changing the IP address of DiskSense Ethernet in Device Selection dialog
• Wrong firmware revision is displayed when assigning case number
• Device selection: wrong focus in device list
• Security erase did not verify that the hard drive is powered on
• Crash when imaging bigger hard drive to a smaller hard drive upon reaching the end of target drive
• Many other fixes

September 30, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.4.0

Enhancements:

• Introducing support for DiskSense Gigabit Ethernet edition
• IDE/SATA selection dialog before starting the diagnostics
• The software now does not show the device selection screen on every start
• Other minor cosmetic enhancements
  

Bug fixes:

• When COM port cannot be open, the software crashed
• File recovery engine crash in some rare cases
• On SATA WD (Marvell) hard drives, the cancellation of module read operation resulted in hard drive hang
• Rare "Cannot move files" error when assigning a new case ID
• Cancellation of HDD diagnostics process could take a long time
• Software crash on disk read error when forming a media map
• Full firmware backup on WD hard drives did not save ROM image
• When copying logs into Windows buffer, the lines were in mixed order
• Insight failed to properly recognize damaged Fujitsu hard drives
• When submitting a bugreport, e-mail address had to be reentered every time
• "Run diagnostics for selected device" checkbox did not make diagnostics actually start
• Media Scan and Imaging went nuts on very small hard drives (1000 sectors or so)
• No "operation finished" sound when firmware backup operation completes
• Show/hide log button in File Recovery
• When reading damaged module off a Hitachi drive, sometimes the next good module was also marked as bad
• Media recovery: Remap unreadable sectors didn't work properly
• Rare crash when unlocking a Seagate hard drive
• Many other fixes

August 14, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.3.8

Enhancements:

• It is now possible to sort firmware modules in firmware browser
• Fill/Erase feature now has an error log
• HDD Firmware revision is now added to the Repository path
• When imaging to file, Insight now properly handles a situation when there is not enough free space on the destination media
  

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue: when imaging certain drives, random delays occurred after encountering an unreadable (bad) sector
• Fixed a delay when starting Fill or Erase routine
• Fixed an issue: Terminal did not start properly after closing the software with Terminal window minimized
• Fixed: when software improperly shuts down, sometimes it refused to start
• Minor fixes in File Browser navigation (Ctrl+Left key)
• When opening Atola Forums from the menu, Atola Insight crashed when there was no default browser properly installed
• Scrolling is now working properly in ID sector viewer
• Other fixes

July 27, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.3.7

Enhancements:

• Atola support forum access from software (via Help menu)
• Added support for 2TB+ hard drives
• It is now possible to unlock a Seagate hard drive working in Slave mode
• Disk Viewer now displays sector numbers
• Disk Viewer can now write sectors from file to disk
• File system browser navigation improved
• Prepare destination feature moved to Device Utilities (New name: Fill or Erase)
• Security erase option has been added to Fill or Erase
• Device Configuration Overlay feature redesigned to prevent accidental disk access

Bug fixes:

• Media scan graph didn't work well on small hard drives
• Incorrect time estimation while imaging is now fixed
• CTRL+C now works correctly in Terminal
• Damaged Fujitsu drives are now properly recognized
• Driver installation issue resolved
• .img file extension now correctly added to image files during imaging
• File system browser sometimes did not properly detect partitions in a disk image
• Many other small fixes

June 17, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.3.6

Enhancements:

• Reverse imaging
• Checksum calculation (MD5, SHA1, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512)

Bug fixes:

• Media scan graph was slow on some platforms
• Write protection was always on when working with drives, connected directly to the PC
• When you save imaging settings, "Power down after imaging complete" option is now saved as well
• Many other small fixes

May 15, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.3.5

Enhancements:

• New NTFS file recovery engine
• Imager: It is now possible to split big images into chunks
• Imager: Possibility to fill unreadable sectors with pre-selected pattern when writing to destination
• Imager: Possibility to save imaging settings

Bug fixes:

• Automatic firmware recovery on Toshiba hard drives is now working properly
• Password removal on Toshiba hard drives was crashing in some cases
• When an attached SATA hard drive is constantly BUSY, automatic diagnostics reported wrong results
• COM terminal did not work properly after you create a new case while it is open
• Security controls reorganized
• Many other small fixes

April 2, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.3.3

Enhancements:

• New disk viewer
• After imaging is complete, it is now possible to export the list of unreadable sectors

Bug fixes:

• Access violation error while imaging

March 5, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.3.2

Enhancements:

• Explanation is now displayed if an unidentified device (or empty IDE or SATA channel) selected
• Diagnostic reports and case history entries can now be printed or exported
• Lines are now highlighted in SMART viewer

Bug fixes:

• Automatic checkup crashed in some rare situations
• Several minor bugfixes in disk imager

February 14, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.3.1

Enhancements:

• Automatic password removal now also supports Hitachi K9AT and K9SA models

Bug fixes:

• Resolved: Atola Insight may randomly crash when imaging a drive

February 12, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.3

Enhancements:

• New Hitachi models are now supported: H9AT, H9SA, J9AT, J9SA, K9AT, K9SA
• Automatic password removal now also supports Hitachi H9AT, H9SA, J9AT, J9SA models
• Current diagrams are now included with the diagnostics report
• It is now possible to print the diagnostics report with CTRL+P key (we will add a separate button in the upcoming releases)
• It is now possible to save current diagrams into a PNG or CSV file.

Bug fixes:

• Insight did not work properly with some Hitachi G9SA drives
• "Cannot open device" when imaging an undetected hard drive
• F2 key now works properly on all screens of the program
• Other minor bugfixes

January 30, 2009
Atola Insight Release 1.2

Enhancements:

• New imager that supports multi-pass duplication, media maps, skip forward, etc
• RS-232 terminal now supports Seagate 7200.11 hard drives

Bug fixes:

• "DiskSense unit disconnected" error has been fixed (new DiskSense unit firmware released)

Please note that we are phasing out our old file recovery engine. We will be replacing it with a much easier and more powerful system.

December 4, 2008
Atola Insight Release 1.1

Enhancements:

• Imaging speed increased by an average of 5 megabytes per second
• First phase of current monitor accuracy improvement. Next version of Atola Insight will include one more fix that will make current monitor as accurate as it can get.
• New feature: disk wiping (also supports wiping hard drives attached to the system IDE/SATA controllers)
• New feature: filling disks with patterns (also supports filling hard drives attached to the system IDE/SATA controllers)
• Added descriptions for Western Digital firmware modules
• All firmware modules are now marked by color depending on their state
• Automatic module repair function for Maxtor hard drives, accessible from right-click menu on the desired module
• Module checksum recalculation/correction for Maxtor hard drives (with full automatic support for P-List length and "System Head")
• When performing full firmware backup on WD drives, a copy of ROM is also saved now
• When saving NVRAM from a Hitachi hard drive, it is now checked for consistency; Atola Insight will report if NVRAM contents appears to be invalid
• Improved support of some latest Western Digital hard drives (desktop and laptop)
• "Get map" speed improvements for latest Western Digital hard drives (desktop and laptop)
• Improved support of some laptop Samsung hard drives (LQ firmware series)
• Added support for 23 Hitachi hard drive model lines: PLA3, PLAT, ATCS, DLA3, DLAT, VLAT, DTLA, AVER, AVVA, AVVN, AVV2, ATDA, DPTA, DADA, DARA, DBCA, DCXA, DHEA, DTTA, DJNA, DJSA, DKLA, DTCA
• Possibility to view program version via Help menu
• Possibility to navigate to online program manual and submit feedback via Help menu
• Other minor improvements

Bug fixes:

• It is now impossible to launch two copies of Atola Insight at the same time
• Fixed an issue with Atola Insight imager when source drive has invalid characters in its serial number
• Fixed an issue where a SATA hard drive becomes inaccessible after interrupting an operation with firmware modules
• Fixed an issue with Automatic diagnostics where it didn't properly detect bad sectors on the media in some cases
• Fixed: file recovery engine may hang when you attempt to cancel it
• A number of other fixes

November 5, 2008
Atola Insight Release 1.0

Enhancements:

• Case Management: If the hard drive does not report a valid Serial Number, Insight will ask the Operator if they want to manually enter the Serial Number
• Case Management: Default case folder selection
• Diagnostics: Slave devices are now supported
• Interface: Write protection indicator on main form
• Write Protection is now fully functional and protecting from any write attempts, including firmware area alteration attempts and other operations that might directly or indirectly write to the firmware area.
• When viewing firmware modules, they are now always being read from disk without asking questions
• Make bad sectors routine now accepts sector ranges
• New DiskSense Interface firmware support has been added
• Short circuit indicator on main form
• When creating a Maxtor Loader, it is now possible to change the output filename
• Slave device detection has been improved
• Re-identification has been improved
• Lots of other cosmetic enhancements
  

Major bugfixes:

• Canceled diagnostics was not restarting upon request
• Program freezes when working with IDE Samsung hard drives attached as a Slave device
• Diagnostics: checking damaged filesystems sometimes lead to Program Exception
• Make Bad Sector and Media Recovery: several bugfixes
• Serial port: did not work properly on some platforms
• Case Management: Losing case history when closing Atola Insight while case ID is not properly assigned
• Canceling a firmware map importing operation was destroying previously loaded firmware map
• Installer fixes
• Lots of other fixes
  

October 13, 2008
Atola Insight Beta 0.9

Enhancements:

• Revised the process of MS SQL server installation
• Automatic port switching (IDE/SATA) during HDD reidentification
• Atola Insight now checks if the hard drive was replaced and asks to start a new case if it was replaced
• Maxtor: loader building capability
• Maxtor: module checksum recalculation
• Maxtor: possibility to write a clean G-List, P-List, DMCS modules
• Maxtor: firmware read speed increased significantly
• Imaging: default value of "maximum number of consecutive power cycles" reduced to 2
  

Major bugfixes:

• Crash during automatic checkup in some cases
• Media Map and Disk Viewer: sometimes software hangs when accessing sectors beyond LBA28 range
• Media Map: Custom range filter is fixed
• Imaging: when source is re-powered, it was falling back to PIO mode
• Fixed typos/improper wording in the interface
  

September 15, 2008
Atola Insight Beta 0.85

Enhancements:

• New feature: Media Map support (accessible within Image/Duplicate dialog), also called "Copy Map" feature
  

Major bugfixes:

• #56 Running on Windows Vista as non-administrator caused issues with Atola IDE driver and Imaging/Duplication
• #58 Reverse imaging to a file, Imaging hangs while creating empty file
• #54 When scanning in Fast mode, Atola Insight crashes upon reaching the end of the surface
  

September 1, 2008
Atola Insight Beta 0.8

Enhancements:

• Support of Windows Vista OS (32-bit only at this time)
• Additional fields are stored into the database during firmware backup: Maxtor's ROM CRC, Maxtor's "Model", and Hitachi's microcode revision. This is useful for locating a firmware in the database.
• Read/Write ROM on Western Digital drives with Marvell CPU.
• When reading NVRAM on Hitachi hard drives, its header is now validated and issues are reported
• Firmware map import feature added for Maxtor, WD and Samsung.
• Reverse and fast options for media scan
• Error reporting improved; customers can now leave comments when program crashes.
• Stability improvements and bug fixes for DiskSense firmware.
• Firmware updater for DiskSense is now included
  

Major bugfixes:

• #40: Entry point 'PatchNVRAM_DisableFWAccess' was not found in 'SuperLib.dll' when removing password on Hitachi
• #44: Imaging: copy to destination with the exact same size triggers error
• #46: Imaging: when choosing destination disk PInvoke's Access Violation sometimes occurs
• #36: Disk locked with Maximum security level was reported as locked with High security level
  

July 1, 2008
Atola Insight Beta 0.7
Initial beta release