TaskForce Changelog

2024.9.1

December 20, 2024

Feature

New global 'Hostname' setting to change TaskForce's network name.

Bugfix

Remote work folder mapping got lost after TaskForce reboot.

2024.9.1

New Features

Imaging

Target file templates in physical and logical imaging. Create reusable templates that help the following:

  • dynamically create destination folders based on date or other info
  • filename generation according to your naming convention
  • enter the same file/case details for many images

Improved user experience when imaging to files. Target files are located on a separate tab of the selection panel.

Imaging of high-entropy (encrypted or compressed) data to E01 compressed file uses a new rapid adaptive method resulting in optimization:

  • 100-200% speed increase depending on network speed and/or target drive write performance
  • TaskForce CPU load reduction from 60% to 22% (per one imaging session)

New optimized Deflate method for imaging of compressible data to E01.

New Global Settings

  • Show the date and time instead of the Atola logo at the top bar
  • Autofill source case data and/or E01/AFF4/L01 metadata.
  • Save system logs into the work folder.

Network setup: New Advanced section in the connection dialog that allows specifying Samba protocol version and mount options for network folders.

SSD Trim: Added support for NVMe drives via the Dataset Management command with Deallocate option.

RAID: New Select all checkbox when selecting multiple drive images as RAID members.

SMART: Improved recognition of vendor-specific SMART attributes for SSD drives.

Bugfixes

Logical Imaging

  • The task might stop with an out-of-memory error when there are over 3.5 million files.
  • Symbolic files of NTFS partitions were omitted.
  • OS Folders filter wasn’t working.

Imaging

  • A folder with HTML report could not be created on the Storage drive if the folder path contained dots.
  • False ‘Insufficient space on target device’ log message in rare cases.
  • When imaging a damaged drive, TaskForce's system log contained too much redundant technical information.

Diagnostics: False firmware check failure for SD cards connected via MCA1307 SATA to SD card adapter.

Global Settings: It was possible to enter zero value in the min field of the Automatically lock screen setting.

Case Management: Enabled “Information about unit's components” had no effect when printing a single report.

2024.6.1

July 11, 2024

Bugfix

Gateway IP address wasn't working in 2024.6 firmware having TaskForce connected to multiple subnets.

2024.6

New Features

RAID:

  • Full automatic reassembly and imaging support of Synology NAS RAID.
  • New Layout tab to visualize selected RAID configuration.
  • Autodetection module: New Start LBA parameter to specify RAID offset used by autodetection (Gear button).
  • Improved memory use and performance optimizations.
  • Expand/Collapse buttons for RAID configuration and Partitions panels to improve UX.

Imaging:

  • Improved capability to resume imaging in case of power or network connection loss.
  • BitLocker volume GUID added to the imaging log.
  • Post-hash mode with Segmented hashes creates a CSV file in addition to the performed verification.

Express Mode Imaging

  • Port groups: Ability to image some ports to one folder with specific settings and other ports to another with other settings. Multiple groups supported.
  • AFF4 added as selectable imaging target.
  • New settings: Case ID, Organization, Investigator.

Logical Imaging:

  • Wildcards (*, ?) support in file/folder filters.
  • Check button enabled for reassembled RAID when autodetection is still running.

System-wide Btrfs support.

System-wide LVM (Logical Volume Manager) support.

Web API:

  • Ability to use API when user management system activated.
  • New POST call /login.
  • New GET call /diagnose.

Diagnose - File System Stage:

  • Added analysis of ext4/3/2, XFS, HFS+, HFSX.
  • BitLocker volume detection with FVE Metadata blocks.

Case Management:

  • New window to select an existing case to improve UX.
  • New global setting ‘Set default values for all cases’: Fills in default values for Investigator, Organization, Location for all new cases.
  • New global setting ‘Show empty case values in report header’.
  • New global setting ‘Automatically create a sub-folder with the same name as target image file name’.

Many page headers now link to articles about using TaskForce from the offline manual.

Standalone mode: The offline manual from the main menu opens in a dialog.

New Hints subsystem displays practical hints to expedite work with TaskForce based on behavior. Hints appear as notifications once, and all can be found in the hint list.

Improved handling of situations where source drive unplugged before starting a task.

Improved recognition of vendor-specific SMART attributes.

Bugfixes

Unable to identify USB Seagate One Touch drives.

Imaging:

  • Next imaging pass with reverse direction could not start if a source drive had bad sectors during the previous pass.
  • Incorrect XFS partition size when its allocation group size was different during imaging partitions.
  • Rare visual representation issue with the imaging map graph could result in empty gaps after multiple page refreshes.

RAID: Some exFAT partitions may not open in Partitions tab due to incorrect internal caching.

Diagnose:

  • In Multi-launch mode, it could not start when one of selected drives is not detected.
  • IDE drives with working Verify but non-working Read commands could be classified as degraded instead of damaged.
  • ‘Unknown device’ in case report header for drives with corrupted firmware.

Web API: /start-image call could not find the built-in Damaged imaging settings.

Possible case report duplication after connection loss and recovery with a remote Work Folder.

Invalid behavior when attempting to start a task against a damaged device with zero byte capacity.

SMART: For NVMe drives, the start page had a description of ATA specification attributes.

2024.1

New Features

Verify segmented hashes - new task in the Other section. It helps check the segmented hashes in CSV file created during imaging for any type of target: E01, AFF4, raw image, drive.

System settings:

Clickable device header in a case report. It opens the device information page if the appropriate device or image is available.

Bugfixes

Failed to open E01 files created by UFS Explorer.

Logical imaging. Check > Download was not handling comas in a generated file name list properly, which broke CSV format.

Reports. Possible first blank page when selecting a report from the list to print.

Minor fix of Other > Customize taskbar and Browse Files compatibility.

2023.11

New Features

Customization of the Taskbar and Other page.

Bugfixes

Logical imaging:

About 10 missing Chinese and Japanese translations.

2023.10

New Features

RAID: Imaging: NVMe drives: Case management:

Other > SSD Trim – new task that helps to notify SSD controller about unused blocks.

Other > View SMART. Apple PCIe and M.2 AHCI PCIe drives supported.

Global Settings. For the ETH1 and ETH2 ports, it shows the speed of the network connection.

Bugfixes

No access to network folder with underscore character in hostname.

Widely improved error-handling when someone accidentally unplugs source or target drive during imaging.

Imaging: Logical imaging:

RAID. Applying detected mdadm configuration was not removing Spare drive(s).

Wiping. Multi-launch mode. Format NVM method was mistakenly available for SATA drives.

Case management. Impossible to select the same case for the same Macbook after reconnection.

TOSHIBA MG08ACA16TE drives were not identified until the 2nd attempt.

Occasional error when formatting a target drive to Storage with exFAT.

UI issue on the home page. Blank space when running multiple tasks and scrolling down the page.

2023.4.2

Bugfixes

Possible out of memory error when imaging 10+ TB source drive to E01 compressed segmented files.

1 or 2 files/folders were missing from the list when connecting to a network shared Windows drive folder (root folder only!).

Gateway address with static IP did not work when TaskForce was connected to multiple subnets.

2023.4

New Features

Settings:

Faster opening of home page when running 10+ tasks.

Improved recovery when network connection with remote Work Folder temporarily disappears.

Optimized internal RAM memory use.

Bugfixes

In rare cases, Chrome browser could lose connection with TaskForce.

Eventual slow UI response by TaskForce when using this low-performance setup:

Logical. Resume of logical imaging could fail when having multiple sessions paused.

Minor UI fixes.

2022.10

New Features

RAID:

Logical imaging:

Express mode: USB drives supported.

Wiping: New Format NVMe method for NVMe SSDs.

Diagnostics:

HPA, DCO, and AMA: Other tasks > Hidden drive areas. New functionality enables changing and unclipping of HPA, DCO, and AMA.

New user management system:

Case management:

AFF4 image file reading and validation. Performance increased by 120%.

Imaging: Adjacent single read errors in the logs are merged into sector ranges. It makes log smaller when imaging a damaged drive.

QR code added to ease TaskForce activation.

Bugfixes

Imaging of WD_BLACK NVMe drives could not be started due to underscore in the model name.

Incorrect behavior during Resume of a paused imaging session to an image on a powered-off Storage drive.

Failed to open network shares with passwords containing several special characters (e.g. ! , : “).

Diagnostics:

RAID: Too many Mirror tags when all devices have the same data.

Issue with FAT32 file extensions in Logical and Browse Files.

2022.4

New Features

Logical imaging feature-set:

Imaging:

RAID:

Diagnostics:

New system settings:

An improved user experience when printing multiple reports.

File manager. New ‘Create folder’ button.

Other -> View SMART. NVMe drive support.

System log improved to provide better TaskForce diagnostics and tech support.

Bugfixes

Some SSD models could not be identified on SATA ports after power cycling TaskForce

It was impossible to parse an NTFS partition created on an external drive by Xbox One S

NTFS parsing error for partitions with cluster size > 128KB

Incorrect capacity detection of WD MyBook 4TB USB drives

A missing detection hint after RAID auto assembly restart for an array created with mdadm

IP display could have an IP address missing in rare cases

Device page. Showing invalid Modified Dates of target image files on a Storage drive

A lengthy Case Description could cause reports to look buggy

2021.8

New Features

Imaging:

RAID:

Diagnostics. USB drive supported

Other > Browse files. XFS supported in the file system preview

In Web API, /check-task query has a new result field: hashes

In reports and running tasks, the top right Case ID is clickable for identifiable devices

Bugfixes

Imaging:

Some models of USB flash drives had an incorrect capacity

Rare case when opening network folders was too slow during image file selection

RAID-mounted drives could be mistakenly powered down when staying in idle mode for 5 minutes

Diagnostics. Invalid "The motor does not consume proper current on spinup. The motor may be stuck, or the circuit board is malfunctioning." diagnosis for SSDs with non-working PCB

File manager. "Create file" button was missing after unlocking a password-protected network folder

Express mode. "User action required" dialog was not showing for Resume and Retry imaging situations

It was impossible to set a non-Latin Case ID

2021.4

New Features

Imaging:

Multi-launch mode for Wipe, Hash, Diagnose and other single device tasks.

RAID:

Wiping:

Other > Browse Files - file browser for devices and images.

M.2 Extension. Support of NVMe drive hot-swap.

Support of HTTPS with external organizational and self-signed certificates.

Device status tag for quick display of the last diagnostics result or lack thereof.

Bugfixes

Imaging:

RAID. Failed RAID configuration autodetection when facing NTFS partition with filenames longer than 127 bytes.

Logs, Non-device reports, Information about the hardware unit's components were not included when generating a large report from multiple cases.

2020.7.1

New Features

RAID:

Network setup + Imaging to server:

Bugfixes

Imaging:

Other fixes:

2020.7

New Features

RAID support:

Imaging:

Case management:

Support of SAS drives with sector size above 4096 sectors

UI changes on the device selection panel

Home page. Specific port indicated for each device report

Bugfixes

2020.3.1

May 22, 2020

Changes

2020.3

March 26, 2020

New Features

Imaging:

Segmented hashes – an alternative to linear hashing. It will come in handy when dealing with damaged drives or providing enhanced resiliency against data corruption.

Bugfixes

2020.2

February 27, 2020

New Features

Imaging:

Auto-mount of VeraCrypt-encrypted Storage when its diagnostics completes

Bugfixes

2020.1

New Features

Imaging:

Case management:

User experience improvements:

Support of SAS drives with non-standard sector sizes: 520, 528, 4080 bytes, etc

Settings page shows MAC addresses of both TaskForce Ethernet ports

Web API, /check-task call:

Manual is now built into TaskForce firmware

Bugfixes

Imaging:

Other fixes:

2019.9

New Features

Imaging

Diagnostics

Storages

Drive identification is now 3-4 times faster when you open the device selection panel

Support of damaged USB flash drives which are in read-only mode

Improved recognition of vendor-specific SMART attributes

Bugfixes

Imaging

Other fixes

2019.7

New Features

Introduction of simple Web API with 5 commands:

New system setting: Store shared folder logins and passwords in TaskForce

Case ID is now displayed in the device selection window.

Bugfixes

2019.4.1

May 14, 2019

Bugfixes

2019.4

New Features

Bugfixes

2018.12

New Features

Bugfixes

2018.8

New Features

Bugfixes

2018.1.3

New Features

2018.1.2

July 1, 2018

Chinese language support

2018.1.1

June 6, 2018

Bugfixes

2018.1

Initial release