DRevitalize v4.0

SMART OPERATIONS

5. Display and analyze SMART data.

This is a pure information and statistics function with provides a detailed overview of the drive health. All good attributes are signaled with a green OK confirmation on the right side of the screen. Anything that is still good but suspicious and will probably soon need further attention is displayed in white. All bad attributes are signaled with a red BAD text. SMART WData is the default 16-bit word data shown in earlier versions of Drevitalize and SMART XData are the extended 4 bytes from the raw value field. Starting from version 3.24, Drevitalize will analyze the overall status of the drive and display the result either as : perfect drive, drive has warnings or defective drive.

6. Run SMART specific tests.

User has the possibility to select one of the available SMART self tests. Off-line mode tests execute in background. Captive tests execute in foreground and user needs to wait until they finish. Current drive status from offline data collection is displayed on the bottom of the page. Self test status and progress is also displayed on the bottom of the page and is updated periodically every 60 seconds if run in offline mode.


FEATURES MENU
7. Features and firmware data.

This menu currently defines specific firmware related functions that can be executed. Black commands are universal ATA commands and should be supported on any type of ATA drive as part of the ATA standard. Blue commands are vendor specific ATA commands. Execution of those commands is only available for registered users. Vendor specific ATA command will execute never officially published ATA scripts based on the currently selected manufacturer. Each manufacturer has different set of vendor specific ATA commands. Currently the following vendor specific ATA commands are supported : format unit, clear defect reassign, SMART reset attribute values, ATA force password reset.

Format Unit (vendor specific) :
This vendor specific ATA command clears the defect reassign information (Grown Defect List) and initializes all user data sectors. This procedure follows the same ATA security requirements as secure erase with the exception that it does not need a password to execute. However, the command cannot be started in security frozen mode, security disabled via DCO mode or when security feature set is not implemented. Supported manufacturers : WD (Marvell), Hitachi, HGST, IBM, Fujitsu.

Clear Defect Reassign (vendor specific) :
This vendor specific ATA command clears the defect reassign information (Grown Defect List). It will not reinitialize all drive sectors. Supported manufacturers : WD (Marvell), Samsung, Toshiba, Fujitsu.

SMART Reset Attribute Values (vendor specific) :
This vendor specific ATA command clears the SMART table of known drives : WD (Marvell), Hitachi, HGST, IBM, Samsung, Toshiba.

ATA Force Password Reset (vendor specific) :
This vendor specific ATA command firmware resets unknown ATA password and unlocks the drive. Supported manufacturers : WD (Marvell), Samsung, Toshiba.

Run Reverting to defaults after software reset (vendor specific) :
This vendor specific ATA command is obsolete.

Secure Erase :
The Secure Erase ATA feature set is a powerful and very dangerous ATA command. I would advise to do a secure erase using master password because the master password does not lock the drive if the procedure is suddenly stopped due to lack of power or some other unexpected reason. Therefore before starting this procedure please enter a master password with ATA security function : ATA Master Password.

Once the master password is set it needs to be reentered on secure erase dialog screen. This is because the procedure can also be used to unlock ATA drives with unknown user passwords but known master password. Some manufacturers have predefined master passwords that will work with secure erase if master password was not modified before.

If you decide to run secure erase with user password, a temporary user password with high security level will be set. This password is 'ABCDEF'. In case the procedure fails DRevitalize will try to automatically remove the password. However is case of loss of power it is impossible. The user will have to remove the password manually on next power up.

Please note that laptops/notebooks use a different ATA password system than the clean one used in DRevitalize. It is not possible to start a laptop with a drive on which the password was set by DRevitalize. If the user wants a password protected hard drive, he/she needs to set the ATA drive password either in the BIOS or in the specific laptop manufacturer utility. If the laptop is unable to start because of a failed ATA secure erase procedure, the only way to unlock the drive is to remove the drive from the laptop and connect it to a desktop PC or another laptop via USB and run DRevitalize specifying the required security options. Please note that only the Windows version is able to work with drives connected via USB.

ATA Security : This sub menu introduces new commands related to the powerful ATA security feature set. ATA Set user password, ATA Set Master password, ATA Unlock Drive, ATA Disable password, ATA Security status and ATA Drive password status. The first and second command locks the drive with user or master password (rev 0xFFFE), either in high security mode or maximum security mode. The difference between the two modes is that maximum security mode does not allow a drive to be unlocked with master password. In this case only secure erase can be started with master password. The third command unlocks a drive which is in security locked state. Either user or master password can be specified. However master password will only work if user password level is set to high. This command needs to be executed before trying to disable the password if drive is locked. The next command will unlock and disable the drive password in one operation, provided that the specified password is correct. Finally, the last two commands give status on current interface and drive.

DEVICE CONFIGURATION OVERLAY

8. Device Configuration Overlay.

This menu allows to reduce the capabilities of the selected drive by modifying some of the optional commands, modes, and feature sets that a device reports as supported in the IDENTIFY DEVICE or IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE data as well as the capacity reported. Selecting a specific feature will flag the action performed on it as either disable or enable depending on its current condition. After the required values are selected the user needs to run DCO modify function in order for the changes to take effect. DCO modify cannot be run 2 times in a row. Each DCO modify must be followed by a DCO restore to bring the drive back to its original state. Finally, executing DCO freeze will block the drive DCO functions.

A FEW NOTES ABOUT REVITALIZING HARD DRIVES

ALMOST 75% OF HARD DISK DRIVES WITH DAMAGED SURFACE CAN BE REPAIRED IF :

1. The drive was not opened (it's surface was not contaminated).
2. The drive is always detected by the BIOS.

IMPORTANT NOTE : The use of this utility on a drive seldom detected by the BIOS may kill the drive completely!!! (usually such drives have their surface very seriously damaged and trying to revitalize it during more than 30-60 minutes may result in permanent not recoverable hard disk failure unless someone knows how to rewrite the disk firmware).

3. The drive surface does not contain scratches or other serious physical damage.
4. The drive read-write heads are not damaged.
5. The drive firmware is not damaged.

REGENERATE HARD DRIVES WITH A LOT OF BAD SECTORS

1. Make sure you have your operating system installed on 100% trust worthy hard drive (with good S.M.A.R.T. status) not showing any bad sectors.
2. Install the faulty drive as slave or on the second IDE controller as standalone or connect it via eSATA cable (this is the best option).
3. Start the DRevitalize utility and check the drive SMART status. If the drive has reallocated sectors and data is not important it is advised to clear the defect reassign list from the Features/Firmware data menu. Surface recovery needs continuous non reallocated access for best effects.
4. Let the utility scan and revitalize the first Gigabyte (1024MB). Try at least 5 times when all bad sectors are not recovered. If there are still bad sectors on the drive after you run the utility 5 times please give the drive a break and start again after a few hours or the next day. If after running the utility more than 20 times the drive still shows bad sectors in the 1GB area then it's evident that the drive cannot be revitalized. Note that DRevitalize creates a log file with detailed info on recovered and non-recovered bad sectors.
5. Note on paper sectors that have problems and start Drevitalize with the appropriate sector offset. It may happen that recovered bad sectors may be detected as bad once again. If this is the case you should run the DRevitalize utility at least a few times on those sectors during 2 or 3 days.
6. Rerun the DRevitalize utility again on the next day specifying the areas recovered the day before. Make sure they do not contain bad sectors. Repeat this step for 5 consecutive days (this hard drive will store your data so it's better to be 100% sure it's ok).
7. Measure transfer speed on all areas of the disk and isolate potential surface problems (sector areas). If transfer speed is particularly low around a certain area try to move the data around (copy large files from one place to the other on the revitalized hard drive). You can run scandisk (with read/write - a complete surface scan too). Usually by moving the data around (read/write) the disk surface revitalized with this utility will further improve its condition. Scan the entire disk surface with dedicated hard disk diagnostic utilities made by your drive manufacturer. Make sure the drive passes the surface scan test!