I'm a little bit confused about which utility I should use on a samsung's hdd (speaking of those included in ubcd 5.0.0).

First, there is "estools" 300g. You can clearly see that this utility is an updated version of "hutil".

Then you have "hutil" 2.10, and also 1.21 for several reasons (SMART, compatibility with old/new drives, and others).

Moreover, in the same category you have "shdiag" 1.25, also from samsung. I'm not sure if this utility is newer or older than "hutil", or if it supports different hdd/controlers.

Finally, for wiping, there is "sutil". FYI, "hutil/estools" has also the possibility/function to wipe a hdd. I don't know if there are differences between estools wipe functions and the sutil program.

Even though all these utilities are from samsung, and all the relevant links published at http://www.ultimatebootcd.com do work, if I go directly to http://www.samsunghdd.com , then the only "relevant" utility is estools (speaking of internal drives).

Is it possible that the old reasons to add all those samsung utilities simultaneously to ubcd are not relevant anymore?

Is the more-updated estools 300g covering both, very old and new, hdd models and chipsets?

I think estools has SMART diagnostic and the wiping function also.

So, if anyone knows these utilities cover the same hdd models/controlers (including the old ones), maybe the old issues/reasons to include in ubcd several utilities for samsung's hdd are not relevant anymore? Maybe the estools 300g is just enough?

To be perfectly clear, I'm not suggesting nor requesting anything in particular about these utilities in ubcd 5.0.0. I'm just asking/wondering.

Thank you in advance.

The reason why some older apps are included is because of user complaints that the latest version does not work on older hardware.

I suggest always trying the latest version first. If it doesn't work, regress to older versions.

@Victor, I understand that. But what's the point to include "sutil" just to wipe, when "hutil" has this same function for the same hardware?

You are including "shdiag", "hutil" 1.xx, "hutil" 2.xx and estools 3.00g.

I may be wrong, but I suspect "estools" overcomes at least "hutil" 2.xx, and probably this last one overcomes "sutil".

Hey, if you think they are *all* necessary, that's ok also.

For V5.1, I intend to get user feedback on which apps they think are deprecated and should be removed from UBCD. I use only a handful of these apps myself, so I need wider feedback for this issue. You'd be surprised with the range of opinions out there.

Maybe this thread can act as a start. So you are suggesting we should remove sutil, shdiag, hutil1 & hutil2, leaving only estools?

BTW, going thru the changelog, it seems hutil1 was readded because of " faster operation and function to view SMART values". This was suggested by soeren, but I can't find the original message (could be email or PM).

Victor, I searched for some kind of version history / changelog at Samsung's website. I could find it.

One thing is clear: estools 300g is the updated version of hutil, and hutil is the updated version of shdiag.

Whether estools covers all (new and old) hdd models, I couldn't find a list. There is an old list of supported models about hutil 2.10, and it states to use shdiag "for old models". Reading the faq sections, it is suggested to use sutil to wipe when hutil 2.10 does not cover the particular hdd model.

Since version 2.11, hutil was renamed estools, but no list of supported hdd models and controlers.

About SMART, most dos diagnostic utilities won't state the actual numbers, but just if the SMART test was passed or failed.

So again, Samsung is centralizing their diagnostic utilities (erase, udma, acustic... management) into a single one named estools, but I couldn't find the supported hardware and differences with previous hutil, shdiag, and sutil.

About hutil 1.21, it is not available for download anymore from samsung's website (at least, I couldn't find it). Hutil 2.10 is still there.

BTW, you should change the link to estools, from the old http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... _Tool.html (from 2008)

to the current (2010) http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... in_es.html .

In any case, the estools version is still 300g, but the last link seem to be the updated one (the other one, of 2008, has 2 different iso downloads besides the floppy version, without specifying which one is the correct/updated one).

So, I can't really suggest to delete the old samsung utilities from ubcd.

But if you do delete them from ubcd, I would suggest leaving the links (or the "old" index pages according to each ubcd version) somewhere, for users to download those old utilities from samsung, so they could add them to a modified ubcd version if needed. I suggest this because it is not so easy to get to the old web pages from within Samsung's site, but the links you provide for hutil, shdiag and sutil are still working.

Thank you in advance.

Thanks! I will update the link.

Could anyone provide instructions on how to run the Samsung utilities from the UBCD?

I have tried a few times, each of the different utilities, and I always get errors, the utilities never come up.

I've tried a few of the different modes for each of the programs, with no luck.

Could you post more details about the error? I am wondering whether it's the same as this problem?