Readme

Readme for HDDSuperTool:

Hddsupertool is an advanced tool for Linux to send direct commands to a drive.

It uses scripts to do this.

Hddsupertool is supplied as an executable, with separate ones for 32bit

and 64bit. You cannot run the 32bit on a 64 bit system and vice versa

(you may get an odd file not found error if you try).

Hddsupertool now has DEB (Debian/Ubuntu) and RPM (RedHat/Fedora)

installers available. If you have downloaded the appropriate installer

then you should just be able to double click on it to start the

installation process. This method should even work on many live CDs,

but not all. If you are unable to use one of the installers, then you

will need to follow the instructions below to install from the tar.gz

file or to run without installing.

If you have downloaded the tar.gz file, then the easiest way to get

started is to copy the tar.gz file to a flash drive, and then use simple

copy and paste to put it in the Home folder that can be found on the

desktop of the Linux install. When you open a terminal it should

default to the same Home folder that is on the desktop.

To extract hddsupertool, open a terminal and use the following

commands (replacing the -x.x-x.x.-xxx with proper version number and

architecture):

gunzip hddsupertool-x.x-x.x.-xxx-free.tar.gz

tar xf hddsupertool-x.x-x.x.-xxx-free.tar

Then navigate to the proper directory:

cd hddsupertool-x.x-x.x.-xxx-free

The following method to install HDDSuperTool will not only work on a

Linux installation, but you can use the same method when booting from a

live CD. The only difference is that every time you use a live CD, you

will need to perform these steps after each boot.

To install hddsupertool, use the following command:

sudo make install

The "make install" command needs to be run as root, which is why

"sudo" is included in this example. Your sysem may use a different

command, or you may already be root. If it is not ran as root, then you

will likely get permission errors and the install will not be complete.

Note that you can also uninstall it with the command "sudo make

uninstall". There is now also an uninstaller script that can be ran by

typing "sudo hddsupertool-uninstall.sh".

You must run hddsupertool as root. For Ubuntu you would use "sudo"

in front of the command:

sudo hddsupertool

Please consult the documentation for your version of Linux for

information on how to run as root.

To run it without installing, you must be in the same directory as

hddsupertool. Note that some versions of Linux will not allow you to

run a program from certain external devices (such as a FAT32 USB drive).

Example to run it from the current directory:

sudo ./hddsupertool

You may need to change the permissions on the file so that you have

the rights to run it. The following command should do that:

sudo chmod a+x hddsupertool

If you are booted from a live CD that does not allow installing with

make (maybe make does not exist) and you are trying to run it from a USB

drive and are getting a permission error, you can copy the executable to

the home folder and run it from there. Note that if using a live CD the

home folder exists in ram and will be cleared on a reboot. The

following example assumes you are in the folder on the USB drive that

contains hddsupertool. The first command copies it to the home folder,

the second command gives permission to execute, and the third command

runs it:

sudo cp hddsupertool /home

sudo chmod a+x /home/hddsupertool

sudo /home/hddsupertool

You may notice that examples did not include a drive or script. As

long as the hddscripts folder is either in the current working

directory, or has been copied to /usr/local/bin/hddscripts, hddsupertool

will start with a menu driven system. You can still run hddsupertool

with manual options to declare which drive and script with a command

such as the following:

sudo hddsupertool -t /dev/sdb -f ata_identify_device

Please see the Installing and Usage sections of the manual for more info.