Products > ATA Task Register Commands

A new feature in the SCSItoolbox Suite Version 6.0 is the ability to issue any task register ATA command to any ATA/SATA storage device. This allows test scenarios that include ATA commands that are not implemented in ATAPI such as retrieving SMART data, ATA IDENTIFY data, SEEK, SET MAX ADDRESS, and more.

Accessing the ATA Commands

Use the Main menu ATA Commands choice to choose an ATA function

The ATA IDENTIFY command

Choose an ATA device by double-clicking on it in the Devices List

The ATA IDENTIFY information will be displayed / interpreted

The ATA SMART command

Choose an ATA device by double-clicking on it in the Devices List

SMART attribute data will be displayed / interpreted

The ATA User-Defined Command menu

The User Defined Command menu lets you:

• choose commands from a list
• add new or custom commands to the command list
• issue commands to any ATA device
• view all status / error bytes
• view data

Commands are accessed from the pull-down Command list. When you click on a command in the list the seven ATA task registers are filled with the data that defines that command.

You can also enter any data you wish in the seven ATA task registers, and then add the new command to the Command list with a unique name. This allows any command, standard or vendor unique to be defined and saved for easy access.

Specify the data direction ( In from drive or Out to drive) and which of the two data buffers you wish to use.

If you want the command issued multiple times specify the repeat count

But first – you need to select which ATA device you want to send the command to. Do this by double-clicking on the device. Please – don't destroy data on a drive that you care about! You will be warned if you choose “Data Out” – don't be hasty!

Now you are ready to send the command – click the Issue Command button to do it

When you issue a command it can succeed or it can fail. The Error and Status indicators let you know what happened.

You can view or save a history of the commands you have issued and their results by clicking the View Results button

If you would like to view the data resulting from a command click the Buffers button – below is data from an ATA IDENTIFY command

Summary

The ATA Commands addition to the SCSItoolbox Suite brings a new level of testing functionality – hardware-independent ATA/SATA testing.

In addition to the GUI-based ATA Commands, the ATA User Defined Command functionality has been added to the Developers Toolbox api library. This enables any user test written with Visual Basic or Visual C++ to have complete ATA task register level access to any ATA device.

Protocol Support

• SCSI (All interfaces - single-ended, differential, SCSI 1, 2, 3, wide or narrow devices, Ultra II, Ultra3)
• Fibre Channel (FCAL)
• Magneto Optical (MO)
• Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
• iSCSI
• Serial ATA (SATA)
• ATAPI

System Requirements

Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows Server 2000, 2003
Windows Vista