Enhancements made from busTRACE 7.0 to busTRACE 8.0

New Applications

• NEW! Added our new busCHECK application. This application allows you to automatically check for device and I/O subsystem defects. For example, common device firmware bugs are automatically detected and flagged for your attention.

New Features

• NEW! Added ability to Import Finisar Bus Doctor ATAPI states capture text file.
• NEW! When you stop capturing I/O activity, busTRACE will now automatically scan all the captured I/Os looking for any I/O subsystem defects. If a defect is detected, a red defect indicator will appear directly above the I/O Capture List. The I/O that has an error will appear in red text. Click on the I/O to find out details about the defect that busTRACE has detected.
• NEW! Added a new "Extended IRP Capture" option to the capture settings. With this option enabled, busTRACE will now capture additional IRP information, such as the I/O stack values (i.e. IO_STACK_LOCATION), and show them to you in the new Extended IRP Capture tab. The additional information is captured going down and back up the I/O stack.
• NEW! The user can configure which defect checks to enable / disable. Simply go to the Tools->Options->Defect Analysis option.
• NEW! We have added a new Network compression checkbox to the capture settings. When enabled (default is enabled) during a remote capture, busTRACE will compress the captured data before sending it across the network. This can both reduce network traffic while also improving the transfer speed between the remote server and the busTRACE application.
• NEW! Within the busTRACE capture application, we have added decoding support for Common Storage Management Interface (CSMI) IOCTLs that might be captured.
• NEW! Within the busPROBE CDB Exerciser, we have added a "Data Structures" tab. Just like within the busTRACE capture application, you can now see the SCSI Pass Through structure (i.e. SCSI_PASS_THROUGH_DIRECT) as it was submitted to the port/miniport driver and as it was returned from the port/miniport driver.
• NEW! Within the busPROBE CDB Exerciser, if a firmware bug is detected in the processed CDB, a new red caption bar will appear above the decoded CDB letting you that a defect has been detected.
• NEW! Within the busPROBE CDB Exerciser, added an option to reset a device. You can right click on the device in the "Device List" tree and choose the "Reset Device" option. Alternatively, you can go to the Tools->Reset Device menu option. Note that your ability to reset a device is dependent on your port / miniport driver. It may also reset the entire bus causing all devices on the bus to be reset.
• NEW! Within the busPROBE CDB Exerciser, we have added support for the Common Storage Management Interface (CSMI). Simply place a checkmark on the "Scan for CSMI Devices" option (in the Properties window) and busPROBE will also scan for and display any CSMI devices.
• NEW! Within the busPROBE CDB Exerciser, if a CDB takes a long time, a new "Processing CDB" dialog will appear. This shows you the time elapsed and provides you an "Abort" option. If you click on the Abort, we will try and abort the command. Our ability to abort a "stuck" command is dependent on the port / miniport driver. If the port driver doesn't properly support aborting the command, we then provide the user an option to allow us to reset the bus. Here too, our ability to reset the bus is port / miniport driver dependent.
• NEW! Within the busPROBE CDB Exerciser, when you select a device, we will now show you additional device information down in the "Properties" docked pane.
• NEW! Similar to our busPROBE enhancement, you can now attempt to abort / reset a "hung" CDB within busSCRIPT. This is true when creating executable scripts as well.
• NEW! In the busTRACE remote server, when you minimize the software, we will now show you the IP address on the taskbar icon.
• NEW! Added theme support to busTRACE 8.0. You can now choose from one of several color schemes to customize the look of busTRACE, busPROBE, and more. Simply choose the Theme option from the View main menu.
• NEW! Added a new "Sense Data (All)" column that you can add to the I/O Capture List. You can also export this value when exporting to file. This column shows you the captured sense data (up to 18 bytes) in hex format. The previously available "Sense Data" is still an option as well though this option only shows you the sense key and sense code.
• NEW! Added decoding support for IEEE 1667 v1.1 devices. Standard Protocol for Authentication in Host Attachments of Transient Storage Devices.
• IMPROVED! When performing a remote capture, with live capture disabled, depending on your network speed, and size of your capture buffer, the time it took to stop the capture to begin your analysis could be long. With this release, we now show you a progress indicator, average transfer speed, and approximate time remaining.
• IMPROVED! When viewing the Filtered Commands dialog box, click on the "Command/Status" tab to view the CDBs you can filter from view. With this release, we show you sub-categories. This makes it easier to filter out specific CDBs. For example, busTRACE 7.0 would show you a Get Configuration entry for each time of feature you request. With busTRACE 8.0, then now all appear under a "Get Configuration" sub-tree. You can select / deselect the parent item to select / deselect all the child items.
• IMPROVED! Support for a new busTRACE capture file format that busCHECK produces (with additional I/O defect information).
• IMPROVED! When multiple connections are made within busTRACE, and you configure busTRACE to show each connection on screen at the same time, we will now put a gray background on the inactive views.
• IMPROVED! Latest CDB decoding and defect check database.
• IMPROVED! Updated CDB database shows you additional details, depending on the CDB, in the "Command 1" column.
• IMPROVED! Within our CDB decoding database, we previously highlighted only CDB errors with a red background. We now support a new warning indicator. These are items that are not definite bugs but something the vendor should be aware of these. These appear with a yellow background.
• IMPROVED! If you start a busTRACE capture with no devices selected, a warning indicator will appear letting you know that you have no devices enabled. Configuring a capture such as this is allowed, as you may want to capture a Plug and Play event (i.e. new device insertion) only. You are given the option to disable the warning.

Enhancements made from busTRACE 6.0 to busTRACE 7.0

New Applications

• NEW! Includes busFAULT, an application designed to allow you to simulate check condition or SRB Status device errors. Includes integration with the busTRACE capture engine.
• NEW! Includes busSTRESS, an application designed to stress test one or more hard drives. This application will perform a read / write / compare stress test on one or more paths. Any file error or data miscompare is detected and reported to the user. Includes full integration with the busTRACE capture engine.
• NEW! Includes a new utility, accessible from the busTRACE 8.0 Start Menu, that allows you to view any file's contents in a hex editor.
• NEW! Includes CD/DVD Exclusive Access Status. This application allows you to see which application has an exclusive access lock on your CD/DVD/HD/BD devices.

New Features

• NEW! The busTRACE capture engine now features integration with busFAULT and busSTRESS. The I/O Capture List also features updated tooltip help for the error column and device column.
• NEW! The busTRACE bus analyzer, the busPROBE CDB Exerciser, busFAULT, and the CD/DVD Exclusive Access Status application all now show you the device's attached drive letter(s). You can configure to remove the drive letter from the display if you prefer.
• NEW! A new "Restart Capture" feature has been added to busTRACE. This allows you to reset and restart the capture while it is active. This is a quick way to empty the capture buffer and have it continue capturing I/O activity.
• NEW! Within the busTRACE capture application, you can save and reload filter settings.
• NEW! Added a new tooltip for the Raw Data column within the busTRACE capture application. This allows you to view up to 128 bytes of the data transferred without having to click on the I/O.
• NEW! In each of our hex buffer editors, you can now click on a toolbar button that allows you to manually enter a buffer offset value you would like to jump to.
• NEW! Within the busPROBE and busSTRESS buffer viewers, you can now use the new Find toolbar buttons to find and move to a specified hex or ASCII data pattern.
• NEW! busPROBE is now Plug and Play aware.
• NEW! busPROBE now includes a checkbox where you can configure the CDB Exerciser to show you the drive letters (if available) allocated to your storage devices.
• NEW! Our CD/DVD Exclusive Access Status application now includes a checkbox where you can have it show the CD/DVD drive letter or not. Also, if a lock attempt fails because the file system is active, we now prompt you to ask if you want us to dismount the file system before trying again.
• NEW! When capturing I/O requests generated from ring 3 applications, such as SCSI Pass Through IOCTLs, busTRACE 8.0 will now tell you the the application that generated the I/O request.
• IMPROVED! Updated CDB decoding engine.
• IMPROVED! Updated executable CDB database
• IMPROVED! Updated icons throughout product.
• IMPROVED! Updated busTRACE 8.0 Start Menu includes easy access to new applications.
• IMPROVED! Our CD/DVD Exclusive Access Status utility has been updated to support Windows XP (when IMAPIv2 is present).
• IMPROVED! The Advanced busTRACE Filter Driver Placement dialog has been updated to provide our technical support group with auto-adjustment settings.
• IMPROVED! Those applications that use a checkbox to enable or disable a feature have been updated to now always show a checkbox. The checkbox can be checked or unchecked with a single click.
• IMPROVED! The ATA Identify application has been updated to show Serial ATA (SATA) and Serial ATAPI (SATAPI) fields.
• IMPROVED! There have been other minor updates and enhancements throughout the entire product.
• IMPROVED! If you configure busTRACE to automatically e-mail you of an error, or trigger point, we will now also e-mail you if we lost our connection to a remote server (if performing a remote capture).

There have been many more features and enhancements that have gone into busTRACE 6.0 after it was initially released and prior to the busTRACE 8.0 release. Please review the busTRACE 6.0 Change Log for complete details.

Enhancements made from busTRACE 5.0 to busTRACE 6.0

New Applications

• NEW! Includes busSCRIPT, a new easy-to-use CDB scripting application. Drag and drop simplicity; no programming required for simple scripts; create self-contained executable scripts; CDB execution results can be saved to a busTRACE capture file.
• NEW! Includes the busTRACE 8.0 Start Menu, a new front-end menuing application that guides you to the tool you are interested in running.
• NEW! Removed support for the older busTRACE proprietary "green" dongle. Instead, we now only support our busTRACE USB Flash Drives. A free replacement flash drive is available for all customers whose subscription is active (if you have the older green dongle). This has the advantage of using Microsoft's built-in drivers to communicate with the flash drive instead of depending on a proprietary 3rd party driver.
• NEW! The user's manual is no longer a separate PDF file. It is now an integrated HTML Help file.

All Applications

• NEW! Full Windows Vista compatibility. This includes having all programs marked for proper Vista access requirements and adjusting the user interface for better Vista compatibility. Our kernel drivers also contain the necessary cross-certificate to be fully compatible with Windows Vista x64's requirement for signed device drivers.
• NEW! A new busTRACE 8.0 Start Menu option is available on the toolbar of each of our applications. A drop down list can take you immediately to the tool of your choice. This allows you to quickly move from one busTRACE 8.0 application to another.
• NEW! A new shared CDB Execution Database is stored in an XML format. You can set the location of this database file to a shared network drive and share it among multiple busTRACE users. Any enhancement made by one busTRACE user is automatically seen by all other busTRACE users that are configured to share the same file.
• NEW! All applications and drivers are now digitally signed as having come from busTRACE Technologies. This ensures that our programs have not been altered.
• IMPROVED! Significantly improved user interface for dragging and dropping of panes. You can easily see where your new will be be docked, tabbed, or floating.
• IMPROVED! Child window toolbars no longer wrap around when the window isn't large enough to show the whole toolbar. Instead an "expand" button will appear on the right side of the toolbar which you can click to view the hidden toolbar features.
• IMPROVED! Enhanced busTRACE subscription handling.
• IMPROVED! We've enhanced our flash drive recovery tool in case busTRACE is unable to detect its flash drive.
• IMPROVED! Minor enhancements to our Internet auto-updater.
• IMPROVED! Shared busTRACE "About" box across all applications.
• IMPROVED! When you use your mouse wheel, the scroll effect will now occur in the window that the mouse is floating over (instead of only the active window).

Capturing I/O Activity

• NEW! Kernel Mode CDB Filter. Let busTRACE know exactly which CDBs you are interested in capturing or which CDBs you specifically do not want captured. Unlike our previous filter capability, this new feature causes the kernel driver to skip capturing the CDB altogether. This allows you to capture only the CDBs you are interested in.
• NEW! SCSI Request Block (SRB) and SCSI Pass Through (SPTI) software defect detection.
• NEW! View all attached user comments in its own docked pane. Click on a comment and the I/O Capture List will immediately move to that I/O.
• NEW! Compare two captured I/Os in our new Side-by-Side I/O Comparison feature. You can even compare two I/Os across two separate capture documents. Synchronized scroll bars allow you to visually see any differences between the two captured I/Os.
• NEW! Track mouse movements over interleaved I/O activity. While viewing interleaved I/O activity, as you move the mouse over each captured I/O, busTRACE will now highlight where the I/O starts, where it finishes, and what I/O activity (if any) occurs in between.
• NEW! Stop multiple active busTRACE captures. You might have busTRACE capturing I/O simultaneously across multiple networked PCs. You can now have busTRACE stop all capture sessions at the same time.
• NEW! A new startup capture settings page has been added where you can adjust busTRACE's default capture settings.
• NEW! Copy one or more captured CDBs and paste into busSCRIPT, our CDB scripting application.
• NEW! Save any captured CDB to our shared CDB Execution Database and use within busPROBE or busSCRIPT.
• NEW! Drag and drop a busTRACE capture file (either a .BTD or a .ZIP file) onto the busTRACE 8.0 Start Menu desktop icon and our bus capture program will automatically load and show you the contents.
• NEW! Find and jump to a specified I/O Counter. Press Ctrl+G, or enter the I/O Counter in the toolbar, and find and jump to any specified I/O Counter.
• IMPROVED! User can now provide unlimited capture clients while their subscription is active. There is no longer any need to purchase additional capture clients (you must keep your busTRACE subscription active in order to continue using this feature).
• IMPROVED! Updated our kernel driver to handle drivers that support a dual role of being a bus driver and a filter driver.
• IMPROVED! Our I/O Capture List now supports Windows XP Themes for its visual display.
• IMPROVED! Added a user option that allows you to turn on or off the capturing of IOCTL requests.
• IMPROVED! The capture column IRP Direction is no longer shown by default in the I/O Capture List. Instead, if you configure busTRACE to show interleaved I/O activity, the IRP direction indicator will appear immediately to the right of the Counter field.
• IMPROVED! Changed default capture behavior to capture Plug and Play (PnP) requests.
• IMPROVED! Added two new startup options such as having busTRACE automatically launch when Windows starts, as well as automatically starting the capture when the application starts.
• IMPROVED! Added two new columns you can have added to the I/O Capture List. These are the Device Pointer and IRP Pointer columns. This allows you to view the PDEVICE_OBJECT and PIRP hex values for the captured I/O request. This information is also available in the I/O Details dialog box as well as the Export options. A 64-bit hex value is displayed if the pointers are captured on an x64 system.
• IMPROVED! Enhanced our protocol between the client and server when doing a remote bus capture.
• IMPROVED! Icons used to show inbound or outbound data transfer have been adjusted to make it easier to visually note the direction in the I/O Capture List.

Generating I/O Activity

• NEW! When sending a single CDB through busPROBE, our interface now allows you to type in a CDB filter string. For example, if you're only interested in viewing all available CDBs that contain "Read" in it, you simply type in Read into the edit box and all non-"Read" CDBs will be filtered from view.
• IMPROVED! Added more built-in CDBs that are available to busPROBE as well as busSCRIPT.
• IMPROVED! If you loop on sending CDBs within busPROBE, and then save the results to a busTRACE capture file, busPROBE will now save for you the first and last CDB sent along with a descriptive note within the capture. Previous versions only captured the last CDB submitted.
• IMPROVED! When defining a custom execution CDB, added the ability to define multiple supported device types for a single CDB.
• IMPROVED! Internal improvements in saving the CDB results to a busTRACE capture file.
• IMPROVED! Within the CDB Viewer, the sorting option has been removed from the docked Properties window. Instead, you can now simply click on the header control (directly above the list of available CDBs to decode) to sort. Click on the "Opcode" column to sort by opcode. Click on the "Command Descriptor Block" column to sort by the CDB name.
• IMPROVED! Additional internal improvements have been made across the CDB Exerciser, ATA/ATAPI Identify, CDB Viewer, and the Sense Viewer.