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📝 Changelog

All notable changes to ImageWriter will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

Maintainer: Anton Zelenov (tixset@gmail.com)
GitHub: https://github.com/tixset/ImageWriter

[Unreleased]

🐛 Critical Bug Fixes (2025-12-25)

  • Fixed COM reentrancy error - WMI calls from WM_DEVICECHANGE handler blocked by Windows COM
    • Implemented PostMessage(WM_REFRESH_DEVICES) for delayed device refresh
    • Moved PopulateDevices() to separate message handler (WMRefreshDevices)
    • Eliminated "Cannot make outgoing call during incoming synchronous call" error
  • Fixed WMI retry logic - corrected inconsistent retry conditions in GetFullDiskInfoWMI
    • Changed all retry checks from Retry < 3 to Retry < 5 (matching loop range)
    • Increased retry delay from 200ms to 500ms between attempts
    • Increased initial device detection delay from 500ms to 1000ms
    • Added detailed DEBUG logging for WMI query failures (attempt counts, error messages)
  • Fixed false partition validation errors - used accurate IOCTL disk size instead of WMI
    • ValidatePartitionTable now uses GetPhysicalDiskSize (IOCTL) instead of Info.Size (WMI)
    • WMI can return inaccurate sizes (e.g., 256052966400 vs 256060514304 bytes = 7.5 MB diff)
    • Eliminated false CRITICAL status on healthy SSD (PhysicalDrive0)
  • Enhanced device health diagnostics - comprehensive health analysis on device selection
    • Added AnalyzeDiskHealth() method with WMI, SMART, and partition validation
    • Implemented TDeviceHealthStatus enum (dhsUnknown, dhsHealthy, dhsWarning, dhsCritical)
    • Added FDeviceHealthInfo array for tracking health of up to 10 devices
    • Added FSMARTHistory array for storing 100 historical SMART measurements per device
    • Displays hardware diagnostics (capacity, serial number, sector size)
    • Shows SMART diagnostics (temperature, reallocated sectors, pending sectors, power-on hours)
    • Validates partition table integrity with actual disk size
    • Health summary with recommendations (OK/WARNING/CRITICAL)
  • Device health visual indicators - added owner-draw ComboBox with health status
    • ComboDeviceDrawItem: colored backgrounds (green=healthy, orange=warning, red=critical)
    • ComboDeviceMeasureItem: increased row height to 20px for better visibility
    • Status icons: ✅ Healthy, ⚠️ Warning, ❌ Critical, ❔ Unknown
    • Tooltip shows health status and issue count on hover
  • Health Report button - detailed device health analysis
    • Shows model, serial number, status icon, last check time
    • Displays warning and critical issue counts
    • Includes partition table error messages if any
    • Trend analysis from SMART history (temperature, bad sectors)
  • Write operation safety - blocking writes to critical-status devices
    • ValidateDeviceForWrite() checks health before write operation
    • CRITICAL devices: write blocked with error dialog
    • WARNING devices: confirmation dialog with risk warning
    • Low write speed detection (threshold 5 MB/s) with periodic warnings
  • "Ready!" message formatting - green success highlighting for startup message
    • Added "ready!" to success message detection pattern (green background)
    • Changed startup message from "Ready" to "Ready!" with newline
    • Improved success message detection (successfully, completed, success, ready!)

🐛 Code Quality Improvements (2025-12-24)

  • Fixed critical compilation errors - ImageWriterPro.exe now compiles without errors
    • Fixed AuthenticateNetworkShare → NetShareAuth.EnsureNetworkShareAccess typo
    • Added missing variable declarations for IMAGEWRITER_PRO conditional blocks
    • Fixed StartPersistentWorker to use ShellExecuteEx instead of RunElevated
  • Fixed critical warnings - eliminated uninitialized variable warnings
    • XZStream.pas: Added LastError initialization before first use
    • BZip2Stream.pas: Added LastError initialization before first use
  • Eliminated all compiler warnings - 28 signed/unsigned mixing warnings fixed
    • Added explicit Integer()/Cardinal() type casts in XZStream, BZip2Stream, PartitionAnalyzer
    • Suppressed platform-specific warnings with {$WARN SYMBOL_PLATFORM OFF/ON}
    • Removed unused variables (DeviceBenchmark, mainform)
  • Compiler hints reduced - from 11 to 5 expected hints
    • All remaining hints related to IMAGEWRITER_PRO conditional compilation
    • GZipStream, ElevationHelper, WorkerMode optimizations
  • Build status - both ImageWriter.exe and ImageWriterPro.exe compile cleanly
    • User code warnings: 0
    • Legacy library warnings: 18 (persrc.pas, MT19937.pas - acceptable)
    • Hints: 5 (expected, Pro-feature related)

🎨 Enhanced Log Formatting

  • RTF-based colored backgrounds - WARNING/ERROR/SUCCESS messages display with soft colored backgrounds
    • WARNING: Soft orange background (RGB 255, 220, 180)
    • ERROR: Soft red background (RGB 255, 200, 200)
    • SUCCESS: Light green background (RGB 200, 255, 200) for completed operations
  • RTF streaming - implemented proper RTF insertion via EM_STREAMIN Windows message
  • TEditStream callback - custom RTFStreamInCallback for streaming RTF data to RichEdit
  • Background positioning - fixed RTF \highlight command ordering with \par\pard paragraph markers
  • Improved label formatting - multi-word labels (e.g., "Program Info:", "Drive E:") properly bolded
  • Expanded color coding - values colored by type: blue (sizes), green (success), red (errors), purple (drives), navy (numbers), teal (other)
  • Header detection - lines starting with ===, ---, *** displayed as bold navy headers
  • Duplicate prefix removal - eliminated redundant "WARNING:" and "ERROR:" prefixes from log messages
  • Attribute reset - proper formatting reset after RTF insertion to prevent background bleeding

[2.2.0] - 2025-12-22

🆕 Compression Libraries

  • BZIP2 support - added libbz2.dll (32-bit) for BZIP2 decompression
  • XZ/LZMA support - added liblzma.dll (32-bit) for XZ/LZMA decompression
  • Dynamic loading - all compression libraries loaded on-demand via LoadLibrary
  • Resource embedding - all DLL embedded in executable resources (1.7 MB total)
  • Multi-library infrastructure - ExtractZLib.pas extended to support all compression DLL
  • BZip2Stream.pas - full BZIP2 streaming decompression with bz_stream handling
  • XZStream.pas - full XZ/LZMA streaming decompression with 256MB memory limit
  • 3-tier fallback - DLL search: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ImageWriter\ → exe directory → lib/ subdirectory
  • Updated tests - ArchiveIntegrationTests.pas includes BZIP2 and XZ decompression tests

🆕 SMART Disk Health Monitoring

  • SMART reading - implemented GetSMARTData() in DeviceBenchmark.pas via IOCTL_ATA_PASS_THROUGH
  • ATA structures - added IDEREGS, SENDCMDINPARAMS, SENDCMDOUTPARAMS to WinIOCTL.pas
  • Attribute parsing - reads up to 30 SMART attributes with values and thresholds
  • Health status - determines OK/WARNING/CRITICAL based on attribute values
  • Temperature monitoring - extracts temperature from SMART attribute 0xC2
  • Power-on hours - reads cumulative power-on time from attribute 0x09
  • Drive cycle count - retrieves start/stop count from attribute 0x0C
  • Updated tests - DeviceBenchmarkTests.pas includes SMART data retrieval test

🆕 Command-Line Interface (CLI)

  • Full CLI implementation - complete command-line interface for automation and scripting
  • ConsoleMode.pas - comprehensive CLI module (1100+ lines) with command parsing and execution
  • All operations supported - read, write, verify with progress tracking
  • Archive support - automatic GZIP/ZIP compression/decompression
  • Hash verification - MD5 and SHA256 hash calculation and comparison
  • Progress bar - visual progress indicator with speed and ETA
  • Commands:
    • --cli --help - display usage information and examples
    • --cli --version - show version and copyright
    • --cli --list - enumerate removable devices
    • --cli --write --device E:\ --file ubuntu.iso --verify - write image with verification
    • --cli --read --device E:\ --file backup.img.gz --hash md5 - read to compressed image
    • --cli --verify --device E:\ --file backup.img --hash sha256 - verify data integrity
  • Options:
    • --bs <size> - block size (default 1MB)
    • --count <n> - limit read/write operations
    • --force - bypass safety checks (dangerous!)
    • --quiet - suppress progress output
  • Integration:
    • DeviceManager - device enumeration via WMI
    • FileOperations - file size and format detection
    • ArchiveHandler - GZIP/ZIP streaming
    • HashUtils - MD5/SHA256 calculation
    • WinBinFile - low-level device I/O
  • Safety features:
    • --force flag required for write operations
    • Device size validation
    • File existence checks
    • Exit codes: 0 (success), 1 (error), 2 (safety check failed)
  • Documentation:
    • Updated README.md with CLI examples
    • Added comprehensive CLI section in docs/README.md
    • PowerShell and CMD usage examples
    • CI/CD integration examples

🎨 UI/UX Improvements

  • Drag & Drop support - drag image files directly into EditIn field for quick file selection
  • Refresh button - manual device list refresh button for detecting newly connected devices
  • Device size display - LabelDeviceInfo shows selected device capacity for confirmation
  • Hash algorithm selector - ComboHashAlgo dropdown for choosing MD5 or SHA256 verification
  • Quiet Mode - dedicated button to lower process priority and minimize window during operations
  • Settings persistence - automatic save/load of BS, Count, Seek, Skip, Hash algorithm to ImageWriter.ini
  • Sound notifications - audio feedback on operation completion (success/error/eject confirmation)
  • Auto-eject functionality - optional automatic device ejection after successful write operations
  • Windows 7+ taskbar progress - operation progress displayed in Windows taskbar icon
  • Window flash notification - window flashes on taskbar when operation completes
  • Special devices support - Unix-style virtual devices (/dev/zero, /dev/random, /dev/urandom) in EditIn dropdown

🔧 ImageWriterPro Features

  • Persistent worker process - long-running elevated worker via IPC for improved performance
  • WorkerCommands.pas - comprehensive command protocol for GUI-worker communication (+389 lines)
  • Reduced UAC prompts - single elevation at startup instead of per-operation prompts
  • IPC optimization - named pipe communication for efficient data transfer

📝 Improved Logging System

  • BatchLogHelper.pas - new helper class for batching high-frequency log messages
  • Structured format - operation logs now use consistent format with [INFO]/[WARNING]/[ERROR] prefixes
  • System event markers - startup/shutdown events clearly marked in logs for easy filtering
  • Based on LOG_FORMAT_SPECIFICATION.md - implemented recommendations from logging specification
  • TLogUtils wrapper - centralized logging interface with methods: Info(), Warning(), Error(), Critical()
  • Log rotation - automatic log file management to prevent excessive disk usage
  • Note: Delphi 7 uses ANSI strings - Unicode icons not supported

🔬 Device Benchmarking & Diagnostics

  • Device Benchmark module - complete benchmarking system for testing disk performance
  • 4 test types - Sequential Read/Write, Random Read/Write (4KB blocks)
  • Performance metrics - Min/Max/Avg speed calculation, 10 iterations for averaging
  • New module DeviceBenchmark.pas - TDeviceBenchmark class with RunBenchmark, RunAllBenchmarks methods (520 lines)
  • Benchmark UI - modal dialog with 3 tabs: Benchmark, SMART Data, Device Info
  • New form BenchmarkForm.pas - TBenchmarkForm with progress tracking, result display, export (478 lines)
  • SMART data structures - TSMARTData, TSMARTAttribute ready for future SMART implementation
  • Direct I/O - FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING | FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH for accurate speed measurement
  • Destructive test warnings - confirmation dialogs for Sequential/Random Write tests
  • Export to TXT - save benchmark results and SMART data to text files
  • Progress callbacks - real-time speed and progress display during tests
  • Cancellation support - ability to stop running benchmarks
  • Main form integration - "Benchmark" button opens modal dialog for selected device

🗃️ Archive Analysis Features

  • Partition table analysis from archives - analyze MBR/GPT partition tables without extracting full archive
  • Stream-based partition detection - read only first 64KB from archive for analysis (vs multi-GB extraction)
  • All archive formats supported - ZIP, GZIP, XZ, BZIP2, 7z, tar.gz, tar.xz (7 formats total)
  • New module ArchivePartitionReader.pas - utility class for efficient archive header reading (302 lines)
  • Enhanced PartitionInfo.pas - added DetectPartitionTableTypeFromStream, ParseMBRPartitionsFromStream, ParseGPTPartitionsFromStream (+195 lines)
  • UI integration - EditInChange now auto-detects archive type and displays partition info on file selection
  • Memory efficient - only 1KB for detection, 512B for MBR, 64KB for GPT (supports up to 512 GPT partitions)

📊 Code Quality & Documentation

  • Unified logging system - debug.pas now redirects to LogUtils.pas using wrapper approach
  • Added deprecation warnings - debug.pas marked as deprecated with compiler warnings in DEBUG mode
  • Full backward compatibility - all existing code works without changes
  • Created ROADMAP.md - comprehensive project roadmap with short/mid/long-term goals
  • Created CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md - Contributor Covenant v2.1 for community guidelines
  • Updated documentation - README.md and README.ru.md updated with logging changes

🔄 LogUtils Enhancements (Optional Tasks Completed)

  • Log rotation - automatic rotation when file reaches maximum size (default 10MB)
  • Minimum level filtering - filter out logs below specified level (Debug/Info/Warning/Error/Critical)
  • File size management - SetMaxFileSize, GetLogFileSize, RotateLogFile methods
  • Migrated 4 modules - Native.pas, WinBinFile.pas, persrc.pas, studio_tools.pas now use TLogUtils directly
  • Runtime tested - all new features tested and working correctly

📚 API Documentation

  • Complete XML-doc comments - 51 public methods across 6 manager modules
  • LogUtils.pas - 18 methods documented (logging system API)
  • DeviceManager.pas - 7 methods documented (WMI, device enumeration)
  • ProgressManager.pas - 8 methods documented (speed, ETA calculation)
  • HashUtils.pas - 7 methods documented (MD5/SHA256 hashing)
  • ValidationHelper.pas - 5 methods documented (parameter validation)
  • ArchiveHandler.pas - 6 methods documented (ZIP/GZIP streaming)
  • 466 lines of documentation added with summary, params, returns, remarks

🧪 Testing Improvements

  • 5 new test modules - comprehensive unit and integration tests
  • DeviceManagerTests.pas - device enumeration, WMI queries, validation
  • HashUtilsTests.pas - MD5/SHA256 with known value verification, performance tests
  • ValidationHelperTests.pas - image/device validation, size checks, extension validation
  • ArchiveIntegrationTests.pas - ZIP/GZIP extraction, streaming, cancellation
  • IPCIntegrationTests.pas - worker communication, data transfer, error handling
  • 40+ test cases covering managers and core functionality
  • 1458 lines of test code added

⚙️ Technical Details

  • Created TLogUtilsAdapter class to bridge callback systems
  • All Log() calls now redirect to TLogUtils.Info()
  • Legacy callback mechanism preserved for compatibility
  • Added initialization/finalization sections for proper cleanup
  • New methods: SetMinimumLevel, SetMaxFileSize, SetLogRotation, GetLogFileSize, RotateLogFile
  • ~25 Log() calls migrated to appropriate TLogUtils levels (Error/Warning/Info/Debug)
  • Deleted obsolete documentation (LOGGING_MIGRATION_GUIDE.md, LOGGING_UNIFICATION_PLAN.md)
  • Cleaned up all .dcu compilation artifacts

[2.0.0] - 2024-xx-xx

➕ Added

  • Dynamic ZLib loading - zlib1.dll is now loaded on-demand only when working with compressed archives
  • Comprehensive logging system with file and UI output
  • Enhanced exception handling for UI initialization
  • Network share authentication support (Pro version)
  • Improved device enumeration with better error handling
  • Automated test suite with DUnit framework
    • Device detection and enumeration tests
    • Safety mechanism validation (fixed disk protection)
    • ZLib compression/decompression tests
    • Safe operations with removable devices only
    • Automatic test runner script (run_tests.bat)

🔄 Changed

  • ZLib library is no longer statically linked - defers DLL loading until needed
  • Improved startup performance by deferring unnecessary library loads
  • Better error messages for device access issues
  • Enhanced progress reporting during disk operations

🔧 Fixed

  • Access Violation issues during form initialization
  • Proper handling of UI control initialization errors
  • Better recovery from failed device enumeration
  • Network drive mounting issues resolved

[2.0.0] - 2024-xx-xx

➕ Added

  • GUI interface for disk image writing
  • Support for multiple image formats (raw, GZIP, ZIP)
  • Progress bar and status reporting
  • Device safety filters
  • UAC elevation support for Vista and later
  • Pro version with network share support

🔄 Changed

  • Complete rewrite from command-line tool to GUI application
  • Modern Windows compatibility (Vista/7/8/10/11)
  • Enhanced error handling and user feedback

[0.6beta3] - Original dd for Windows by John Newbigin

📜 Original Features

  • Command-line disk imaging tool for Windows
  • Support for block devices and virtual devices
  • Progress reporting with --progress flag
  • Safety filters (--filter=removable, --filter=fixed)
  • Virtual devices (/dev/zero, /dev/random)
  • Support for standard I/O pipes

Note: Versions 2.0.0 and later represent a significant evolution from the original dd for Windows command-line tool, adding a graphical interface and modern Windows features while maintaining the core disk imaging functionality.

For the original dd for Windows by John Newbigin, see: http://www.chrysocome.net/dd