Zentimo xStorage Manager is a Windows utility for handling external storage connected over USB, eSATA/SATA hot-plug and FireWire. It replaces the basic Windows safe-removal routine with a menu of connected drives and adds tools for drive letters, automatic actions, encrypted containers, portable programs and speed testing. xStorage Manager is commercial, and a 30-day trial lets users test it before buying.
Stopping drives and finding what blocks them
Zentimo sits in the system tray and opens a device menu that lists each connected drive with its icon, size and free space. You can stop drives one by one or all at once. The menu also opens with a hotkey (Win+S by default), where the arrow keys pick a device and Enter stops it.
When Windows refuses to release a drive, Zentimo xStorage Manager lists the processes holding it and, under each process, the files it has open on that drive. You can close or kill each program from that list. Forced Stop goes further: it flushes the drive cache and closes the open file handles while leaving the processes running. It then asks programs launched from the drive to exit and retries the stop.
Other removal functions cover cases the standard dialog does not:
- A stopped device can be returned to service without unplugging and reconnecting it.
- Memory cards can be ejected one at a time instead of stopping the whole card reader.
- SATA hot-plug controllers that lack normal safe removal are stopped by disabling the device, then re-enabled when the drive is connected again.
- USB ports can be powered off after stopping, so hard drives spin down.
A console tool, usr.exe, exposes listing, stopping, forced stopping, returning devices and finding blocking processes to batch scripts and scheduled tasks.
Actions on connect, stop and removal
The autorun function in Zentimo runs programs, batch files or JScript files at four points: when a device is plugged in, before it is stopped, after it is stopped and when it is removed. You can set rules for one device (or one volume of a card reader) or globally for every hot-plug drive. Command lines accept variables such as %DriveLetter%, %Label% and %DeviceName%, so a script still works if the drive gets a different letter. Each entry can run hidden, wait for the previous one, or be closed before the device stops.
Drive letters and card reader slots
Zentimo xStorage Manager can fix a letter to a particular drive. It can also share one fixed letter among several drives used one at a time, such as rotating backup disks. You can reserve specific letters so Windows never gives them to removable drives. This avoids clashes with mapped network drives. You can also mount a drive into an empty NTFS folder instead of a letter. Empty card reader slots can be hidden until media is inserted.
Encrypted containers and portable programs
For TrueCrypt, VeraCrypt and CipherShed, Zentimo stores the encryption program path, the container file or partition and the target letter in the device properties. The volume then mounts when the device is connected, and the encryption software asks for the password. It dismounts automatically when the device is stopped.
Each drive also has a quick-launch menu of programs, files and folders stored on it. The device name, image and launch list travel with the drive, so they appear on other computers that run Zentimo.
Read and write speed tests
The speed test measures read and write rates with 32 KB, 3 MB and 100 MB files and reports each result plus an average. Zentimo can also offer the test automatically whenever a new drive is connected.
