DriveForge v4.2.0

Changelog

All notable changes to DriveForge are documented here. Dates are ISO (YYYY-MM-DD).

v4.2.0 — 2026-07-13

Adds faithful backup-image restore and completes the multi-language coverage.

Backup & restore

• Restore from a VHDX backup (made by Export VHDX) now writes the image back to a drive faithfully — using the same raw engine that makes Clone This PC an exact copy (preserving apps, permissions, hardlinks, reparse points and alternate data streams). Verified end to end: the restored drive boots on real hardware.
• The backup image is now attached through the native Windows Virtual Disk API instead of scripting an external mount — it is read-only, cleans up any leftover mount automatically, and can never leave the image file locked.
• Restore reliability fixes: correct handling when Windows auto-assigns a drive letter to the mounted image, the right Windows volume is chosen inside multi-partition images, and the target is only formatted after the image is confirmed readable.

Language

• Full 17-language coverage: every remaining stage/status message and completion dialog on the backup / clone / restore screens is now translated, so a chosen language shows no leftover English.

Under the hood

• Renamed the project internals throughout (no functional change).
• Numerous smaller reliability fixes across the imaging paths.

This release also carries the safety + reliability work listed under v4.1.2 below, which had not yet been published as a download.

v4.1.2 — 2026-07-04

A large safety + reliability release. DriveForge writes whole disks, so this focuses on
never doing the wrong thing, and on being clear about what is happening.

Safety (data-loss prevention)

• Destructive confirmation dialogs now default to the safe button (Cancel/No), so pressing Enter never erases a drive by accident.
• Every destructive write now re-verifies the target disk's identity (size + serial) immediately before writing — Windows can renumber disks when a drive is unplugged/replugged between the scan and the click. Covers wipe, format, secure-erase, raw ISO write, and the partition tools (Initialize, Convert, Move, Delete, Quick-partition).
• Refuses to write when the source file is stored on the target disk (raw ISO write and image restore) — this used to be able to destroy the very file being written.
• Restore now verifies the backup image's integrity before formatting the target — finding a corrupt backup after erasing the destination (a dead-PC recovery) was the worst possible ordering.
• Pressing Stop during secure file-shred no longer deletes the partially-overwritten file (that would lose it and leave its data recoverable).
• Scheduled/unattended clone now matches the target drive by serial number (not just name+size) and never targets the system disk.

Cloning a PC

• Detects your active real-time antivirus (any vendor, via Windows Security Center) and warns before cloning that it can drastically slow the process — with a clear choice to pause/exclude it. DriveForge never touches your antivirus itself.
• Skips antivirus data/quarantine folders and developer caches (NuGet/npm/pip/cargo) during capture — these are self-protected or huge and slow the imaging engine.
• Clearer live status: distinguishes "engine busy (high CPU)" from "drive stalled", and no longer looks frozen during the normal scan phase.
• Disables legacy 8.3 short-name generation on the target for a faster many-file apply.
• Antivirus temporarily disabled on the clone for first-boot app repair is now re-enabled automatically and reliably, and is left untouched on the Windows-To-Go path (which has no auto-restore).

Reliability & correctness

• Added a global crash handler that saves a crash log to %LocalAppData%\DriveForge\crash.log and shows a clear message instead of vanishing.
• Progress/speed/ETA parsing is now culture-invariant (was breaking on comma-decimal locales).
• Drive health no longer shows a Warning drive as healthy just because its status text also contains "OK".
• Recovery deep-scan bounds its memory like the other scanners; disk read-back verification no longer reports a genuine drive as FAKE on a short read.
• Partition-tool success is now reported correctly on non-English Windows (no longer keyed off the English word "successfully").
• Numerous smaller fixes: settings-file robustness, first-run language matching your OS, safe stop/pause flags, resource disposal.

Build & trust

• Self-contained single-file build is now compressed (smaller download).
• Releases now carry GitHub build-provenance attestation — verify with gh attestation verify DriveForge.exe --repo ForgeLabsSoft/driveforge.

v4.1.1 — 2026-06-28

• First open-source (GPL-3.0) release built from public source via GitHub Actions, with SHA-256 checksums.

DriveForge v4.1.1

DriveForge 4.1.1 — free & open source (GPL-3.0). Built from source on GitHub Actions.

Code signing: DriveForge has applied to the SignPath Foundation free code-signing program for open-source projects. Until a signed build is published, Windows SmartScreen may warn on first run — click More info → Run anyway.

Verify your download: compare DriveForge.exe against the SHA-256 in SHA256SUMS.txt.