Poring through a long readme file can be a little tedious. So two of our crack developers — Nate and Doug — have diluted the new features in ShadowProtect 3.4 into a short, easy-to-read list.

ShadowProtect 3.4 Features/Enhancements:

1. Added ability to import and export nodes in the network view. 
2. Added ability to generate an MD5 file to allow external file verification. 
3. Added a new scripting interface for creating/modifying backup jobs.
4. Added support for the Portuguese language.
5. ImageManager has been updated to auto verify and periodically re-verify image files.  This is an ImageManager only component.
6. Although not exposed through the user interface, ShadowProtect can now be instructed to ignore hardware read errors during a backup.  This functionality can be enabled by creating a system environment variable named SP_SBVOL_IGNORE_READ_ERRORS with the value 1.  The “ShadowProtect Service” (ShadowProtectSvc.exe) must be stopped and started before the change will take effect.  Backups will then succeed even if the hardware fails read requests – the backup image will contain zeroes for those sectors which failed read requests.
7. A new tool (ISOTool.exe) is now installed in the ShadowProtect program files directory.  This tool can be used to burn/rip .ISO files to/from CD/DVD/BD media.  This tool can, for instance, be used to burn the StorageCraft Recovery Environment .ISO file to a CD-R disc.

ShadowProtect 3.4 Resolved Issues:

1. Fixed issue where the date display options could be interpreted incorrectly if the system was not set to U.S. English. 
2. Fixed a very rare issue where scheduled backups didn’t run properly. 
3. Fixed issue where using Pre/Post/Finish backup commands in a backup didn’t properly report to the ShadowProtect log files. 
4. Fixed a crash on Vista in Backup/Edit job wizard when closing the Advanced options dialog.
5. Fixed an issue where path name with 38 characters would not display image files.
6. Fixed an issue where a DiffGen backup would fail with “Set Guid Mismatch” error.  This only occurred for a job with the option “Second and subsequent full backups are differentials” selected which had been edited prior to the attempted DiffGen backup.
7. Fixed an issue where retention policy would not remove old files stored on some NAS devices.
8. Fixed slow backup speed to an Iomega REV drive.
9. Added a retry for files that could not be deleted by the retention policy because they were in use.  Also, included retention policy results in log file.
10. Execution of missed backups now applies to service resuming from a suspended state as well as service starting.
11. Added a delay of 60 seconds before starting backup jobs when the ShadowProtect service is started or resumed.
12. Fixed FAT16/FAT32 mounting issue.
13. Fixed FAT16/FAT32 snapshot issue on Vista+.
14. Fixed rare blue screen at shutdown time on Vista.
15. Fixed Sophos AntiVirus interop issue (resulted in a system hang).
16. Eliminated the NTDS event log error message when backups occur on a domain controller.

Of course, if you want all the details, you’ll have to bite the bullet and tackle the whole readme file.