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Q: How fast will Drive eRazer Ultra erase the data on my drive?
A: The erasure time depends on many different variables. The first is which mode the Drive eRazer is set to. Single-Pass will finish more quickly than Secure Erase in most cases. Also, the drive size and age are important factors: older drives will erase more slowly than newer ones; higher capacity drives will take longer than lower capacity drives. On average, you can expect 2GB per minute on older drives and 7GB per minute on newer drives.
Q: How does Secure Erase work?
A: Secure Erase is a feature on many modern hard drives (greater than 15GB). This feature ships in the drive's firmware (written by the factory), and Drive eRazer Ultra can activate it at a hardware level.
Like single pass mode, Secure Erase mode also sequentially overwrites every single bit/track on the hard drive. Both modes overwrite data left at the end of partly overwritten blocks and directories. Secure Erase better handles data on "bad blocks" (single pass may stop and report an error at a bad block).
Q: With what drive capacities is Drive eRazer compatible?
A: Drive eRazer cannot erase extremely small drives or media that are less than 10,000 sectors. Assuming a 512 byte sector size, 10,000 sectors is less than 5MB. There is currently no known limit to how large of a disk Drive eRazer will erase. As of September 2011 Drive eRazer has been tested with up to 3TB hard drives, the largest available. We have no reason to believe Drive eRazer will not continue to work with newer and larger drive sizes as they are released.
Q: Do I have to jumper my drive to a particular setting?
A: We recommend that you jumper your IDE/PATA hard drives to a MASTER setting. Some hard drives have two different MASTER settings: one for when there is a SLAVE drive present and one for when there is NO SLAVE drive present. Choose the setting for NO SLAVE present. There may be some drives that will not work with either of these settings. The next choice is CABLE SELECT. If this does not work, try using NO jumpers. This may be the same as MASTER with NO SLAVE present.
Q: What kind of cable do I need for the Printer Port?
A: The printer port is a standard 9-pin serial RS-232 port. Drive eRazer Ultra requires a male end and most printers also require a male end. If you need to source a new cable, what you need is probably a "Male to Male RS-232 (DB9) Null Modem Serial cable." Check your printer's documentation regarding serial cable types. Connecting it to a computer's serial port is possible with a "Male to Female RS-232 (DB9) Null modem serial cable".
Q: What sizes are the labels that Drive eRazer Ultra Prints?
A: Drive eRazer Ultra can attempt to print one of two different label sizes: 4"x1" or 4"x6", depending upon how it's configured.
Q: Is there anything else I need to know about printing with Drive eRazer Ultra?
A: Yes. A few things, in fact.
First, the pin out for Drive eRazer Ultra's serial connection. We use only pin 5, 2 and 3. Pin 5 connects to pin 5, while pin 2 connection to pin 3.
Secondly, the information about the serial connection itself.
Baud rate: 9600
Data bits: 8
Stop Bits: 1
Parity: None
Finally, note that Drive eRazer Ultra outputs to an ZPL format for printing. Any printer that supports that format and the above serial connection, should work. For a full list of printers that have been confirmed to work with Drive eRazer Ultra, please contact our technical support.
Q: Why does the USB connector look like USB 3.0 but the documentation says it's USB 2.0?
A: Drive eRazer Ultra uses a USB 3.0 style connector because it shares a form factor and many parts with another product. However, the controller chip that drives DEU's USB connection supports USB 2.0 only. The port can be used with either USB 2.0 or 3.0 type cables and with either USB 2.0 or 3.0 hosts, but it will operate at USB 2.0 speed. The intended purposes of the port are the previewing of a drive and firmware upgrading, rather than for lengthy data transfers. For these two purposes USB 2.0 speed is sufficient.
Q: Will Drive eRazer Ultra work with a Solid State Drive (SSD)?
A: Short answer: SSDs erased by DEU in any mode would be safe from casual data retrieval attempts, but for very sensitive data the only way to guarantee security is to physically destroy the drive.
Longer answer: With SSDs, the host (such a computer or Drive eRazer) does not have direct access to the sectors on the drive. There is therefore no way to guarantee that a command to erase a given sector will actually erase that sector. The SSD's controller may instead remap that physical sector to a new logical sector, leaving the data intact but inaccessible. Even a full overwrite of a SSD may therefore not result in a fully wiped drive. However, the data remaining on the drive would not be accessible via normal means. Recovering such data would require removing the actual flash chips from the SSD's circuit board and accessing them with special equipment and software tools.
Secure Erase modes offer the best chance of fully erasing an SSD because they use the drive's built-in erasing function. Secure Erase is defined by the ATA specification and requires drives to fully erase all user accessible data areas when the command is received. The Enhanced version also erases any data within HPA or DCO areas. However, at least one study has shown that some SSD manufacturers did not correctly follow at least this portion of the ATA specification. So, while some SSDs will be erased fully by Secure Erase, others may not. If you know that a particular SSD model correctly implements Secure Erase modes per the ATA spec, these modes can erase the SSD completely. If you’re unsure, you should assume that data fragments could remain.
Q: My Drive eRazer Ultra shows "WRITE CMD ERROR" on the LCD and the erase has stopped progressing. What do I do next?
A: This message means that the drive reported an error when attempting to execute a write command sent to it by DEU. Several things can cause such an error, such as a bad block on the drive, or a poor physical connection between DEU and the drive. It may occur if the drive or dock is moved or bumped during the erase process. This is an unrecoverable error (indicated by the lighting of the Red "Error" LED).
The next step is to turn off DEU's power. If you like, you can turn DEU back on and attempt to erase the drive again. A bad block is not always 100% bad, so sometimes a block that fails to be overwritten on one attempt will succeed on the next try. Make sure the cables connecting the drive and DEU are fully seated, and do not attempt to move the drive, DEU, or cables during the erase process. Make sure the drive has good air flow around it to avoid any possible heat issues. If you continue to see this error message on the drive, the next thing to try is changing to Secure Erase Enhanced mode. This mode doesn’t use write commands; rather, it issues a single command to the drive that causes the drive to erase itself. This mode handles bad blocks better than modes based on write commands. If none of these remedies work, the only way to ensure there are no recoverable data remaining on the drive is to physically destroy it.
Q: Can I switch drives or attach a hard drive when the unit is turned on?
A: This is not recommended, because it could cause an electrical short that could damage the Drive eRazer Ultra or the drive.
Q: My department requires 100% verification of erasure. Does the “high” option verify 100% of the drive?
A: No, although the “high” checks a large number of sectors if the drive, performing 100% verification would require a much greater amount of time than the erasure process itself. For this reason, and for the security of having an independent tool, we recommend using a 3rd party tool for 100% verification.
Many organizations actually require that the erase tool and the verification tool be separate products.
The Australian Government Information Security Manual, November 2010, states that "Verifying the sanitisation of media with a different product to the one conducting the sanitisation process provides an independent level of assurance that the sanitisation process was conducted correctly" (161).
If it satisfies your department’s requirements, you could use a hex editor, such as HxD, to visually inspect the contents of the drive to verify that it was erased.
Q: In Secure Erase Enhanced mode, my drive appeared to erase far too quickly (seconds rather than hours). Did it really get erased that fast?
A: Some drives feature encryption, such as Seagate Self Encrypted Drives (SED), which is a security feature that scrambles all data on the drive as it is written, and decodes it as it is read back. The host computer itself is not part of the encryption process. The encryption engine uses a logical key, usually 128 or 256 bits in length, to perform the encryption/decryption calculations. To quickly render the drive unreadable, some drives simply change the value of the key when Secure Erase Enhanced is invoked. We believe that drives erased in this way are wiped clean. Without the old key to decode the bits on the drive, the original data is irretrievable. Any new data written to the drive would use the new key. We note, however, that it is up to each manufacturer to implement how their Secure Erased Enhanced functions operate.
Q: What kind of printer should I use with Drive eRazer Ultra?
A: Drive eRazer Ultra was tested primarily with Zebra brand printers compatible with ZPL II formatted text. During development we made every effort to make this feature as compatible as possible, but no list of compatible printers is currently being published. If choosing a new printer, the Zebra product line is a good starting point. Feel free to contact WiebeTech for up-to-date information about Drive eRazer Ultra and serial printers.
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| News |
April 08, 2013
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