Bay mounted versus External Write blockers

Why the Tableau T34589is is only for FRED really annoys me so much.
I think if they released it they would sell so many ….
It would become the No 1 in forensic desktops even more so now because encase could see it.

My thoughts

I'd buy 2 of those in the next month if they were available. Perhaps we should start a letter writing campaign to Tableau.

Back on topic, don't bother wasting time for an internal solution. Make sure your forensic system supports ESata, and get yourself a Tableau T35es. The speed is as good as you'll get, and frankly, I find it easier to lay out a suspect drive on the desk next to the imaging machine than to muck around mounting it in a drive tray. Also, every now and then, you'll find a really badly mounted drive that's a major pain to pull from the box, and with the external unit, you can image it insitu. Also, with laptop drives, which you'll see a lot, you can't mount them in a drive tray anyway.

EDIT I own 2 of these, the regular and the R/W yellow one as part of my DI UltraKit. If you don't get the kit, remember to get the adapters for notebook drives.

Ian

I am doing some thing similar to you, build a Forensic work station and am considering ICS "Super Drive Block" but it does not have a write blocked firewire option like Tableau

http//www.icsforensic.com

Like every one else in the forum I am also frustrated with Tableau and their obsession with FRED.

ICS move may convince Tableau to sell it separately and they are far more economical that Tableau.

Check the hardware accelarators, I was trying to include it as bay mounted in my forensic workstation but ICS does not seem to have the option

Cheers

Viv

Hi all,

I'm just starting to spec out a new workstation which I want to build myself and am currently debating with myself the benefits of starting out with either bay mounted write blockers (like the Tableau T35i) for imaging SATA/IDE harddrives or would I be better starting with an external write blocker.
The ideal piece of integrated kit would be the Tableau T34589is but it looks like this will be retained exclusively for FRED's for now <edit> or maybe not - http//www.marketwire.com/press-release/Tableau-Llc-974621.html <end edit>.
Does anyone have any recommendations for bay mounted USB/Firewire write blockers ?

My debate is over the benefits of having seperate write blockers which would allow imaging both in my lab or in the field or having a nice clean setup all combined within one workstation.

What are your thoughts ?

Thanks,
Ian

I agree with the idea of an external setup. If you are budgeting it makes more sense to have something that can work in both the field and lab. When you get to the point where you have a few people working with you and media is coming in the lab separately, then it could make sense to purchase a T35i and 3-4 bays. At that point you would be able to do lab and field acquisitions separately as the work comes in to support it.

And agreed with the Tableau situation on the T34589is - so frustrating. Grumble, grumble, grumble….

Greetings,

It is worth noting that the ICS device can be used either in a bay or as a mobile device. You'd not want to install/uninstall it a lot, but having the option could be quite handy if you're only going out in the field occasionally. Bear in mind that when mounted in the bay the drive does not slot into the device, you still need to cable the drive to the bay mounted write blocker.

-David