Greetings,
(This is also posted on my blog http//
I bought this months ago as it seemed like something that would be really useful to own. Then I got busy and it sat until someone asked me about doing a review. I pulled the unit out and immediately attached it to a WD 320GB Passport. No go, not enough power. Wiebetech very promptly sent me a very well constructed dual USB cable to provide power and connectivity. Good to go, or so I thought.
I really want this thing to work, and it just doesn’t.
1. It doesn’t work at all with OS X.
2. The drivers fail to install on Windows 7.
3. It requires a lot of “fiddling” to get it working on XP. Sometimes you need to hit the reset button, sometimes the order that you plug things in matters, and all too often you need to reboot your system.
4. It doesn’t work with EnCase at all. EnCase locks up trying to read the first two sectors of the device. If you hit the reset button, EnCase returns an error and drops back to the GUI so it isn’t completely locked up, but you cannot add any evidence attached to the write blocker. X-Ways, FTK Imager, and FTK all work, taking the “fiddling” into account.
I tried it with FAT and NTFS formatted thumb drives as well as the WD 320GB Passport – same results.
The packaging is great and the concept is good but it simply doesn’t work consistently enough or with enough operating systems to make it worth adding to my kit.
-David
Thanks so much for the info - I was considering one of these to have in my field kit but now I will reconsider.
Can you let us know (well me actually) what happened with the OS X issue? Was it just not recognized? I don't recall having problems with the Tableau USB blocker.
Greetings,
The Wiebetech USB blocker simply wasn't recognized by OS X. I didn't put a lot of effort into trying to get it to work given the driver issues I'd already seen with Windows 7 and XP so there may be a way to make it work that I just didn't find.
-David
Greetings,
1. The USBWB apparently works with versions of EnCase prior to V6.14.
2. Disabling "Detect FastBloc" in the later versions of EnCase may allow EnCase to successfully recognize the USBWB attached drive.
3. USBWB doesn't work on OS X 10.4, does work on 10.5, and hasn't been tested on 10.6.
4. USBWB should work on Windows 7 32 bit. It hasn't been tested on Windows 7 64 bit, which is what I was using.
-David
Greetings,
1. The USBWB apparently works with versions of EnCase prior to V6.14.
2. Disabling "Detect FastBloc" in the later versions of EnCase may allow EnCase to successfully recognize the USBWB attached drive.
3. USBWB doesn't work on OS X 10.4, does work on 10.5, and hasn't been tested on 10.6.
4. USBWB should work on Windows 7 32 bit. It hasn't been tested on Windows 7 64 bit, which is what I was using.-David
Curious about the 10.4 and 10.5 difference. I haven't encountered this before.
The only thing I can think of is maybe some issue with the disk arbitration function which changed between Tiger and Leopard.
What was interesting for me when I get the write blocker (I think I had it before David did) is I called Wiebetech about the issues I was having with external drives (ones that were not simple thumb drives). They sent me a replacement unit, and told me the unit I sent back to them worked just fine for them.
The replacement unit I received still would only work with regular thumb drives nothing else. So I have no idea what they regard as "working" is with the unit.
I was kind of disappointed since I love their UltraDock product.
Tom
Greetings,
I'm getting a fair bit of "its working for us" from them at the moment. For some value of "working", I agree. Basically, if you're willing to put up with a bit of fiddling it works for normal thumb drives with Windows.
Naturally, I started with edge cases - 320GB Passports, IronKeys, and OS X - and it broke all over the place. Once I reduced my expectations I got it to work.
They've got one big problem - it cannot handle multiple "downstream" devices. Any device that presents itself as a CD drive plus a hard drive will not work with the USBWB.
So does it have value? Yes, to some. But I, perhaps unrealistically, want a write blocker that will work with everything I throw at it so I don't need to have two solutions - one for the low hanging fruit and one for the difficult stuff.
-David
I still have a hard time beating the cost of EnCase in acquisition mode on collection machine hooked up via x-over cable to another machine running LinEn and the USB device mounted there. Cheap, clean way for USB acquisitions.
Greetings,
The Wiebetech USBWB is designed for quickly connecting a thumb drive and working with it. You should be able to hook it all up and look at the drive in a minute or so. Harder to do that with EnCase, Linen, and a second system.
-David