Quick review of Wiebetech USB write blocker

kovar · 2010-01-05T07:36:58Z

Greetings,(This is also posted on my blog http//integriography.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/cru-dataport-wiebetech-usb-writeblocker-quick-review/)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