SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise USB Stick – Broken!!!

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Earlier this year I reviewed the Cruzer Enterprise USB hardware encrypted USB drive.

At the time of my review it did what it said on the box and the only real negative comment that I made was that it did not have any support for Linux, but I also understood that when it was given to me for review. The only problem is that it did not work for very long.

Having used the drive on and off occasionally to carry data – and am I glad there was nothing on it at this time – coming to plug it in the other day it refuses to recognize the partition. While it initiates up to a point I then receive the message on screen “Cruzer Enterprise requires two free drive letters. One free dive is available at G:\ but an additional drive is not available. Cruzer Enterprise cannot operate until an additional drive is available and will shut down”.

The problem is, however, that even if one would free a drive letter it still will not work as a drive letter, in this case “H” has already been allocated for the partition and it shows perfectly in “My Computer”.

This is not a case, as it is so often with Windows, that Windows does not recognize the dual-drive stick; on the contrary; Windows does – so it would seem - only Cruzer itself does not recognize that the drive has been mounted. Other dual-drive sticks, be this Blockmaster's “Safestick” or MXI's “Stealth Drive”, work just fine.

It would appear that something has happened to SanDisk's Cruzer stick and as to the how, and why and wherefore, that might be something that the manufacturer would like to address and comment one.

While I have to say that recently I have had a small problem with the “Safestick” from Blockmaster as well in that it did not want to recognize my password – then again, I might have been thinking I was entering the right password and I did not – and I had to reset the drive which, by the way, in the case of Blockmaster's “Safestick” only wipes the drive but does not destroy it as, so it is always claimed by other manufacturers, it will do to their drives, to have a crash like this in a secure USB stick is NOT a good idea.

It would appear that we still have a way to go at SanDisk as to the safety and security of the Cruzer Enterprise USB drive. Or am I the only one who managed to crash one as yet?

Not that that would surprise me for I have managed to crash a few other USB drives in the recent months but those were cheap give-aways from companies and not drives that cost quite a bit of money.

But, as always with flash drives of any kind... do yourself a favor and have them backed up somewhere if you do carry sensitive and important data on them so you can restore the stuff.

© M Smith (Veshengro), August 2008
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