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Page 1
Intro:
Honeywell makes products that fit nearly every market. Since they have a partnership with SOYO, they have also entered the computer peripheral consumer space. One of their first products to be released is the SecuraDrive. It is a 1.8" USB hard drive built for the security conscious.
Box:
Honeywell uses a red themed box which fine for me since it is my favorite color. The retail packaging gives you enough information to make an informed purchase. The drive will work on any OS, but the special security part will only work with Windows.
Parts:
The box contains the needed parts and accessories you would expect. You get some literature, software, a few USB hookups (one for connectivity, one for power), a leather case, and a rubberized protection shell.
The unit comes with a dedicated USB power plug. You actually shouldn't need to use this since the drive can run fine off regular USB provided power. If you system doesn't provide enough power, Honeywell includes the extra cable.
Here is the rubberized protection sleeve. It gives extra protection for the drive. I personally wouldn't use it when it is use because the drive puts out heat. When it is in transport, it is fine to use.
Honeywell packages a nice leather case with the drive for storage and even more protection. Protection is the keyword for the SecuraDrive.
SecuraDrive:
The drive itself is about as big as a normal sized card reader. The red Honeywell logo is embossed in the top of the drive. The actual drive of the unit is a 1.8" 80GB hard drive. 1.8" drives should last well with care and don't put out as much heat as the normal 2.5" laptop drives you see in small portable USB drives. The entire unit is very small and easy to carry around.
The bottom of the unit contains the varies product information such as serial number and product name. It also has the certifications listed from the FCC and such. The case itself feels like very hard rubber with chrome trimming around it. I like the black and silver look.
The ports are pretty simple. There is a mini-USB port and a power plug. The other thing is an orange LED to show activity on the drive. You probably won't need to use the power plug since most computers should supply the drive with the needed power over the normal mini-USB connection.
Intro:
Honeywell makes products that fit nearly every market. Since they have a partnership with SOYO, they have also entered the computer peripheral consumer space. One of their first products to be released is the SecuraDrive. It is a 1.8" USB hard drive built for the security conscious.
Box:
Honeywell uses a red themed box which fine for me since it is my favorite color. The retail packaging gives you enough information to make an informed purchase. The drive will work on any OS, but the special security part will only work with Windows.
Parts:
The box contains the needed parts and accessories you would expect. You get some literature, software, a few USB hookups (one for connectivity, one for power), a leather case, and a rubberized protection shell.
The unit comes with a dedicated USB power plug. You actually shouldn't need to use this since the drive can run fine off regular USB provided power. If you system doesn't provide enough power, Honeywell includes the extra cable.
Here is the rubberized protection sleeve. It gives extra protection for the drive. I personally wouldn't use it when it is use because the drive puts out heat. When it is in transport, it is fine to use.
Honeywell packages a nice leather case with the drive for storage and even more protection. Protection is the keyword for the SecuraDrive.
SecuraDrive:
The drive itself is about as big as a normal sized card reader. The red Honeywell logo is embossed in the top of the drive. The actual drive of the unit is a 1.8" 80GB hard drive. 1.8" drives should last well with care and don't put out as much heat as the normal 2.5" laptop drives you see in small portable USB drives. The entire unit is very small and easy to carry around.
The bottom of the unit contains the varies product information such as serial number and product name. It also has the certifications listed from the FCC and such. The case itself feels like very hard rubber with chrome trimming around it. I like the black and silver look.
The ports are pretty simple. There is a mini-USB port and a power plug. The other thing is an orange LED to show activity on the drive. You probably won't need to use the power plug since most computers should supply the drive with the needed power over the normal mini-USB connection.
Page 2
Testing:
The drive performs well with regards to read and write speeds. It easily does 20MB/s on reading and writing. It probably is saturating the USB subsystem at that point. The 1.8" drive probably can handle faster speeds, but this sort of speed is sufficient for USB protable drives. Let's take a look at what security features the drive has since that is the most interesting part. Otherwise, as a normal portable USB drive, it works fine.
Thankfully, Honeywell saw fit to include the security software on the drive itself instead of having to install it using the CD. Once you plug in the drive and run the standalone EXE, you are presented with the option to enable security on the drive.
Warning! Enabling security on the drive will destroy its contents. This is true since the way it handles security. The drive actually makes a separate partition for the secure portion of the drive. The insecure portion acts like normal. The problem is that the security chip only handles an 8 character password now. It is unfortunate that you can't put a longer password in and that hampers the security of the drive.
Once you setup the partition, the drive effectively changes its reported geometry. Let's say you want a 40GB secure partition. The drive re-partitions the space in half. One partition becomes secure and the second becomes open space for non secure use. When you plug in the drive to any computer running any operating system (including Linux), the drive reports itself as only being the insecure partition size and totally masks the secure partition. On Linux, you see the device (IE: /dev/sdb) and the single partition (IE: /dev/sdb1). When you plug the drive in Windows, you also only see the insecure portion. You need to run the software again.
Once you run the software, you are given the option of enabling the secure area of the drive. This basically switches which partition is in use. The secure partition becomes active and the insecure partition goes away. I find this process very interesting.
It only takes your password to unlock the drive and from there you have complete access. Very simple and effective to use.
Let's take a situation that would be very useful. Since the drive is labelled as 80GB, it would look pretty strange if the drive only reported 40GB when plugged in. Instead most people only need secure storage for certain documents that could probably fit in a 50MB area. A partition this small wouldn't even be noticed if the drive was stolen. That's the real value of this drive; The feeling of security for confidential documents if the drive gets stolen. Some government agencies and banks should take note of this.
I'm a bit let down of the lack of support for Mac and Linux, but until more companies realize that the world isn't owned by Microsoft, we'll have situations like this. Linux and Mac users can still access the drive as an insecure USB drive, but that takes the fun out of it.
I'm unsure if the secure partition is even encrypted, but I have my doubts. I would have thought that the 8 character limit would be for use as an encryption key, but there is nowhere on the box or the specs that lists the unit uses encryption. This product employs a data hiding scheme. It is good enough security for 99% of the world.
I've been looking over other reviews of this drive and I love how none of them mention any theory on how the secure portion of the drive works. People need to start taking security seriously and without proper knowledge, what's the point?
Conclusion:
The drive retails for about $200. This actually isn't a bad price for a 1.8" USB drive. There are other drives that offer the same size with no security features at around the same price. If you run Windows and want to make sure your mobile data is secure, look no further than the SecuraDrive from Honeywell. Mac or Linux users should check out the latest pricing for 1.8" slim drives and buy a less expensive one, if available.
I would like to thank Jason from SOYO (and Honeywell) for making this review possible.
Testing:
The drive performs well with regards to read and write speeds. It easily does 20MB/s on reading and writing. It probably is saturating the USB subsystem at that point. The 1.8" drive probably can handle faster speeds, but this sort of speed is sufficient for USB protable drives. Let's take a look at what security features the drive has since that is the most interesting part. Otherwise, as a normal portable USB drive, it works fine.
Thankfully, Honeywell saw fit to include the security software on the drive itself instead of having to install it using the CD. Once you plug in the drive and run the standalone EXE, you are presented with the option to enable security on the drive.
Warning! Enabling security on the drive will destroy its contents. This is true since the way it handles security. The drive actually makes a separate partition for the secure portion of the drive. The insecure portion acts like normal. The problem is that the security chip only handles an 8 character password now. It is unfortunate that you can't put a longer password in and that hampers the security of the drive.
Once you setup the partition, the drive effectively changes its reported geometry. Let's say you want a 40GB secure partition. The drive re-partitions the space in half. One partition becomes secure and the second becomes open space for non secure use. When you plug in the drive to any computer running any operating system (including Linux), the drive reports itself as only being the insecure partition size and totally masks the secure partition. On Linux, you see the device (IE: /dev/sdb) and the single partition (IE: /dev/sdb1). When you plug the drive in Windows, you also only see the insecure portion. You need to run the software again.
Once you run the software, you are given the option of enabling the secure area of the drive. This basically switches which partition is in use. The secure partition becomes active and the insecure partition goes away. I find this process very interesting.
It only takes your password to unlock the drive and from there you have complete access. Very simple and effective to use.
Let's take a situation that would be very useful. Since the drive is labelled as 80GB, it would look pretty strange if the drive only reported 40GB when plugged in. Instead most people only need secure storage for certain documents that could probably fit in a 50MB area. A partition this small wouldn't even be noticed if the drive was stolen. That's the real value of this drive; The feeling of security for confidential documents if the drive gets stolen. Some government agencies and banks should take note of this.
I'm a bit let down of the lack of support for Mac and Linux, but until more companies realize that the world isn't owned by Microsoft, we'll have situations like this. Linux and Mac users can still access the drive as an insecure USB drive, but that takes the fun out of it.
I'm unsure if the secure partition is even encrypted, but I have my doubts. I would have thought that the 8 character limit would be for use as an encryption key, but there is nowhere on the box or the specs that lists the unit uses encryption. This product employs a data hiding scheme. It is good enough security for 99% of the world.
I've been looking over other reviews of this drive and I love how none of them mention any theory on how the secure portion of the drive works. People need to start taking security seriously and without proper knowledge, what's the point?
Conclusion:
The drive retails for about $200. This actually isn't a bad price for a 1.8" USB drive. There are other drives that offer the same size with no security features at around the same price. If you run Windows and want to make sure your mobile data is secure, look no further than the SecuraDrive from Honeywell. Mac or Linux users should check out the latest pricing for 1.8" slim drives and buy a less expensive one, if available.
I would like to thank Jason from SOYO (and Honeywell) for making this review possible.