WiebeTech's Forensic UltraDock V4: When drive docking gets serious
The new UltraDock V4 has a lot more to offer than the DriveDock V4.
(Credit: WiebeTech)A while ago, I got my hands on WiebeTech's USB DriveDock V4 and was very impressed by its versatility. The device allows for quickly docking any IDE or SATA hard drive, 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch, to a computer via a USB 2.0 connection.
Today, WiebeTech introduced the Forensic UltraDock V4. The Forensic UltraDock supports all hard drives and all existing connections for external storage devices including USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA. This guarantees not only the versatility but also the speed, making recovering data much faster, especially considering the ever increasing capacity of hard drives on the market.
The Forensic Ultradock V4 comes with a write-blocked technology that offers only read-only access to hard drives. This allows for downloading or imaging contents of a hard drive without the risk of data being written back to the drive. While this feature is generally not necessary for regular consumers, it is important for forensic field investigation to protect the "Chain of Evidence", hence the name Forensic UltraDock.
The Forensic UltraDock V4 supports all existing connection for external storage devices.
(Credit: WiebeTech)The Forensic UltraDock V4 is also capable of detecting hidden information on a hard drive that is not visible to certain operation systems. The most popular ways to hide data on a hard drive are Host Protected Area and Device Configuration Overlay. The Frensic UltraDock V4 can detect these types of data concealment and prompt the user via an LED to use special software application to access.
Like the USB DriveDock V4, the Forensic UltraDock V4 also comes with two power solutions: either with the included power adapter or from a power connector of a desktop computer's power supply. The device is built with a rugged aluminum case that can take a beating.
There's a catch, though, the Forensic UltraDock V4 comes with a hefty price tag of $250. I guess it takes a serious price to be serious even when it comes to drive docking. However, if you don't need the Forensic notion, there's a regular version of the device called UltraDock V4 that costs $50 less. Still, it's significantly more expensive than the USB DriveDock V4
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Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong. 
