Product: Vantec NexStar Vault
Manufacturer: Vantec
MSRP: $40
Author: Bill
Date: November 4, 2009

Laptop users are increasingly using external hard drives to tote around their digital lives. While the data on your computer is marginally secure with login passwords and perhaps even data encryption, external hard drives are easily accessible when physical access is obtained. The NexStar Vault from Vantec offers to remedy this solution with a simple hardware-based locking system to secure data, while still offering the convenience of a system without passwords or slow software-intensive encryption techniques.

Packaging

The NexStar Vault was packaged in a needlessly complicated plastic contraption, which I assume doubles as a carrying case, but is not obviously shaped for this purpose. Inside the package is the vault, a USB data+power cable, and the carrying case. You will need to supply your own 2.5” SATA hard drive.

The Vault

Opening the vault to install a hard drive revealed a scary notice: Your Hard Drive will be Formatted and Erased. The device will automatically partition your drive in equal halves as a public disk and private “vault.” You cannot tweak the ratio of the partition scheme, override this functionality, or format it yourself. Installing the drive is entirely tool-less, and takes place in moments.

The device is bus-powered by its USB cable, which splits in two to provide a constant source of power for the drive. I found the drive functioned successfully with only one of the USB plugs being utilized, but for lower-power systems the split cable is important.

Vault Operation

Without entering a passcode on the front face of the device, it operates like a standard external drive. The “public” partition automounts and is named, in an uncreative way, “Public.” Passcodes consist of six numeric characters, and once entered, trigger the mounting of both the “vault” and “public” partition of the drive. The device restarts abruptly upon accepting the code, which could present a hazard for data loss. Holding a key combination on the device triggers the vault to “lock,” wherein the device reboots and will only make the “public” partition available.

Software on the hardware layer of the device makes the partitions appear as separate physical devices, eliminating the need for encrypting the files within the secure partition.

Performance Testing

I tested this enclosure with a spare 5400rpm SATA-I laptop drive to ensure the enclosure would provide the throughput needed. I was not surprised by the results given the drive used. Where software-based encryption can slow read/write rates, separating the sections with this partition scheme maintains speed.

Conclusions

The hardware trick of separating partitions to look like disparate physical devices is a nice middle ground between performance-costing encryption techniques and physically relocating your sensitive data. For example, a drive with two partitions would appear as /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 to a UNIX system. This drive’s partitions appear as two separate physical devices, /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1. At the end of the day, it should be a simple deterrent for thieves of convenience. This is a gimmicky method of data security, but is presented in a delightful little enclosure. I would have liked to disable the vault functionality and use it as a traditional drive to take advantage of the great performance of the device. The security system serves as a decent deterrent, but won’t trick anyone dead-set on stealing your data

Pros

+ Slim, bus-powered enclosure is a great performer
+ Attractive looks
+Decent deterrent to casual data thieves

Cons

- This isn’t a robust data security scheme
- No flexibility in deciding the details of the partitioning
- Vault reboots when changing modalities without waiting for the drive to be idle (may cause data loss if drive is in use when this happens)

Tags: NexStar, Vantec, Vault