D-Secure Drive Verifier

D-Secure Drive Verifier can be deployed in several ways. Choose the one that fits your workflow:

A customised ISO image can also be built to automate repetitive verification jobs. Contact D-Secure if you need one.

To boot D-Secure Drive Verifier from USB, write the Drive Verifier ISO image to a USB flash drive. We recommend UNetbootin, the same tool used for the other D-Secure bootable products.

Steps to create a bootable USB:

1. Download the UNetbootin version for your current operating system from the links above.
2. Connect a USB flash drive to your computer.
3. Open UNetbootin. You may need Administrator or root privileges.
4. Select "Diskimage" and make sure "ISO" is selected in the dropdown.
5. Browse to and select the D-Secure Drive Verifier ISO file provided to you by D-Secure.
6. Make sure "USB Drive" is selected as the type, and choose the correct USB drive.
7. Click "OK" to write the ISO to the USB drive.
8. When it finishes, use this USB drive to boot the machine whose drives you want to verify.

With PXE network boot, machines start D-Secure Drive Verifier directly from your network instead of from a USB drive. Use it to verify many machines at once in an ITAD or data center environment.

1. Set up the Drive Verifier boot image on your PXE server.
2. Set the target machines to boot from the network (PXE) in their firmware settings.
3. Start the machines. Each one loads Drive Verifier from the network.
4. Make sure the network gives the machines internet access so they can validate the licence and upload reports.

To run D-Secure Drive Verifier on a workstation instead of booting it, use the installer for your platform:

• Windows — Run the EXE installer and follow the on-screen steps.
• macOS — Open the universal DMG and install the application. The same DMG works on Intel and Apple silicon Macs.
• Linux — Extract the tar.gz archive and start the application from the extracted folder.

Reading drives at a low level usually needs administrator (Windows) or root (macOS, Linux) rights, so run the application with those rights when your system asks for them.

When D-Secure Drive Verifier starts, sign in with the email address and password of your D-Secure account. Signing in validates your Drive Verifier licence online and loads your available credits. You do not need to enter a separate licence key in the application.

• Main users sign in with their own account.
• Subusers (operators) sign in with their own login and use the Drive Verifier licence of their parent account.
• The application keeps you signed in during your working session, so you do not have to sign in again for every drive. If the session expires, you are asked to sign in again.
• Signing out removes the saved session from that machine.

Drive Verifier is licensed per drive. Your account holds Drive Verifier credits, which are shown in the application as online credits left and used. For pricing, contact sales.

• One credit per drive with a result — A credit is used when a drive's report with a result (Pass, Fail or Inconclusive) is uploaded.
• No credit for unreadable drives — A drive that could not be read is reported as Not verified and no credit is used.
• Free re-verification within 15 days — If the same drive (same serial number) was verified and charged on your account within the last 15 days, a new result for it uses no credit.
• Credit check before the scan — Before a verification starts, the application checks that a credit is available for the drive. No credit is taken at this point.

In organizations where an administrator allocates credits to subusers, an operator can run out of allocated credits even if the account still has credits. In that case, ask your administrator to allocate more.

After you sign in, the main screen shows your credit balance and the storage devices connected to the machine. Drive Verifier supports SATA, PATA, SCSI, SAS, NVMe, USB and SD devices.

1. Check the list of detected drives. Each drive is identified by details such as its model and serial number.
2. Select the drive or drives you want to verify.
3. Add asset tags or fill in custom report fields if your workflow uses them.

Drive Verifier offers two verification methods:

Steps:

1. Select the drive or drives on the main screen.
2. Choose the verification method: total or random sample.
3. Start the verification. The application first checks that a credit is available and assigns each drive its own report ID (a DS-VERIFY- number issued by D-Secure).
4. Drive Verifier reads the drive back and examines the bit patterns it finds.
5. When the scan ends, the drive's verdict is shown and its signed report is created.

Every verified drive gets one of these verdicts:

What to do next:

• Pass — Keep the signed report as proof and continue with resale, reuse or disposal.
• Fail — Erase the drive again, then verify it again. Use the HexViewer to see where data remains.
• Inconclusive — Check the drive and its connection, inspect it in the HexViewer, and run the verification again.
• Not verified — Check the cable, port or adapter and whether the drive is working, then try again.

A repeat result for the same drive within 15 days of a charged result uses no credit (see How Credits Work).

The built-in HexViewer lets you look at the raw content of a drive yourself and manually confirm that erasure succeeded.

• Open the HexViewer for the drive you want to inspect.
• Browse through the drive's sectors and look at the bytes in hexadecimal form.
• An erased drive normally shows only the overwrite pattern of the erasure method that was used, for example zeroes, a fixed pattern or random data.
• Readable text, file structures or other recognizable content are data traces and mean the erasure did not succeed.

Drive Verifier creates a detailed verification report for every drive. Reports are available in these formats:

• PDF — For customers, auditors and your records.
• CSV, XML, JSON and HTML — For import into IT asset management software, ERP or inventory systems.

A report covers the drive's details (such as model and serial number), the verification method, the verdict, the report ID and any asset tags or custom fields you added. Report fields can be customized.

One report per drive: each drive has its own report ID. When you verify several drives in one job, the job document lists every drive, and each drive section carries that drive's own report ID and QR code.

Every report is digitally signed with the D-Secure signing key, the same way D-Secure Drive Eraser reports are signed. The signature covers the report ID, the drive serial number and the verdict, which makes the report tamper-evident: if any of these values is changed after signing, the report no longer verifies.

Reports are uploaded to the D-Secure Cloud Console over your internet connection. In the Cloud Console you can find all verification reports of your account in one place, together with user and licence management.

• The credit for a drive is used when its report is uploaded, not when the scan starts.
• After an upload, the application shows whether a credit was used and your updated credit balance.
• If an upload fails because of a connection or server problem, the report is kept and the upload is tried again later.
• A report can be uploaded only once. If the application is told that a report was already uploaded, no second copy or second charge is created.

Anyone who receives a Drive Verifier report, such as a customer or an auditor, can check that it is genuine on the D-Secure report verification page.

1. Scan the QR code printed on the report, or open the verification page and enter the report ID (the DS-VERIFY- number).
2. The page looks up the report and checks it.
3. A genuine, unchanged report shows as valid with a summary of the result.