diskAshur M2

The issue you are having is caused by power saving settings on your computer. Please see below and make the appropriate changes to your computer which will stop the iStorage device from randomly disconnecting and locking.

 

 

Please go to “Control Panel” > “Power Options” and stop the PC from going to sleep. Screenshot below:

 

 

In addition, go into Advanced Settings in Power Option to disable the following:

• Turn off hard disk after: Never
• USB selective suspend setting: Disabled

This will keep any iStorage hard drive connected to the computer continuously on.

 

 

 

Additionally, change the Power management option using the steps below:

 

• Search device manager in windows start and open it
• In device manager expand Universal Serial Bus controllers and right click on USB Mass Storage Device and select Properties.
• Go to the Power Management tab. Make sure the box is unchecked for Allow the computer to turn off this device to save powerand click OK.

 

Windows Disconnect Patch

 

If the above steps do not help and your iStorage device is still disconnecting, that may be caused by a problem called USB Selective Suspend. This error first occurred with Windows 8 and rolled over with Windows 10 and server 2012 R2. This bug stops the Windows update service from fully installing the Vendor ID and Product ID for the iStorage product into the Windows registry. This is vital information for the registry to have and stops the devices from disconnecting after a set amount of time.

 

It can be downloaded directly from our website by following the link:

http://istorage-uk.com/wp-content/themes/istorage/assets/files/Windows-Disconnect-Patch.zip

 

Please unzip the contents of this file, extract to your desktop and double click on “patch.bat” file to run it. Follow the instructions on the PDF document included in the archive.

The issue might be caused by power-saving settings on your Mac. Please see below and make the appropriate changes to your Mac which will stop the iStorage device from randomly disconnecting and locking. (Please note: The steps below are based on the latest Sonoma MacOS.  The settings may differ depending on what version of macOS you are using)

Please ensure to safely shut down the Mac and restart it prior to following the below steps.

1. Please connect and unlock your iStorage device (solid green LED indicates that the drive is unlocked)
2. Go to System Settings by clicking the Apple icon in the top left corner.
3. Within the System Settings, click Battery and click on Options as shown in the screenshot below.

4. Within Options, change the setting for “Put hard disks to sleep when possible” from Always to Never as shown in the screenshot below.

The diskAshur M² is supplied in the ‘Initial Shipment State’ with no pre-set Admin PIN. A 7-15-digit Admin PIN must be configured before the drive can be used. Once an Admin PIN has been successfully configured, it is not possible to then switch the drive back to the ‘Initial Shipment State’.

To configure an Admin PIN and unlock the diskAshur M² for the first time, please follow the steps below:

1. Press and hold down the SHIFT button for one second
2. Press and hold down both KEY + 1 buttons
3. Enter the new Admin PIN and press the KEY button once

Re-enter the new Admin PIN and press the KEY button again. The blue LED light will rapidly blink, then switch to a solid blue and finally to a blinking green LED light indicating the Admin PIN has been successfully configured and the drive is unlocked.

 

 

You can set one Admin PIN and one User PIN on your diskAshur M².

We recommend those who purchased the drive for personal use have just one PIN, whereas for those using the diskAshur M² in a corporate environment we strongly suggest creating an Admin PIN and User PIN.

Admin mode allows you to:

• Recover data from the drive and configure a new User PIN in the event an employee has forgotten their PIN
• Retrieve data from the drive if an employee leaves the company
• Set policies such as ‘Read-Only’

The Admin PIN can be used to override all user settings.

To change the Admin PIN, first enter the drive in its “Admin Mode”. Proceed with the following steps:

1. Connect the diskAshur M² to a powered USB port on your computer
2. In Standby State (solid red LED light) press and hold down both KEY + 1 buttons
3. With the green and blue LEDs blinking together, enter the Admin PIN and press the KEY button once
4. The solid blue LED will appear, indicating the device is in Admin mode.

Once the drive is in Admin Mode (solid blue LED light) proceed with the following steps:

1. In Admin mode press and hold down both the KEY + 2 buttons
2. Enter the new Admin PIN and press the KEY button once
3. Re-enter the new Admin PIN and press the KEY button once. The blinking green and solid blue LEDs change to a rapidly blinking blue LED and finally to a solid blue LED indicating the Admin PIN has been successfully changed.

If you forget your User PIN, you will still be able to unlock your drive using the Admin PIN or One-time User Recovery PIN (if configured). You can also create a new User PIN in admin mode on your diskAshur M².

You can try unlocking your drive with the User PIN or One-time User Recovery PIN (if configured) to access your data. If a User PIN or One-time User Recovery PIN have not been created, the only option would be to reset your diskAshur M². After the reset process, all PINs, the encryption key and data will be permanently deleted. The drive will need to be formatted and partitioned before it can be reused.

Admin configurable. A One-time User Recovery PIN is extremely useful in situations where a user has forgotten their PIN to unlock the diskAshur M², allowing the User to unlock the device and set a new User PIN.

To configure a One-Time 7-15-digit User Recovery PIN, first access the drive in “Admin Mode” as described in section 5 of the user manual. Once the drive is in Admin Mode (indicated by solid BLUE LED), proceed with the following steps.

1. In Admin mode press and hold down both KEY + 4 buttons
2. Enter a One-Time Recovery PIN and press KEY button
3. Re-enter your One-Time Recovery PIN and press KEY button again

A solid BLUE LED indicating the One-Time Recovery PIN has been successfully configured.

To activate the recovery mode, the User must first enter the correct One-Time Recovery PIN, if one has been configured. The User PIN recovery process does not impact the data, encryption key and Admin PIN, however the User is forced to configure a new 7-15-digit User PIN.

The iStorage diskAshur M² uses military-grade AES-XTS 256-bit algorithm.

The iStorage diskAshur M² employs no software components and hence is totally platform independent. That means that it is universally compatible with all Operating Systems and electronic devices equipped with a powered USB port. Please make sure that your drive is formatted to the correct file system required by your Operating System. The list of compatible file system are as follows:

• macOS: FAT32, exFAT, macOS Extended, HFS+, APFS
• Windows: NTFS, exFAT, FAT32
• Linux: NTFS, HFS+, FAT32, Ext2,3,4

The diskAshur M² is IP68 certified.

Dust tight: No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact.

Immersion beyond 1m: The equipment is suitable for continuous immersion in water under conditions which shall be specified by the manufacturer. Normally, this will mean that the equipment is hermetically sealed. However, with certain types of equipment, it can mean that water can enter but only in such a manner that it produces no harmful effects.

The flashing green LED light means that the drive is trying to connect. Please try a different USB port. If you are using a USB Hub or USB extension cable, please try connecting your diskAshur M² directly to the USB port. We also recommend trying to access your drive from a different PC/device if possible.

The solid green LED light means that the drive is unlocked and connected. If you cannot see your drive, please refer to Disk Management (Windows OS)/Disk Utility (Mac OS)/Disks (Linux OS) and see if you can find your diskAshur M² there.

You might be asked to initialise, allocate and format the drive to the correct file system required by your OS. For more information, please refer to “Initialising and formatting the diskAshur M²” in the product manual.

BadUSB is a theoretical exploit that was presented by SR Labs at the Black Hat conference in August 2014. SR Labs demonstrated a vulnerability in one USB device that allowed malicious code to be programmed into the USB controller through a firmware update process.

The attack described is very sophisticated and, in the case of iStorage products, would require advanced knowledge of our USB controller, a leaked version of our firmware, the programming tool to update our controller, the password used for our programming tool and an in-depth understanding of the device’s functionality.

According to SR Labs, the failsafe method to eliminate this threat is to simply disable the ability to update the controller’s firmware. Many of iStorage devices shipping today, including all our USB 3.0 security products, already have the firmware locked which prevents field updates to the USB controller.

As a continuous improvement, iStorage is locking down the firmware on all USB controllers used in iStorage devices to safeguard against this vulnerability. We recommend checking our website periodically for notices regarding BadUSB and Security Updates.