Drive Usage and Performance

On first usage you need to setup the administrator PIN and the instructions given in the quick start guide is detailed enough to follow and complete this task. Once the Admin pin is set, you can also proceed to setup a User pin making it ideal for usage in corporate environments. If a user simply forgets the user PIN all is not lost, the administrator can use the Admin PIN to unlock the device and re-create a new user pin.

In the event both these PIN numbers are forgotten, there’s no other option but to reset the flash drive deleting all its data and encryption keys. There’s simply no way to recover that data again.

In case you want to quickly destroy the data on the Aegis Secure Key 3z, you could also designate a self destruct pin, which would completely delete all data and encryption keys bringing the drive back to default. Only thing it won’t do is blow up after the self destruct sequence.

Mechanisms are in place for brute force protection and you can customize the number of invalid attempts before the drive would reset itself. To prevent potential data hackers from prying open the device, the internal components are protected by a layer of hardened epoxy and would render those components useless if you tried to open up the device.

The firmware on the drive comes locked and therefore isn’t prone to BadUSB attacks and any other similar exploits.

Time to see how well the drive performs. We used some of the popular drive benchmarking tools for our tests today, namely HD Tune, USB Flash benchmark and CrystalDiskMark. For comparison we used the same capacity iStorage datashur pro.

Performance

1. HD Tune performance: Aegis Secure Key 3z

1.1. HD Tune performance: iStorage Datashur Pro

The Aegis Secure Key 3z comfortably wins here and just to be sure we ran the same test thrice to ensure the results could be replicated.

2. Crystal Disk Mark : Aegis Secure Key 3z – 1GB test

Crystal Disk Mark is another tool which can show a drive’s sequential read and write performance. Our first simulation was to test with 1GB file size.

2.1 Crystal Disk Mark : iStorage Datashur Pro – 1GB test

While the Aegis Secure Key 3z is again a clear winner, we were certainly surprised how well it has performed in sequential writes in contrast to the Datashur Pro. It’s almost 5 x times faster in comparison.

3. Crystal Disk Mark : Aegis Secure Key 3z – 4GB test

3.1 Crystal Disk Mark : iStorage Datashur Pro – 4GB test

The same performance pattern continues even in the 4GB test and we’re liking the Aegis Secure Key 3z more and more as we go through these tests.

Next we moved onto test the drive using another benchmarking tool called “USB Flash Benchmark”.

4. USB Flash Benchmark : Aegis Secure Key 3z

4.1 USB Flash Benchmark : iStorage Datashur Pro

In this test the iStorage Datashur Pro edges slightly over the Aegis Secure Key 3z in the data read sections, however it’s no match when it comes to write performance of the Aegis Secure Key 3z.