Enterprise USB Erasure

Enablement
User Manual for version 1.4

1 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 Table of Contents

1. General Information 3

1.1 Minimum System Requirements 3

1.1.1 USB Creation Tool: 3

1.1.2 Blancco Drive Eraser: 4

1.2 Requirements for the User 4

1.3 Legal Notice 4

1.4 Copyright and Confidentiality Statement 4

1. Usage 5

1. Booting and Using Blancco Drive Eraser 8

1.1 Blancco Drive Eraser User Interface 8

1.1.1 Monitoring the Amount of Available Licenses 9

1.2 Erasure Process 9

1.2.1 Erasure 9

1.2.2 Input & Edit 9

1.2.2.1 Save Report 10

1. Troubleshooting 11

1.1 USB Stick Creation Problems 11

1.2 Erasure Problems 11

1.2.1 Booting Options 12

1.2.2 Knowledge Base & Contacting Blancco 12

2. Contact Information 14

2 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 1. General Information
This tool creates a bootable USB flash drive (USB stick) containing Blancco Drive Eraser (BDE) software.
The user selects a BDE ISO image that will be written to the USB stick and after this, the tool is used to
transfer licenses from Blancco Cloud to the USB stick. The USB stick can be used for erasing hard disk
drives and SSDs.
Restrictions:

l The maximum number of licenses that can be written to the USB stick is 250. In addition, the user
cannot write more licenses than there are available in the Blancco Cloud account.
l The licenses are valid for 60 days after creating the USB stick.
l The user must have an existing Blancco Cloud account before creating the bootable USB drive.
l Report sending to MC is not supported. Report must be stored to a USB media and imported
manually to MC.

1.1 Minimum System Requirements

Product specific minimum requirements are listed below.

1.1.1 USB Creation Tool:

l User should have administrator rights.
l Windows 7 or newer.
l 1GB or more free space on the system disk.
l USB memory stick. Requirements:
l 1GB or larger.
l Formatted (FAT, FAT32, NTFS).
l Note that the USB memory stick must be formatted before using it with this software.
l USB sticks larger than 32GB are formatted by the software to 32GB, which is maximum size
of FAT32 volume in Windows.
l USB stick must have a valid serial number: more than 8 characters, no special characters, all
characters cannot be the same.
l USB stick must have a manufacturer information. This manufacturer information is the one
detected by Windows.
l Network connection which can connect to Blancco Cloud.
l An existing Blancco Cloud account is required.
l Blancco Drive Eraser Enterprise Subscription or Enterprise Volume Edition 6.15.0 or later.

3 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 1.1.2 Blancco Drive Eraser:
l USB-port for USB-booting.
l x86 architecture machine.
l 1 GB of RAM in most cases. Erasing servers with 2+ drives requires more RAM.
l SVGA display and VESA compatible video card for graphical user interface.

1.2 Requirements for the User

Person(s) using this program should have prior experience using computers and the user should, at all
times, follow the guidance of this documentation and all guidance given by Blancco.
Note. Blancco provides the checksum of the ISO image in the delivery email. To verify that the checksum
for your image is correct, please use a checksum verification tool.

1.3 Legal Notice

Notwithstanding the foregoing, Blancco shall bear no responsibility for any interference, operability, or other
compatibility issues which may arise as a result of any changes or updates made to the operating systems
and/or hardware upon which the Blancco Software is executed. Likewise, Blancco shall be in no way
responsible for any interference, operability, or any other issues resulting from infection of systems and
hardware upon which the Blancco Software is executed by any form of virus, Trojan Horse, worm, malware,
or spyware of any form or type (collectively referred to hereafter as “Virus” of “Viruses”). The sole
responsibility for maintaining a Virus free environment for the operation of the Blancco Software or
Hardware solutions shall rest solely with the Company.
The license to the Product is non-transferable and is granted personally to the Licensee, and the Licensee
shall not, without prior written consent of Blancco, be entitled to assign or transfer the license for any reason
including, without limitation, merger, reorganization, sale of all or substantially all of the assets, change of
control or operation of law.

1.4 Copyright and Confidentiality Statement

No part of this manual, including the products and software described in it, may be reproduced, transmitted,
transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any means,
except documentation kept by the purchaser of Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement. The information
contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Products and corporate names appearing in
this manual may or may not be registered trademarks or copyrights of their respective companies, and are
used only for identification or explanation and to the owner’s benefit, without intent to infringe.
Copyright © 2021 Blancco Technology Group. All rights reserved.
This document is strictly confidential and personal to its recipients and may contain legally privileged and/or
copyrighted, trademarked, patented or otherwise restricted information viewable by the intended recipient
only. Blancco Technology Group makes no representations and gives no warranties of whatever nature in
respect of this document, including but not limited to the accuracy or completeness of any information, facts
and/or opinions contained therein. By accessing this document, you acknowledge, accept and agree to the
foregoing.

4 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 1. Usage
To start using the software, run the executable with administrator rights. If the application is run without
admin rights, it prompts the user for permission elevation to admin level.

1. The first screen displays the license agreement (EULA). Accept it to continue.

2. Insert the USB stick into the machine. If the USB stick is already connected, reconnect it.

3. Once the USB stick has been detected, press “Continue” to move to the next step in the process.

5 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 4. Click “Browse” to open the Window’s File Explorer and use it to select the ISO image. Once the ISO
image has been selected, continue the process.

5. 5. Sign in to your Blancco Cloud account. For more information about Blancco Cloud, refer to the
Blancco Cloud user documentation.

6. Once signed in, select the number of licenses to transfer to the USB stick. When “Continue” is
pressed the USB drive creation process is started and the licenses are consumed from Blancco
Cloud.

7. Wait until the bootable USB stick has been created.

6 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 8. Once finished, the following screen is displayed, and the USB stick is ready for use.

7 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 1. Booting and Using Blancco Drive Eraser
Blancco Drive Eraser needs to be booted on the computer for the drive erasure process to take place.
For more detailed information on how to use Blancco Drive Eraser, refer to the Blancco Drive Eraser
manual.

1.1 Blancco Drive Eraser User Interface

When Blancco Drive Eraser is booted, the main view is shown after the loading screen.

l The header area contains information about the software in use, such as the software name and the
version.
l The Header area also contains a series of buttons called Function buttons which have a
general purpose, such as changing the user interface language, keyboard layout
configuration, screensaver settings, communication settings, reporting an issue, help menu
and shutting down the machine.
l The process area contains the numbered steps required to detect and erase the machine’s drives
(“Erasure”-step), run hardware tests (“Hardware tests”-step), update the erasure report (“Input &
edit”-step), view and back up the erasure report (“Report”-step).
l The work area contains all the specific information and details for every process step: available
drives and erasure standards in “Erasure”-step, additional fields for report editing in “Input & edit”-
step, asset and erasure information in “Report”-step. Moreover, the user can switch between a
Standard and an Advanced view of the UI while performing a drive erasure.

8 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 l Most of the actions of the user and interaction with the software take place in the Work area.
Also, if an erasure raises a warning, a “yellow” informative message is written in the report.

1.1.1 Monitoring the Amount of Available Licenses

The License icon on the bottom left of the screen shows the number of available licenses. The icon can
have two states:

No licenses available.

Licenses available.
The tooltip displays the number of available licenses:

If the license container cannot be reached, the following messages will be displayed:

1.2 Erasure Process

1.2.1 Erasure
To start the erasure process, click on the “Erase” button on the bottom right corner of the screen or press
Ctrl + E. License is validity is checked and license is consumed from the USB stick when the erasure is
started.

If enabled, Hardware Tests -step is next, but by default, it is disabled. To enable it, use the BDECT. For
more information about the step, see Blancco Drive Eraser manual.

1.2.2 Input & Edit

Depending on the configuration of the image, this step might be disabled. (see Blancco Drive Eraser &
Blancco Drive Eraser Configuration Tool manuals).
Once hardware tests have been completed, the Input & Edit -tab is opened. In this step, the erasure report
can be edited before, during and after the erasure.
Once the all fields have been updated, click on the “Update” button to continue.

9 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 1.2.2.1 Save Report
The save button is used to save the report to an external physical media, such as a USB-stick.

10 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 1. Troubleshooting
1.1 USB Stick Creation Problems
Problem / Displayed Error
USB stick is not recognized by the tool.
Could not connect to Blancco Cloud
Could not prepare boot media
Could not create a temporary file
No licenses available for this user in Blancco Cloud / Not
enough licenses available in Blancco Cloud
Incorrect credentials when trying sign in to Blancco
Cloud
Invalid USB serial number
Could not create bootloader directories GRUB menu
The size of the USB drive is too small. Please try another The minimum size for the USB stick is 1GB. Try another stick
device.
Failed to get the size of the USB device. Please try
another device.
Invalid USB drive manufacturer. Please try another
device.
Invalid USB serial number. Please try another device.
Missing drive letter. Please reformat the device and
reconnect.
1.2 Erasure Problems
Problem / Displayed Error
Cannot boot (boot options)
11 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual
Solution
Try formatting the USB stick and reconnecting it. If this does
not work, try a different USB stick and/or a different USB port
on the machine.
Check your network connection.
During the USB stick creation process, the USB stick
formatting fails. Try the following options:
l Try the USB drive creation process again.
l Try connecting the stick to another USB port.
l Try a different USB stick.
This error occurs when a temporary image file cannot be
created on the machine’s disk. Free up more space on the
machine’s hard drive (minimum 1 GB is required by the
program) and make sure this software can write on the drive.
No licenses available on the Blancco Cloud account or the
licenses have expired. Add valid licenses to the Blancco Cloud
account used in the image creation process.
Check your credentials and that the account is set to “active”
on Blancco Cloud.
Try a different USB stick.
The USB stick’s serial number must fulfill the following
requirements:
l Atleast 8 characters.
l Allowed character set: 0-9, A-F, a-z
l All the characters cannot be the same.
Make sure the “Optimize drives” service (defragsvc) is not
disabled.
with a bigger capacity.
Could not detect the size of the USB stick. Try another device.
The "manufacturer" information of the USB stick, which is
detected by Windows, cannot be empty. Try another USB stick
with valid manufacturer information.
USB stick must have a valid serial number: more than 8
characters, no special characters, all characters cannot be the
same.
Try another USB stick with valid serial number.
The USB stick is missing its drive letter.
Reformat the device and try again, or try another device which
successfully receives a drive letter when connected.
Solution
If booting is unsuccessful, restart the machine and boot
normally. When the booting flash screen is shown, press Up or
Down Arrow Key to select another booting option. See the
 Problem / Displayed Error Solution
chapter “Booting Options” for more information.
Bootable USB drive was created successfully, but BDE
Contact the system administrator.
shows that there are no licenses

1.2.1 Booting Options

When booting up the software, the booting option can be selected from the first splash screen:

The booting options can be used to start up Blancco Drive Eraser in different modes if default booting option
causes the issues.
The options are:

l Normal startup (safe resolution)

l Normal startup (native resolution)
l FLR during startup - Default selection
l Show startup messages
l Customized startup

These booting options can be accessed by pressing the up or down arrow key right after the first Blancco
Drive Eraser static screen appears.
For more information about the booting options, see the chapter “Booting Options” in the Blancco Drive
Eraser manual.

1.2.2 Knowledge Base & Contacting Blancco

Please consult the Blancco Support Knowledge Base for extensive information on troubleshooting:
https://support.blancco.com/dashboard.action
You can also request assistance from Blancco Support:
Please collect beforehand information about the machine where the problem occurs.
Submit a ticket at http://support.blancco.com:

1. Press "Submit a Ticket".

2. Press "Next".

12 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 3. Fill in your details, the description of the problem and attach the issue report you have previously
generated.
4. Press "Submit".

13 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual

 2. Contact Information
Visit the technical knowledgebase (FAQ) and contact Blancco Technical Support by submitting a technical
support ticket at:
https://support.blancco.com/
See the instructional videos for Blancco products at:
https://www.blancco.com/resources/videos/
For contact information and the latest information about secure data erasure solutions, visit the Blancco
website at:
https://www.blancco.com
We are always looking for ways to improve our products. Please let us know if you have any suggestions!

14 Enterprise USB Erasure Enablement User Manual