Biometric Flash Drives - Kanguru Bio Slider Bad
Biometric Flash Drives - Kanguru Bio Slider II Bad Review
I just wanted to write about my bad experience with the Kanguru Bio Slider II that I recently purchased a few months ago. I was excited about the Bio Slider II because it was a way for me to transfer a large amount of data from work to home.
Kanguru Bio Slider II
The Kanguru Bio Slider II is a 4GB biometric drive, uses USB 2.0 to interface and includes a biometric sensor to secure the data that is stored on this drive.
Actually, I ordered two of these biometric drives and within a very short period of time, one died on me and the other is experiencing problems.
Here is what happened and what I did to try and recover my biometric flash drive. On the Kanguru Bio Slider II, there is a partition that looks like it’s a cd rom. On that partition, there is a file named FDMENU.exe that it supposed to load automatically.
Once the bio slider menu loads, you can enter your finger print and a password if you choose. The fingerprint reader seems to work most of the time; for me, it takes about three swipes to get it right.
After a few weeks, the biometric flash drive menu would not automatically load and I had to navigate to the bio slider II partition, and then click on the fdmenu.exe. Sometimes it would autorun, sometimes not. I just ignored this behavior (which should have been a sign!).
Then after a couple of months use, it just stopped working on me! I know, always back up your USB Flash drive, or any data for that matter. I had a backup, but it was a month old.
Flash Drive Recovery
I called Kanguru’s tech support line and spoke with a tech who gave me a whole 30 seconds of support! I told him how I could not access my drive and asked if there was anything he could do. He was short, not rude, but very short and said that my only option was to rebuild the drive.
I decided not to do this and try a Ton of methods at recovering my data. My last test would have been to do a quick format of the drive, then use a biometric flash drive recovery tool to unerase the data. Unfortunately, when I tried to run their rebuild tool, it said it could not recognize the drive.
I called tech support again and talked with Shawn. Sawn said that the only option was to send my biometric flash drives and they could try to do something. I asked Shawn if there was a way for me to blow away the drive (forget the data, just delete it) and he said he would check with his manager. He then returned and said there is nothing they can do because of the nature of flash media.
Kanguru Biometric Flash Drive
I personally would not buy another Kanguru bio slider. The other bio slider I have is also behaving strange and I anticipate the biometric flash drive will fail as did the first one.
I bought the Bio Slider because of the biometric device and because of the security, plus, it was a cool high-tech way to carry my data. I would not do this again.
If you are looking for USB keys to carry your data, I would recommend something other than the Kanguru Bio Slider II.
Oh, I should also mention that the plastic cap that came with biometric flash drives has a tendency to fall off after use. Once it’s lost, your biometric fingerprint reader is exposed to the elements.
3 Responses to “Biometric Flash Drives - Kanguru Bio Slider Bad”
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March 5th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I have had nothing but trouble with these drives, I can relate to that story.
April 18th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Wow. Talk about luck. Mu father said that he might get me one! Thanks 4 the tip!
March 24th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
The BIO drive is horrible… most of the time you can’t get the fingerprint reader to recognize your scan.. very cheaply made IMHO.