Tableau Forensic Imaging Bay ($329) by Guidance Software

Guidance Software, Inc., in digital investigations, announced the availability of its Tableau T3iu Forensic SATA Imaging Bay, which adds SATA imaging capacity to forensic workstations via USB 3.0 bandwidth with no drive cables required.

"Storage devices continue to increase in size and data transfer speeds. The need for faster write blockers to help reduce imaging backlogs has never been greater," said Jim Borecki, VP of the forensic business unit, Guidance Software. "We built the new Forensic SATA Imaging Bay to enable very fast and efficient SATA hard-drive acquisitions. USB 3.0 offers the data transfer bandwidth that supports the integration and use of multiple T3iu’s into a single forensic workstation. This product provides a practical path to adding SATA imaging power to either new or existing forensic workstations."

The Tableau T3iu is three products packaged into one half-height, bay-mount package: a write-blocker, a drive cooler, and a suspect drive tray. Its design supports cable-free imaging of either 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch SATA HDDs.

Tableau T3iu enables forensic investigators to:

• Parallelize SATA imaging using USB 3.0 bandwidth
• Integrate with Tableau T35689iu products
• Work faster with SATA imaging speeds
• Perform reliable ‘hot swaps’ of HDD drives
• Use the available USB bandwidth to integrate multiple write-blockers with a single forensic workstation

The Tableau T3iu addresses principal needs of investigators in a lab environment by reducing the effort and time investigators spend removing and replacing HDDs while increasing the speed at which drives are duplicated.