FAQs Content

1. Getting started question
2. System requirements for Websales purchase & www.blanccoservice.com
3. Hardware Compatibility questions
4. Operating re-install questions

1. Getting started question -

Q: How do I make a bootable CD with ISO file?
A: An ISO file cannot be burned by "dragging and dropping" the file onto the CD because ISO files are IMAGE files and contain many smaller files. ISO files also contain the hidden bootable properties to allow you to boot your computer from the CD.

Here are examples and guides how to burn ISO image file to CD:
Nero: Burn Image to Disc
Roxio: Burn an image ISO file with Creator Classic
ImgBurn: How to Burn
ISO Recorder: Recording ISO files

Q: Can you burn the Blancco ISO image to a DVD disc?
A: No. Only CD-R or CD-RW disks are supported.

Q: Can I start Blancco in Windows?
A: No. Booting from seperate media is required to securely wipe a hard drive under Blancco OS.

Q: If I can’t start Blancco in Windows can I install it in Windows?
A: Yes you can. By having a PreInstall package(MSI) you can install the Blancco erasure software in your machine and then when necessary you can activate the erasure. During activation the boot order of the device is changed and Blancco will boot up as a own OS.

Q: How I can create bootable USB flash memory drive
A: Blancco software does not support bootable flash memory drives.

Q: How do I start the computer with Blancco media?
A: Insert Blancco CD or floppy disc to the CD-ROM/floppy drive and reboot the computer. The boot order must be set to start from either the CD-ROM drive or the floppy, depending on whether you have a Blancco CD or a floppy. The boot order is a setting found in the computer’s BIOS.

Q: I cannot remember my BIOS password and cannot change the boot order?
A: Please contact to your computer manufacturer to get the master BIOS password from or the instructions how to reset BIOS password.

2. System requirements for Websales purchase & www.blanccoservice.com -

Q: Is broadband Internet connection required?
A: Yes. You need standard RJ45 cable connection via router (external ADSL modem, hub etc.) to the Internet. External modems, USB modems and wireless network adapters are not supported. If you don't have broadband Internet connection please contact our support .

3. Hardware Compatibility questions -

Q: What platforms Blancco client support?
A: Blancco erasure client supports x86 architecture.

Q: Does Blancco support SUN architecture
A: Blancco erasure client does not support SPARC architecture.

Q: Does Blancco support MAC / Apple?
A: No. Blancco supports only x86 architecture.

Q: What hard disk drive interfaces Blancco supports?
A: Support for different hard disk drive technologies is depending which version of Blancco product you are using:

Q: Does Blancco support SSD (Solid State Disk) Drives?
A: SSD drives are not yet supported by Blancco. The support is under development. We cannot guarantee whether the drive can be recognized. If Blancco detects the disk, the overwriting methods are designed for Hard Disk Drives and due to technological differences, we cannot ensure a successful erasure.

Q: Does Blancco support 520 block size?
A: Yes. Blancco supports the 512, 520, 524 and 528 block size.

Q: Does Blancco wipe HPA area?
A: Yes. Blancco erasure software is capable to reset and erase the HPA areas.

Q: I receive a pop-up saying:”Failed to reset DCO. Please check BIOS settings”. What
should I do?
A: Device Configuration Overlays (DCO) is another but less known optional feature set. It first appeared in the ATA-6 standard and because of this it does not have as many features as HPA. DCO enables the possibility to create special partition to hard disk where user or operating system cannot access. This specified part of the hard disk creates a risk that some data might be left on the hard disk after the erasure unless the erasure product is capable of detecting and also extending and erasing DCO areas.

There is a BIOS low-level protection mechanism, which locks DCO functionality and prevents disk configuration changes by some malicious software. If the protection mechanism cannot be disabled the message "Unable to reset DCO" is shown. The protocol is there, but the software cannot access it because the BIOS ais blocking the access.

If there is a DCO configured extra partition on the disk and BIOS freezes DCO functions then normally the freezing lock can be switched off from the BIOS settings e.g. turning off the hard disk detection. It is also possible to connect the disk to other machine with the required functionality to remove DCO.

If there is no way to disable the DCO freezing lock it may be that there is a BIOS protecting mechanism against setting or removing the DCO partition. This usually means that there is no extra partition. The final way to confirm that there are no extra partitions is to check from the manual or disk case the number of sectors and make sure that it corresponds to the one detected by Blancco erasure software.

Q: Does Blancco erase remapped sectors?
A: Yes the remapped sectors can be erased if the hard drives support the erasure of remapped sectors.

Q: Blancco erasure client does not detect SATA disk in my computer?
A: Change the SATA native mode from BIOS settings.

Q: I have checked the BIOS setting but I cannot find “SATA native setting”. What should I do?
A: Please describe the problems as detailed as possible and follow the instructions below in order to collect the debug information from the machine for further analyzing.

Collecting debug data:

1. Attach a USB pen drive to the computer
2. Boot up the computer with Blancco CD-ROM and press the left "CTRL" key just before the software is loaded from the CD or Floppy in order to start the software in debug mode.
3. If the start up has been successful in debug mode, the text "DEBUG" should appear on the bottom right corner of the screen.
4. Continue to the hard drive detection screen normally.
5. Save the Pre-report by pressing F5 in Hard Disk Selection screen.
6. Press "F1”. There should be a debug pop-up screen
7. Save the debug report to the USB stick
8. Send the content of report.xml from step 5, the debug file from step 7 as compressed file e.g. *.zip or *.rar to support@blancco.com

Q: Blancco software freezes while loading drivers. What should I do?

A:

1. Press the left "CTRL" key just before the software is loaded from the CD.
2. If the start up has been successful, the text "DEBUG" should appear on the bottom right corner of the screen.
3. The module loader screen should appear. Continue without doing any changes to the driver list.
4. Blancco client software starts loading the drivers and you should see the driver names as clear text. Write down the driver name that causes the software freeze.
5. Reboot the server again from the CD and Press the left "CTRL" key just before the software is loaded.
6. Exclude the driver, which caused the software freezing, from module loader list.
7. Proceed with the software loading

4. Operating re-install questions -

Q: I have used the Blancco tool and now my computer boots up into black screen?
A: You must reinstall an operating system because all the information has been erased.

Q: When I boot my computer the first thing what I can see is a Blancco report. How can I remove this?
A: Blancco stores hardware information into a hard disk drive’s master boot record. You have to create bootable DOS/Windows CD-ROM and use “fdisk /mbr” command In order to remove the master boot record information.