CDFreaks presents: The PlexEraser PX-0E100E Review

You can find it here: http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/287/



Feel free to comment the review in this thread.

Nice review about the working of the device but i'm missing any information about the actual results themselves. Does it really work? How about some data recovery trials?

Here are some thoughts/ideas:
According to Plextor the PlexEraser function offered in the PX-755/760/Premium2 is only a "PlexEraser Light" version of what the actual PlexEraser drive acomplishes (probably uses less laser power and does no complete overwrite to save the lifetime of the laser pickup of your burner). As for the PlexEraser function offered in the PX-755/760/Premium2 it has been shown that Audio CD-Rs still remain playable to some extent after being erased (due to interpolation, not possible for Data). Now i wonder if this is also true for the PlexEraser drive.

Could you do a cross-check?

I have tried to “read” the PlexErased media in different DVD burners, but all of the tested drives would not recognize the discs.

I will try some Audio CD-R's ASAP!

Ehh, that thing is even MIJ! (But the power supply... MIC by SKC??? WTF?)
Sadly they have used color-coded trays, stickers and bezels. I would really want to play a trick on somebody by giving a PlexEraser to him. I hope it will also show up in BULK.
EDIT: It doesn't destruct DVD-RAM?

Thanks for that review, Jan70!

This is the first drive reviewed which made coasters out of not just *some* but *all* the tested media.

And no scans with pretty colours!

Seriously though, I think the PlexEraser has a very limited market because it seems too expensive for those who just need to get rid of a few CD/DVD discs once in a while, and it may be too slow for those who need to destroy lots of media?

Perhaps companies with very strict demands on safe destruction of data would use a PlexEraser, but is the data really destroyed with the same confidence as when you physically shred the disc? Shredding the disc would be faster and probably cheaper, although it may not be "environmentally friendly" as Plextor puts it, although I'd like to hear something more than just "dye leaking" to be convinced that this makes a difference.

Made a new Audio CD-R, erased it with the PlexEraser and tried the disc in the following drives:

Standalone CD-Player: Ejects the disc
Strandalone DVD-player: NO DISC
Liteon SHM-165P6S: Blank Disc
BenQ 1655: Blank Disc
Samsung SH-S182D: Blank Disc
Optiarc AD-7173A: Blank Disc

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Last edited by Jan70; 14-09-2006 at 00:16.

Sorry, but this comment makes no sense to me:

"Negative:

* Does not support DVD-RAM media "


Why should we use such a device to destroy DVD-RAM media, it rewriteable media anyway...

Because it doesn't last forever, and at some time you may want to destroy all data on it, even if your DVD-RAM burner cannot record any new data to the disc.

Cool, I didn't know that BenQs can tell different disc surface colors!
Seriously, the Sanyo chipset Plextor is using for their own drives actually is DVD-RAM capable, as I read at another site.

Typo fixed

For some reason I pictured it making a crunching noise while it worked... as if it was grinding the disc up or something...

Nice review.

IIRC most external Plextor drives were MIJ on the 'outside' but contained a drive MIC. Looks like the external versions get assembled in Japan.

It's relatively easy to change a tray

I tried to construct a possible szenario here:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...1&postcount=20

Thanks!

To me that still looks like a very limited market.

I'd agreed to that. However according to the label they seem to have produced no less than 3064 engineering samples

Is the functionality the same as those in Plexwriters or are there differences ?

Apparently the technology is more efficient than the one in the regular drives. From http://www.plextor.jp/product/pxoe100e/features.php (mechanical translation):

"With PLEXERASER, it developed the new technology PlexLaser Del which, destroys the data logging part of the CD/DVD disk with the light of the laser which becomes the world first adopted for this product. It is the technology which PlexLaser Del the record layer where the data inside the disk has entered (organic pigment layer) * destroys the layer which is called the right figure reference directly, makes the reading of the disk impossible. By this PlexLaser Del technology, it actualized data destruction efficiency improvement the abridged edition PLEXERASER which is loaded onto our company DVD drive, compared to also data destruction time shortening could actualize."

In other words the "PlexEraser" in the regular drives is a 'light' version of the "PlexLaser Del" method implemented in this unit. Visually, the PlexEraser method does not leave those 3 rings that are visible after the disc has been treated with this product.

Well for that price tag it should be efficient!

Plextor USA now has announced this device: http://www.plextor.com/english/products/px-oe100e.html

They're making environmental arguments a main buying reason.

So what do you do with the disc after erasing? Throw it away like any other disc destroyed by a pair of scissors I guess.

Hmm. My favourite method:- Microwave, 3 seconds, HIGH. Certified to DoD standards can "burn" up to 50 disks at a time too!!!!!

As used by GCHQ/CIA/NSA/DoD/MAJIC12/Homeland Security/etc

I have yet to see any method that can salvage any data from a nuked disk.

It looks like even attempting to play such a disk will probably cause a head crash on the drive being used, so this really foxes any recovery attempts.

/me wonders if a Tesla Coil in a small box would do a similar job, that might be worth something. Apply voltage 120 degrees apart to disk surface via needle electrodes.

Plus they also make truly cool beer mats when "toasted" and can also be used as bird scarers.

-A

"Bother" said Pooh, as the Vice Squad confiscated his GIFs...