Maxell USB Retractor 2GB Review

iStar Software

The iStar program is a small program that enables you to do the following things very easy.

·         Format the USB stick and create password protected partitions on it

·         Lock and unlock your PC

·         Login to your password protected partitions

First let’s have a look into the “Format” option.

iStar Format

The Format Utility allows us to define the Type of format and via a slide bar we can easily define the size of the two partitions on the Retractor. Additionally we can also protect one of the partitions with a password.

Enabling the password protection.

After finishing the formatting procedure we need to re-plug our drive.

In windows explorer we can now see a second removable drive.

When we try to create a new folder on that drive we quickly find out that the drive is protected. We can’t create a folder until we have logged in to that partition.

iStar – Login

To see how this feature works we have copied several files onto the stick and locked the drive again by removing it from the computer.

When the drive is re-plugged, nothing indicates to us that there is some data on it.

Even the drive properties window of windows explorer tells us that the drive is empty.

We are now starting the iStar program, select drive j: and click the login button.

Now we need to enter the password.

Once the password has been entered correctly we can see all the files that are on the disk.

Also the properties window of windows explorer shows us now that there are 18.4 MB data on the drive. 

iStar – PC Lock

The Lock feature enables you to protect your pc from foreign access by simply removing the stick from the USB port.

To enable this feature we have to click onto the PC Lock button in our iStar program. Once clicked another window pops up and we can enable the lock. But before we do so we can add a custom text or select a picture which appears after we have locked the pc.

The locking period can be selected between 0.5 and 168 hours. After this period of time the PC unlocks itself again.

After clicking the enable button and removing the Retractor from the PCs USB board the PC is locked and the text you have entered or the picture you have selected is displayed. 

On the left top corner of the monitor we can find the time left until the PC unlocks again. Of course, the PC unlocks immediately after the Retractor is re-plugged to the PC. 

Now let’s head on to the next page were we can take a look at some benchmarks…