As of v4.05a, the DeepSpar USB Stabilizer and Guardonix is capable of displaying the Model and Serial Number of NVMe drives in their respective control panels when connected with an M.2 NVMe SSD enclosure with the RTL9210 USB bridge controller.

Devices known to have a variation of the RTL9210 chip are listed by Bensuperpc here.

Background

When evaluating write blocking capability for a go-bag, I noted the Guardonix was not reporting the serial number of M.2 NVMe SSDs. From DeepSpar, I learned this was a limitation applied to Guardonix to differentiate it from the USB Stabilizer that uses SCSI passthrough for data recovery professionals.

While no promises were made, DeepSpar noted they may add support to display the correct serial number with the RTL9210 bridge.

With no immediate resolution, I did end up purchasing the upgrade from Guardonix to USB Stabilizer Pro. It also prompted me to learn more about retrieving SMART information. I took what I learned and applied to the creation of a batch script that combined X-Ways Forensics, smartmontools, and WinMerge to capture SMART information before and after imaging a drive.

Displaying NVMe SSD Serial Numbers with DeepSpar’s Control Panels

It’s been just over two years, but DeepSpar delivered! Since the update, the NVMe model and serial numbers are correctly reported in either the Guardonix or USB Stabilizer control panels.

There are several M.2 NVMe USB enclosures with a variation of the RTL9210 chip that are available. The two I have are:

Make	Model	Chip	Firmware Version Tested and Link
Pluggable	USBC-NVME	RTL9210	v1.25.7.032421; Firmware
Sabrent	EC-SNVE	RTL9210B	v1.29.12.011122; Firmware

Summary

With DeepSpar’s update to Guardonix and USB Stabilizer, the NVMe model and serial numbers are reporting correctly in either control panels.

It’s worth noting that following DeepSpar’s release of the USB Stabilizer 10Gb version, the price for the Guardonix and USB Stabilizer have been dramatically discounted. In my opinion, this makes the Guardonix or the USB Stabilizer an attractive and well-priced option for a capable hardware write blocking tool with read instability handling capabilities.

Despite the price reduction, DeepSpar noted they will continue to support their hardware with continuous updates for the foreseeable future. This recent update is an on-going demonstration of that commitment.