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Blancco Drive Erase crash reporting is a feature that is available since Blancco 5 (version 5.8.0 and newer). Blancco Drive Eraser crash report is a detailed report that contains additional system information and log files which can be used to understand and reproduce problem that has occurred with Blancco Drive Eraser. It is very similar to the Blancco 5 Drive Eraser issue report. The difference between the issue report and the crash report is, that the crash report is generated if the erasure software has crashed. The issue report is something that a user is able to manually save when the software is still operational. The crash report file is also encrypted and it can only be opened only by Blancco personnel. The crash report file's default name is in the following format: "YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_issue_report.ir.xml". If the crash report file is opened, for example with some text editor software, the following comment line can be found: "Generated by Blancco Drive Eraser Crash Reporter". This comment entry makes it possible to quickly tell the difference between a normal report, issue report and a crash report.

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• If a crash happens, it is recommended to wait approximately 2-3 minutes, after a USB stick has been attached to the computer, to make sure that the crash report is copied on the USB stick. Note that there is no indication when the crash report has been saved on the USB stick. The only indicator about crash report saving process is the blinking LED on the USB memory stick.
  • Always check that the crash report has been successfully saved on the USB stick before shutting down the crashed Blancco 5 client computer.
  • Crash report(s) are saved to USB device’s root directory in the following format: "YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_issue_report.ir.xml". A corresponding timestamp is added to the file name.
  • Generated crash reports are lost if a machine is rebooted without inserting a USB stick.
• If it seems that the crash report is not saved on a USB stick:
  • Try formatting the USB stick to FAT32 and label the USB stick as: BLANCCO
  • Try a different USB stick model and repeat the previous step.

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1. Make sure that you have created your bootable USB stick by using the latest Blancco USB Creator version.
2. Boot the computer from the USB stick.
3. Select any startup mode (FLR / native / safe / messages).
4. Press “e” to edit the command before booting.
5. Add “cr” to the end of the following string: “linux /isolinux/vmlinuz”, currently “memtest=00” /arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz …”. If “flr” is the last parameter, so “cr” should be added right after it: “memtest=00 “flr cr” (note the space in between the parameters).”
6. Press Ctrl + “x” or F10 to continue booting.

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1. Make sure that you have a FAT32-formatted USB stick connected to the computer.
2. The USB stick has to be labeled as: BLANCCO
3. Boot the computer (from optical media/network/MSI).
4. Press up or down arrow key, before the first Blancco screen appears, to access the boot menu.
5. Select any startup mode (FLR / native / safe / messages).
6. Press Tab key to access startup options.
7. Add “cr” to the end of the line, and remember to add a space in between the parameters, and press Enter.

In manual mode (when the “cr” parameter is used), one smaller report package ("early booting report") is created during the startup phase and it contains Linux booting logs, which are collected at very early stage. The booting logs are quite generic and do not contain any Blancco specific information, so the information is not encrypted like with the issue and crash report files. The full crash report contains the same information early booting report information, so this file is mostly meant for the worst case scenarios when there is nothing else available.

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