Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!ogicse!emory!ra!it1
From: it1@ra.MsState.Edu (Tim Tsai)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Write protect for hard drive
Keywords: hard drive ibm
Message-ID: <476@ra.MsState.Edu>
Date: 30 May 90 20:51:56 GMT
References: <1323@hq.af.mil> <1733@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <1990May29.192755.7817@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <3554@rodan.acs.syr.edu> <1990May30.201918.9710@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: Mississippi State University
Lines: 26


> Thanks for the info.  I also received numerous replies through email about
> Why HDSentry (and probably other similar software-based write protect prgs)
> doesn't necessarily work.  It all came down to the fact that software can 
> defeat software.
> -- 
> George Ng (Univ. of Toronto, Comp Sci)        |"Sure, I would like Canadian

    A friend runs a password type program on his hard drive (it's either
shareware or public domain, I can't remember).  This program actually
scrambles the FAT table, so booting from the floppy drive would not do
any good.  The only solution I can think of to crack his system is to trace
the device driver (the program is loaded via config.sys), which I suspect
is very tricky.  He found it in one of the local bulletin boards.  Send me
e.mail and I'll find out what the name of the program is and maybe where
to find it.  Note that I wouldn't trust my computer with something like this.
What happens if you lose power WHILE it's scrambling the FAT table?????
I shudder to think.  (I guess the program can keep a copy of the FAT somewhere,
but that probably defeats the purpose.  I also suspect that something like
Norton Utilities wouldn't work if his hard drive happened to crash).  If I
ever have to lock out access to my computer, hardware is definitely the
only way to do it.

-- 
  Tim Tsai
  it1@ra.msstate.edu