Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!isgate!krafla!frisk
From: frisk@rhi.hi.is (Fridrik Skulason)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Password program. Where ?
Message-ID: <2365@krafla.rhi.hi.is>
Date: 31 Oct 90 09:32:20 GMT
References: <90299.144326JFS10@psuvm.psu.edu> <1990Oct30.180312.5734@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Reply-To: frisk@rhi.hi.is (Fridrik Skulason)
Organization: University of Iceland (RHI)
Lines: 25

In article <1990Oct30.180312.5734@ccu.umanitoba.ca> lucas@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Brian Lucas) writes:
>In article <90299.144326JFS10@psuvm.psu.edu> JFS10@psuvm.psu.edu (Jonathan Swaby) writes:
>>I am in search of a password program for my hard drive. I don't want people
>>to be able to boot with a floppy and gain access to the drive. I don't want
>>a program that protect just individual, but one that asks for the password
>>when the machine is powered on.
>>
>
>I doubt such a thing is possible with software.

It is possible...well sort of...

The solution involves replacing the partition poot record with invalid
information about the partitions, and the password program.  If the correct
password is entered, the partition table will be corrected, making the
hard disk visible.  If the user attempts to bypass this, by booting from a
floppy, the disk can not be accessed. Running NDD or a similar program to
"recover" the lost partitions will not help.

A program for doing this exists, but it is a commercial product.

Of course this can never be as secure as a hardware solution, which would
also encrypt/decrypt all data on the disk "on the fly"...

-frisk