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From: jeffd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Jeffrey Alan Ding)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell
Subject: Re: Restoring SUPERVISOR password - Summary/How-To
Keywords: recover password security
Message-ID: <11784@uwm.edu>
Date: 4 May 91 22:40:42 GMT
References: <1991May2.232728.25767@milton.u.washington.edu> <11745@uwm.edu>
Sender: news@uwm.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Lines: 47

> From ingea@ifi.uio.no Sat May  4 06:55:01 1991
> In article <11745@uwm.edu> you write:
> >The task of restoring a supervisor's password is not as simple as outlined
> >here.  No mention of the type and technology of hard drive was given.  If
> >you have a non MFM hard drive such as a SCSI, ESDI, or are using a DCB
> >for your fileserver, the likelyhood of being able to use ANY disk editor
> >is very slim.  DOS on it's own doesn't like drives other than MFM unless
> >your controller card is designed to work with DOS.
> 
> This is highly inaccurate. DOS does not access the drive HW directly.
> BIOS contains all code needed to access the hard drive.. A standard AT BIOS
> contains code support for the WD1002/1003/1006 controllers and compatible.
> Most SCSI and ESDI controllers are not HW compatible with those cards, but
> almost all these cards a supplied with a PROM containing code support. All
> calls made from DOS to BIOS are trapped by the SW suplied on the card.

This is a good restatement of what I was trying to say.  If your drive
card DOES contain a PROM to support the BIOS calls, then it will be able
to be read from DOS.  But if your card DOES NOT contain the neccessary
PROM, you will not be able to access the drive without special software.

What about Novell DCB's?  How can these be accessed from DOS?  I tried to
with one of my servers but couldn't get DOS to recognize the drive.
Here's another important question, how does Netware 3.11 work with a
Novell DCB and how do you get the required DOS partition on the drive?

> 
> I would say that 99% of all ESDI and SCSI controllers are supplied with
> such firmware, and will work with most disk editors, including NU.

I use Storage Dimensions SCSI drives for all my servers.  I'm not sure if their
cards (SDC-80X, SDC-160X) support DOS out of the box.  They ship software
to make it work with DOS and you have to install that before you can use
the drive for Netware 3.X.  I think the area of third party hard drive
hardware needs to be looked at more closely to see exactly how accessable
information stored on it is available to DOS.

Thanks for the insight.  Jeff

jeffd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

> -- 
> Inge (BoB)  { ingea@ifi.uio.no }
> =========================================================================
> ==   Inge Arnesen, University of Oslo, Norway.                         ==