eak@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Eric A Kades) (11/09/89)
I recently began sharing an IBM PC-AT with a co-worker who installed a product called 'WatchDog' on the machine. This is a rather extensive security shell that implements passwords at logon, protection of files by UNIX-like permission, allows file encryption, ... It also prevents access to the hard disk if you boot the system from a floppy, and this has turned into a disaster for me. One of the executables at the beginning of autoexec.bat got trashed, and now the computer locks up when I try to boot from the hard disk. My co-worker is on vacation for three weeks, and the manufacturer (Fairchild Intl., Naples, FLA) will not help me without his password since he is the sysop. I've tried simple things like hitting C^break at boot time, or using the Norton Utilities, but if I boot from the floppy any attempt to access a drive with letters C, D, .. simply returns the message invalid drive specification. Does anyone have any way I can boot from the floppy and get at my files on the hard disk? I can write C or assembler programs if necessary, given an idea of what needs to be done. All help greatly appreciated. If any responses are of general interest post, otherwise email to me (eak@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu).
cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) (11/09/89)
In article <2085@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu>, eak@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Eric A Kades) writes: > Norton Utilities, but if I boot from the floppy any attempt to access a > drive with letters C, D, .. simply returns the message > invalid drive specification. The reason for the invalid drive specification is that watchdog marks the partition as a non-dos partition and therefore dos programs will not access the partition. > Does anyone have any way I can boot from the floppy and get at my files > on the hard disk? I can write C or assembler programs if necessary, > given an idea of what needs to be done. This depends upon the watchdog configuration. If the system is configured to encrypt the disk files, you will not be able to do anything with the disk other than a low level format. If the disk files are not encrypted, you could use the bios (not the dos calls, but the bios calls) to read the disk blocks searching for the autoexec file. Then you can modify the autoexec file so that it doesn't call the offending program. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Conor P. Cahill uunet!virtech!cpcahil 703-430-9247 ! | Virtual Technologies Inc., P. O. Box 876, Sterling, VA 22170 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Marc.Unangst@p0.f129.n120.z1.fidonet.org (Marc Unangst) (11/11/89)
In article <1989Nov9.141414.4166@virtech.uucp>, cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) writes: >The reason for the invalid drive specification is that watchdog marks the >partition as a non-dos partition and therefore dos programs will not access >the partition. If all it's doing is marking the partition as a non-DOS one, then all you have to do is load the partition table into the Norton Utilities's editor (select Absolute Sector, side 0, track 0, sector 1), and then just flip the partition ID byte to DOS-12 or DOS-16, depending on the size of the FAT. -- Marc Unangst - Gated to UUCP via Fidonet node 1:120/129 UUCP bang: ...!uunet!sharkey!mudos!129.0!Marc.Unangst Internet: Marc.Unangst@p0.f129.n120.z1.fidonet.org ?
cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) (11/11/89)
In article <699.255B9C14@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us>, Marc.Unangst@p0.f129.n120.z1.fidonet.org (Marc Unangst) writes: > In article <1989Nov9.141414.4166@virtech.uucp>, cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) writes: > >The reason for the invalid drive specification is that watchdog marks the > >partition as a non-dos partition and therefore dos programs will not access > >the partition. > > If all it's doing is marking the partition as a non-DOS one, then all you > have to do is load the partition table into the Norton Utilities's editor > (select Absolute Sector, side 0, track 0, sector 1), and then just flip > the partition ID byte to DOS-12 or DOS-16, depending on the size of the > FAT. That's not all it is doing. That is just the immediate reason for the invalid drive error message. They do lots of stuff with on the fly encryption so just changing the partition table entries will have no good/valid effect. I don't know the internals of watchdog, I just worked with it for a while and found that it was a very strong disk protection program. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Conor P. Cahill uunet!virtech!cpcahil 703-430-9247 ! | Virtual Technologies Inc., P. O. Box 876, Sterling, VA 22170 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+