Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!cica!gatech!hubcap!rwberry From: rwberry@hubcap.clemson.edu (Robert W Berry) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Preventing Floppy Boots Message-ID: <6266@hubcap.clemson.edu> Date: 15 Aug 89 23:06:35 GMT References: <2610@astroatc.UUCP> Distribution: na Organization: Clemson University, Clemson, SC Lines: 29 From article <2610@astroatc.UUCP>, by brown@astroatc.UUCP (Vidiot): > In article <1989Aug15.183532.27998@ee.rochester.edu> jal@ee.rochester.edu writes: > < ... Looking for a way to prevent booting from a floppy ... > ... Vidiot replies only by modifying the BIOS ... If I remember correctly, there was a special PC-Magazine on PC security a while back and they had descriptions of different ways of protecting a PC. These ranged from physical locks to hardware cards which locked up the PC until a password was given to a software-based method which altered the fixed-disk's partition table so that DOS wouldn't recognize the fixed-disk unless the machine had been booted through a protective driver. In the case of a disk crash you had to boot off a floppy containing the security driver. One of the benefits of this method was that the PC was still functional if it was booted off floppy (as a floppy only machine) you just couldn't get to the fixed-disk. I don't know if the partition table was so screwed up that you couldn't FDISK over it (but then you would lose the information anyway, so it wouldn't be of use to _DATA_THIEVES_). This is all from memory, but it may be worth checking out. Hope this helps, (tm) Bob -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=- Bob Berry -=- PC-Guru's Inc. ! rwberry@hubcap.clemson.edu -=- -=- We are the science of modern motion. ! 803-654-7623 || 803-656-2635 -=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-