Chile Forum

Yes, I mean exactly what you say, in my previous post. Though, firstly, the "BIOS's boot sequence" screen could be [admin/user] password-protected, and to enter the BIOS setup could also be password protected, so to do it could be double password protected (if the laptop is not their own).

I'm from the local Chile helpdesk. There's nothing you can do to save it. You lost all your data. Now buy a new PC from me.

T_ROBO wrote:

zer0nz wrote:1. take out the old hard drive and save it somewhere,

Buy a 2.5" HD USB box (about $10 in the US, not sure of the cost in Chile) and put this old hard drive into it, then connect it back to the newly restored computer thru the USB connection, and you can copy back all the files you want.
TP

Firstly, though I don't want to sound impolite -- still, I don't fully understand the original posting without bothering a little bit about either let us know the outcome, or simply to respond to all the people who take their time to post here.

Secondly, "T_ROBO" and "zer0nz", you know there are notebooks that have hard drives that are NOT dismountable, don't you? I have one of these, for example, and not only the security chip (that store all the encryption keys) cannot be dismounted (technically) without damaging it, but the [only] hard drive absolutely cannot be taken out (this kind of design is for security reasons).

el gatito wrote:Secondly, "T_ROBO" and "zer0nz", you know there are notebooks that have hard drives that are NOT dismountable, don't you? I have one of these, for example, and not only the security chip (that store all the encryption keys) cannot be dismounted (technically) without damaging it, but the [only] hard drive absolutely cannot be taken out (this kind of design is for security reasons).

Thanks for the information. I truly do not know anything about disabling the encryption chip from a hard drive or removing an encrypted hard drive from a computer

Normally the person who knows how to bypass encryption security is the person who never admits his knowledge (Paraphrased from my favorite book "Halting the Hacker - a Practical Guide to Computer Security" by Donald Pipkin, Prentice Hall 1997)

TP

T_ROBO wrote:

admin wrote:yea, USB drive containers often have their own os / on board computer that will mount the drive in read write mode, do strange things, or simply not mount every drive the same way consistently.

In Windows, most of these HD will be considered PnP (plug & play). It means that as soon as you plug the USB connection into the computer, it will mount automatically. The computer sees it the same way it sees the storage of your digital camera when you plug it in via the USB connection.

TP

Most are plug n play in linux too, it is just in a data recovery you don't always want them to play. You want to mount read only, and most USB devices have drivers that mount read / write by default. I have a whole pile of various USB devices for connecting drives, some claim to be specifically for data type recovery, but I don't really trust most of them for sensitive data recovery. They have proven to sometimes mount read / write all by themselves. Direct plug to the motherboard of a desktop, if there is any question about the data being messed with along the way.

The big deal is that if you mount read / write with a USB device, is it can mess with the record of file access times. Trying to figure out what is what on a scrambled drive is difficult by itself, but if the files access times get updated when the USB takes over then you lost a key part of the puzzle. Typically more of an issue in a forensics type recovery, than simply salvaging data, but still why make it harder from the start.

T_ROBO wrote:

el gatito wrote:Secondly, "T_ROBO" and "zer0nz", you know there are notebooks that have hard drives that are NOT dismountable, don't you? I have one of these, for example, and not only the security chip (that store all the encryption keys) cannot be dismounted (technically) without damaging it, but the [only] hard drive absolutely cannot be taken out (this kind of design is for security reasons).

Thanks for the information. I truly do not know anything about disabling the encryption chip from a hard drive or removing an encrypted hard drive from a computer

Normally the person who knows how to bypass encryption security is the person who never admits his knowledge (Paraphrased from my favorite book "Halting the Hacker - a Practical Guide to Computer Security" by Donald Pipkin, Prentice Hall 1997)

TP

That is so 1997.

Now it is anyone with the time to google it.

stgogiant wrote:All,
Was wondering if anybody knows of (or is) a computer technician or whiz at solving computer problems. My notebook that I use for work is experiencing what appears to be a major issue (upon powering up the computer it reads "operating system not found". I have researched the issue online and the fixes appear beyond what I am capable of. If anyone knows of someone - or is someone - who can help, please let me know. I am of course willing to pay for the work. Hoping I can at least recover my data off the hard disk if there is not a fix that will allow it to get back to normal without reformatting everything and starting the hard disk from scratch.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

**Edit** I am in Santiago (Providencia)

Before we ALL start giving solutions to this problem, it is important to get some feedback from the affected user. Stgogiant we need you to answer a few questions in order to make an intelligent decision:
1. Who is the maker and model of Laptop?
2. Is it an encrypted laptop?
3. What was done to this laptop before the error appeared? (drop, given to a 3rd person, your cat licked it, or pissed on it, etc..)

admin wrote:That is so 1997.

Now it is anyone with the time to google it.

The book was written in 1997, and it has two parts: hacking technology, and hacker behavior. The technology has long been obsolete, but the hacker behavior remains the same, with slight modification based on lessons learned from underground experience.

After the 2nd hacking contest where the Fed monitored the constestants like the police monitor the people entering the pawn shop, there wasn't any more hacking contest. One can Google something on the Internet, but the one who posted on the Internet are normally the one who rambled without a true solution. The ones who know the true solutions are the ones who stay quiet.

TP

I always loved the first question that AOL online tech support use to ask all their users: Do you own a computer?

People use to get those silly AOL cds in the mail, then stick them in their music CD players and then call AOL when they did not work.