Official: Powershadow 2.6 does NOT protect MBR.

As per website admin at powershadow forum -



http://powershadow.freeforums.org/templates/subSilver/images/icon_minipost.gifPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:13 pm Post subject: http://powershadow.freeforums.org/templates/subSilver/images/lang_english/icon_quote.gif version 2.6 was released two years ago. It doesn't protect MBR.

Non-English version (2.82 ) supports MBR protection. (This was released in Dec 2006 )
Our next English version will support MBR protection too. (Will release soon. Time not decided.)


Told you I broke it Peter.

 

Hi, Horus37, congratulation to your adventurous work. Since you have the weapon(HP's software), can you d/l DeepFreeze standard and test it? To see whether it can defend itself. I am assured on many occasions by developer that DF may be the safest virtualization app my money can buy, just curious. Please keep me post. Thanks.

 

Hi, Peter, thanks for the advice. Again, one more positive knowledge learned from you.

 

When I first tried DF Having not read the notes I didn't realize that I needed to hold shift while double mouse clicking to enter the program. Assuming it wasn't working I tried to use Acronis from within windows to restore and was surprised when instead of rebooting to Acronis DF protected itself and brought me back to windows. using the emergency disk allowed me to delete the frozen C: and restore but I was impressed by the way DF defended itself.

 

Hi, long view: a bit OT. Have you ever used ATI to create the secured archive partition? I found that DF will not allow ATI to proceed, that means no partition can be created while DF is installed within that volume(drive), whether in thawed or frozen mode. The other thing I find interesting is that you can virtually install any programs(including those requiring reboot) in frozen mode, then after reboot, everything will be back to the way was, no harm will be done to your system. In the past I have tried many security apps requiring reboot, and have not encountered any negative impacts yet, but I may want to change this practice from now on, since our friend Peter has warned us about the consequences in doing so. Since this is a sidekick discussion, I better cut off right here, before... Have a nice one.

 

Faronics Anti-Executable requires also to hold shift while double mouse clicking to enter the program. Both professional softwares protect and hide themselves very well compared with other softwares and you need a password to get access to their configuration, which is very good if they are used by several users at the same location.

 

Yes Peter, but that was because, you didn't have a zero tool to wipe everything, including messed partitions.
After running a zero tool each mess with partitions is gone, because everything is replaced with zeroes. I've done enough restorations on zero-ed harddisks without problems and I would do the same after a killdisk attack.

Zero tool + Recovery CD + images on an external harddisk, that's all I need.

PS: I still find it weird that a Recovery CD failed to do its job after a killdisk attack. Nobody would expect this.

 

where would I get a zero tool ? tried google and found a thermal emergency survival blanket - which I don't think is what you meant ?

 

If I was you, I would go to the manufacturer's website of your harddisk and see what they offer as harddisk tools. I got it from Western Digital.
If you don't find anything, maybe Darik's Boot and Nuke (freeware) can do the job or any other similar tool.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

 

My WD Zero Tool allows me to select the harddisk first and then the selected harddisk will be erased with zeroes, you can choose between quick or full. You probably didn't see your harddisks because they are not WD Raptors like mine or other WD harddisks.

I'm not familiar with DBAN, but I've seen the screens at their website and it doesn't look as userfriendly as my tool.

I'm not sure if this is a legitimate software, but it's freeware.
hxxp://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2006.04.13-HDD-Wipe-Tool/

Keep in mind that it MUST be a floppy or CD to wipe your harddisks.

 

This is what WD says about my WD Zero Tool :

This is my harddisk : WD Raptor WD740GD 74gb 10000rpm SATA 8mb Cache 4.5ms

I don't know what kind of WD Zero Tool you downloaded, but I don't think you can use these tools for any harddisk.
This is the link where I got this tool
http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=1&swid=30

 

Here's a thread recommending either dban or eraser.
http://www.castlecops.com/postlite187572-dban.html

 

I remember using the zero tool from Western Digital "only" on my WD drives. I believe nearly all the top makers of hard drives now offer something similar, including Seagate/Maxtor = MAXBLAST! The disc actually came with my Maxtor purchase in November.

More OT, i'm eagerly awaiting Power Shadow Master's new release that covers MBR, although unless i had duplicated the feats with Killdisk & HP's latest nuker, this current 2.6 version is not made any problems for me even when testing RootKits but then RK's have no reason i would think to damage anything, just stay hidden and keep the system running as stable as always.

The MBR/Partition Table corruption is more in line with viruses designed to wreak maximum disappointment for the unlucky soul victimized.