From: geeman@best.com
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 23:46:49 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: [CNN] Stolen Laptops and lame 'solution'
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970612083315.006c1b68@best.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 05:22 PM 6/11/97 +0000, Raymond Mereniuk wrote:
>
>>
>> >                     The call goes to a Canadian office
>> >                     that in turn phones the cops. So far,
>> >                     it has a 100 percent recovery rate. 
>> >
>> ======  100% of WHAT?  Systems with it installed which are stolen?   How
>> would you know what systems do NOT call in?  
>> It's like the question the clerk asks at the airport: "Did anyone put
>> anything in your luggage you don't know anything about?"
>> 
>> Now that the word is out, of course, the wily thief will eschew pluggin in
>> until the hard drive is reformatted and installed
>> with a clean OS.  As usual: the stupid will be caught. 
>
>This has been discussed on this list before, about 1 year ago.  The 
>Computrace software is installed on a place on the hard drive where 
>DOS utilities like Fdisk and Format can not get at it.  This is the 
>same as Diskmanager Version 7 or higher, Fdisk and Format will not 
>remove this version of Diskmanager.
>

Unless you overwrite the MBR and the first TRACK on the disk.  Well, the
bar is raised by
about 3 minutes with DEBUG, thanks.