OK, I know this can be done but HOW????
Background:
I had a U3 4g chip for two years and loved it, most of the time. Best part was that I could password protect it. OK, I know that it is perhaps possible to crack that, but for 99.99 percent of people who found it that would not be a worry.
Unfortunatly it got zapped and as I needed a bigger drive anyway I got a nice new 8g chip. Unfortunatly I could not find a U3 one. Hence I have come over to the portable apps side of things, and quite like it, especially the openness of it.
The only thing I dont like is that the chip is not password protected. I did some thinking and remembered a chip I was given a few years ago that had a small CDFS partition on the chip that held advertising that auto ran when inserted and then the main partition that was a normal usb chip.
What I would like to do is set up my new chip as an encripted drive with truecrypt, and with a small auto launching CD emulated partiton that would hold the actual truecrypt programme.
I could thus plug it in and use it the same as my old U3 chip did, but with much better encryption and with portable apps. (happy 
So... how can I do this? Ideas?
I have tried partion Magic 8, swiss knife, as well as all sorts of windows things, but nothing works.
Do I need to partition it on a linux system first and then use it on windows?? Help...
Cheers,
TME
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password protect a PDrive?
launch pApps as a U3?
Both have been posting many many times, please use the search feature... and read the forum guidelines before posting.
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
"that had a small CDFS partition on the chip that held advertising that auto ran when inserted and then the main partition that was a normal usb chip"
That is U3.
~Lurk~
That is U3.
U3 does not hold advertising that autoruns.
U3 is very popular and lots of people have heard of it but it's not the only game in town. I have two USB sticks that have a CDFS partition but only one is a U3 stick. My non-U3 stick's CDFS partition doesn't hold advertizing either.
So it may be a U3 but probably not.
Ed
I read it as "They advertise it can autorun."
And I am well aware U3 is "not the only game in town." In fact U3 is on it's way out. I wonder what the replacement will be called...
Just curious - what does your non-U3 stick have? PowerToGo/Ceedo?
~Lurk~
Sorry,
It was meant to mean the advertising auto ran from CDFS partiton when chip inserted
The chip had no portable apps kind of set up. it was just a normal 128mb flash drive and used as a big floppy drive, but a but smaller than 128mb due to the CDFS partition taking up some of the room.
Or maybe U3 -> Yme? More than likely "Windows Live 4U".
My non-U3 stick has a finger print reader in the CDFS partition. And it's on this stick that I have Portable Apps. And PStart and PVPM. Ceedo sounds interesting but I'm not sure how it works but PVPM runs DSL via QEMU and is totally transparent to the host.
Ed
it is on the way out nd microsoft is replaceing it. one of the fetures will be the ability to run only on genuine microsoft computers by checking if you have WGA. (Which is kinda stupid because there are about 10,000,000 WGA cracks and hacks out there all over bittorrent)
Zoop
I know you are kidding but as you put in no smileys someone might think this was true.
So, for clarification, this is not true.
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Ed,
Your second chip sounds like what I am trying to do. Could it be recreated?
To the best of my knowledge, and that's not saying much, you need microcode on the stick to add the CDFS partition.
I did read somewhere that someone that hacked the U3 partition and expanded it to be the whole USB stick. The complete opposite of removing the U3 partition and accessing the whole stick as FAT. His approach may create a CDFS partition if one doesn't exist. I don't know, I've never tried it, and I read the article a while ago. If I find the URL for it I will post it for you.
http://wiki.hak5.org/wiki/Talk:Memorex_U3_ISO_Hack
Ed
The magic you describe is how U3 works. It includes special software in the Flash Drive itself that tricks the computer into seeing a portion of the drive as a CdRom. If your drive doesn't come with that magic, it is almost impossible that you would be able to add it. The special drive that had advertising was using the same thing -- electronics on the drive to make a portion look like a CD.
Search the forums for other solutions, like secure drives that include the encryption software on the drive and don't need administrative privileges to provide protection.
...
Okay, now that you've seen how expensive they can be, search the forums for the other workarounds.
MC
Dear All,
OK, let me be more clear. I had a chip 3 years ago (before I ever heard of U3) that was given to me that had a CDFS partition that contained advertising that auto started when plugged in. This worked very much the same as my old U3 drive, but it was NOT a U3 drive.
I was able to remove this partision, but I can not remmeber how. I may have used using windows administrative tools or I may have booted with an aold dos backup and used Fdisk (I did NOT use any special software like U3 partition removal). If I could remember I could likly figure some of it out. However I do remember that when I looked at it as using administrative tools the usb drive showed two partitions, a CDFS partition and a normal FAT partition.
That is why I say I know it can be done, but dont know how to do it, and thus ask how to do it.
So, what I want to do is recreate that structure on my usb drive, but without advertising and with Truecrypt.
Perhaps my first post was not clear, but also please do not assume that it was a U3 chip and that I am some newbee who does not know the difference. Sure, there is a 1% chance it was hardware based, but I dont think so.
Also, I did search and did not find anything on this site that helped me with this issue, hence the reason I asked. I could have missed something, but I did try. Sorry if I did miss something.
So, please does anyone have any ideas of how to do this and if it could work? Does anyone run a Linux machine? Could you do this on your machine and then have it work in windows?
Thanks in advance
TME
TME,
My reading of this thread is that in all cases mentioned the USB drive has been specially prepared by the manufacturer to tell Windows that a device has been inserted that contains a CDRom Drive And a Flash Drive. The ability to do this is written on the device itself at the Hard/FirmWare level.
The fact that it can be "removed" does not change this. "Removing" the pseudo CDRom partition using a program merely tells the "firmware" to do something different from it's default setup [e.g. No longer report sectors xx to zz as a CDRom but as normal space].
This ability to "toggle" this default setup [either easily or with great difficulty] depends on the Hard/Firmware being built into the device.
I don't think you can just add this to a non-U3/U3-like device. "If" it could be done it would involve rewriting the firmware on the device. U3like devices [like your former drive] have been around long enough that if it could easily be done it would have already been done.
"Sure, there is a 1% chance it was hardware based, but I dont think so".
Where you got the number "1%" I don't know. I think it is More likely that it is 90% chance that it IS Hard/FirmWare based"
So, in summary, I don't think you're going be able to do what you want to do
Sorry,
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
More like 99%, as unless they've invented a new way to cheat the system, it must be hardware based for Windows to recognise it as a CD drive.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
The problem is that you need software that can fully access the controller-chip.
I only know of one chip that allows you to change most settings with readily available software, the Oti 2168.. version "AG" and later has CD-ROM support.
This is a set-file for production-tool used to program
the Oti2168UFD-controller-chip,included for instructional purposes..
Some of the features can also be used with the tool "recoverdisk.exe"
It should give you an idea of what can be done to a UFD is you can find (or make)
the right software .
[Device]
SCSIVID=
SCSIPID=
DiskType=0 //sets the RMB to "Removable" or "Fixed"
//If "Fixed" is selected windows will treat the UFD as a normal HDD
// ie : you can create and mount multiple partitions,all disk-tools
//should recognize and work on the UFD,trash-can and system-volume inf
//will be created etc.If you set it to "Fixed" the "security partition"
//option later won't be useful.
CheckFlshSize=0
FlashSize0=0
FlashSize1=0
FlashSize2=0
FlashSize3=0
FlashSize4=0
FlashSize5=0
FlashSize6=0
FlashSize7=0
CheckFlashBB=0
RWTestPercent=0
DiskLabel= //yes,just what it says !
FlashSize0=0
[LEDMode]
BusyLEDMode_1=2
IdleLEDMode_1=1
SuspendLEDMode_1=0
BusyLEDMode_2=2
IdleLEDMode_2=1
SuspendLEDMode_2=0
BusyLEDMode_3=3
IdleLEDMode_3=3
SuspendLEDMode_3=0
BusyLEDMode_4=0
IdleLEDMode_4=0
SuspendLEDMode_4=0
[Advance]
ECCMode=2
FWVersion=
ReserveSize=0
SecuritySize=0
USBVID=4146
USBPID=2168
USBManufStr=
USBProduStr=
PowerConsumption=200
LibAccID=
ProdNum=
FlexiblePage=0
[SN] //You can define your own serial.nr
//could be useful for advanced security-purposes
ChangeSerialNumber=1
NotChgExist=1
SNUserDefine=0
SNDecimalism=0
SNBaseNum=0000000000000000
[Copy]
SourceFolder=
[Partition]//on UFD's this is also called "MultiLun"
//It allows to create a public and a private
//(passworded,not encrypted)partition.
//However you can only have one mounted at any time in windows .
Password=
PartitionMode=0
CopyDirPub1=
PubSize1=0
ReadOnlyPub1=0
CopyDirSec=
SecSize=0
ReadOnlySec=0
CopyDirPub2=
ReadOnlyPub2=0
PartitionMBR=1
[ChipOption]
2167BBToler=3
EnableCDROM=0 //This is where you enable the CD-Rom device
//or "AutoRun feature" as the chip-makers seem to call it.
//Oti 2168 chips v."AG" or latter should support this feature .
CDImgPath= //path to the ISO, if not set the tool will use a ISO in the DIR
//it runs from,like the old Sandisk "launchpad updater"
2166BBToler=33
All controllers have a tool to set it, the problem is finding it ..
It would be nice if the manufacturers allowed the consumer to actually use the
features of the hardware they bought.