> -----Original Message----- > From: Dan Rue [mailto:drue at therub.org] > Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 11:18 AM > To: TCLUG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [TCLUG] Grubb boot menu options > > > On Mon, Jan 12, 2004 at 09:47:28AM -0600, Tom Penney wrote: > > I haven't been following this thread closely so forgive me > if this has > > been covered. I have seen computers (old inexpensive > compaq's I think) > > with the bios info stored on a mini drive partition. I've > trashed this > > "bios Partion" in the past and had to download and make bootable > > floppies to recreate it. The hard drive bios has to go down > as one of > > the stupidest ideas ever. > > > > I couldn't google up anything quickly to support my story so you may > > think I'm crazy. I wouldn't believe it either. but several > years ago I > > did fix a computer that wouldn't boot without a partition > on the primary > > master drive for bios info. > I concur! I use an old P200 compac for my firewall. It came > with a 2GB > hard drive, with a small partition that it used for bios. If > you booted > to bios, it brought up this circa windows 95 visual basic > interface for > _viewing_ your bios information (I was not able to actually change > anything). I was able to nuke the partition and still have a > functioning computer - I just can't access any bios information - but > since I couldn't change anything with the interface anyway I > don't care. > > Worth noting is that I bought this computer at computer renassiance a > few years ago for $70 I think. I booted it up when I got it, and it > went into win98. Looking around, they had deleted the "my documents" > folder, but not emptied it from recycling bin. Apparently, > the computer > was used by the corporate headquarters for one of the big > salon chains. > I found some very interesting customer/personal information on there. > There were a few letters to customers saying to the effect: > "We're sorry > that you had a bad experience at XXX salon. Your credit card number > xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx expiration date xx/xx/xx has been refunded $13.95" > > I was shocked that companies are so stupid to leave stuff like that on > there. Can you say lawsuit? > > I considered contacting the people who's information had been > compromised, and I considered contacting the salon company. > But in the > end, knowing people who's innocent security alerts had resulted in > criminal penalties, I just formatted the drive... > > Dan One more reason we were all better off with Green screen computing with dumb terminals. You can't save sensitive customer data on your dumb terminal. _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list