Ask the Geek

The holidays are behind us and I want to wish everyone? a
Happy and Prosperous New Year and extend my thanks once again to
everyone who made their generous donations during the Holiday
Giveaway. If you donated, your gift is on the way to you via USPS
First Class mail.

I’ve received a few inquiries from people who missed the opportunity
to take advantage of the Holiday Giveaway for various reasons. They
wanted to know if I would still give them the gift if they donated
now, even though the deadline has passed. I would love to be able to do
it, but I promised I wouldn’t make the same offer again.

However, I am making the Geek Toolkit available to my Ask the Geek readers via secure download for $37. You won’t have to wait for the mail to arrive; you can download and begin using the toolkit immediately. As soon as I receive notice of your payment, I will send you a link to download the password protected archive. Click here to get your Geek Toolkit

The Geek Toolkit is loaded with literally hundreds of security,
system maintenance and productivity tools that have been part of my Geek arsenal for more than five years. All of them are safe, proven, and
malware-free. It would literally take you hundreds of hours to research and compile this collection on your own. Here’s just a few of the categories in the kit:

-Web Servers
-Useful Utilities
-Spyware Killers
-Security
-Disk Tools
-Disaster Recovery Info
…and 11 more.

This newly updated toolkit will save you time and money and make
your life easier and more productive in several ways. Here’s that link again:? Click here to get your Geek Toolkit


Remember, you won’t have to wait for the mail to arrive. As soon as
I receive notice of your payment, I will send you a link to download the
password protected archive.

Get your Geek Toolkit today!

Cheers!

Ken “The Geek” Harthun

P.S. If you really, really want to have the Geek Toolkit on a 2GB
flash drive, click here.

P.P.S. If you’re not completely satisfied, I’ll happily refund your
money.

P.P.P.S. No affiliate links here. This is my own compilation, so you’re dealing directly with me.

Picture this: Someone tries to steal your laptop off your desk and as soon as they pull the plug from the wall, your latpop emits a screaming siren that won’t quit until your password is entered to unlock the laptop and disable the alarm.There’s another scenario: You take one of your old USB thumb drives (maybe the one you used to make an anti virus bootable scanner) attach a chain to it and secure it to your desk; if someone tries to move your laptop, unplugging the USB thumb drive in the process, the alarm goes off.

This is possible because of an interesting piece of software called “LAlarm.” It’s free for personal use and there’s a nominal fee for commercial use. Download LAlarm from this link: http://www.lalarm.com/en/index.htm.

I tested this software by installing it on my Dell laptop. It works. You simply install the software, configure the options you want and restart your laptop. To set the alarm, you just press Windows key + L to lock the workstation. If anyone pulls the plug or removes the thumb drive, the alarm sounds.

There’s much more to the software than just an alarm. You can set the software to destroy your data in selected folders in the event of a theft. You can also set zones based on IP addresses and cause an alarm to sound if the IP address changes.

The theft alarm is not affected by the system volume control setting–it’s screaming loud no matter how you have your volume set.

It’s a very cool tool.

Once again, in May 2009, I have had to revise this article because Avira’s updates no longer work (thanks, Cindy, for your help in pointing out the problem to me). This new revision supercedes all previous articles I have posted on this subject; specifically, these two:

http://askthegeek.kennyhart.com/2005/12/how-to-make-bootable-thumb-drive-virus.html

http://askthegeek.kennyhart.com/2007/03/update-how-to-make-bootable-thumb-drive_20.html

“How to make a bootable thumb drive virus scanner for NTFS” is the second most popular article on this site, outranked only by “My Computer Won’t Shut Down!” and I thank you for visiting Ask the Geek for advice on these issues. Because of the continuing popularity of the thumb drive virus scanner, I want to make sure you have up to date and relevant information. The two articles listed above are outdated.

The original DOS-based version of the thumb drive virus scanner used F-Prot Antivirus for DOS, one of the best and most popular DOS-based? scanners for nearly 20 years. Unfortunately, F-Secure is no longer updating the virus definitions for that version. In fact, the F-Prot virus signatures are now almost two years old, making them virtually useless. Other vendors are following suit. I’ve had quite a bit of feedback asking me if I could solve this problem and provide an updated method of offline virus scanning.

The good news is that, yes, I’ve solved the problem, thanks to the fact that several vendors offer free bootable rescue CDs for download. Most of these run under some flavor of Linux and after a bit of hacking, I found it’s a simple matter to make a bootable thumb drive from the images.

Note: Avira has changed the ISO image *again* since this article was first posted. I have had comments from some people that the new ISOs just don’t work right on the thumb drive. As of May 2009, the VDF updates cause the old version to fail. I have revised the steps below and updated the BLTDVS toolkit. Because of? the popularity of this toolkit, I am getting bills for excess bandwidth useage. If you find this toolkit useful, please consider making a donation by clicking the “Donate” button. As soon as I am notified of your donation (any amount, minimum $1), I’ll send you the link to the toolkit that contains the ISO image I originally tested.

I chose the Kaspersky Rescue CD from Kaspersky Lab for my latest incarnation of the thumb drive virus scanner. Since it runs under Linux, it has native NTFS read/write support making it unnecessary to use any third party tools like NTFS4DOS (which is still available, but no longer supported by Avira).

Here’s how to be up and running with your own copy of my latest tool in just a few minutes. I’ve made it easy by providing everything you need, except the rescue CD image:

1. I no longer require that you make a donation, but would appreciate it greatly. I’ve worked hard to keep the BLTDVS toolkit up to date and will contintue to do so.
2. I do require that you sign up on my list. That is the only way to get the download link and password for the BLTDVS toolkit. Once you sign up and confirm your subscription, the welcome email will give you instructions, a link to the new toolkit, and the password.
3. If you bypassed the fade-in sign-up form when you arrived at this page, you can click here to go to another sign-up page or click on Sign Up! in the toolbar to the right.
4. Download the BLTDVS toolkit from the link I send you.
5. Extract the folder to the root of your hard drive.
6. Download the Kaspersky Rescue CD ISO image
7. Move the CD ISO image to the BLTDVS_toolkit folder?
8. Plug in your thumb drive.
9. Open the BLTDVS_toolkit folder and navigate to the DriveKey folder.
10. Run HPUSBF.EXE (command line version) or HPUSBW.EXE (windows version) and format your thumb drive using FAT or FAT32. Deselect the “Create a DOS startup disk” option.
11. Open the BLTDVS_toolkit folder and copy or move its contents to your thumb drive. Don’t move the actual folder.
12. On your thumb drive, double-click avrescd.bat. This will extract the necessary files from the ISO image to your thumb drive. Be sure you specify the right drive letter for your thumb drive.
13. Once the files have been extracted, makeboot.bat will be called automatically. See the caution in the next step!
14. CAUTION! This step is dangerous! Heed the warning message. Please verify the correct flash drive letter is being displayed before proceeding. Do not run this file on your hard drive or your current MBR will be overwritten rendering Windows unbootable. (This isn’t a complete disaster, but it takes some geeky knowledge to fix it.)? NOTE: If you are usingVista, you may see a “failure to update the MBR” error. In this case, right-click the file and specify “Run as administrator.”
15. Hit any key to exit. You now have bootable Linux thumb drive virus scanner that will handle NTFS drives as well as most other formats.

One really cool feature of the Kaspersky program is that it will allow you to update it over the Internet as long as you’re plugged into your network. It doesn’t work well with a wireless connection (which both of my laptops have), but I haven’t had a bit of trouble getting an address and updating when I’m plugged in.

Another great feature of the program is that it has a built in file manager, so you can also use it to recover files from an infected hard drive without having to boot into the native OS.

As always, feedback is welcome. I want to know how this tool is working for you.

(Thanks to PDLA ©2007 http://pendrivelinux.com and Lance ©2008? http://pendrivelinux.com. Syslinux is ©1994-2006 H. Peter Anvin http://syslinux.zytor.com for the files used in this tool.)

Cheers!
The Geek

Spam-o-Meter is a Kool Tool that gives you an idea of how much spam is on the Internet. You can download a Mac OSX gadget, Flash for a website (like you see here), even a screen saver for Windows, all free. Check it out. I’ve posted it on a page over there to the right.

The original article and subsequent updates require a change of procedure. Avira, who acquired NTFS4DOS, apparently changed the installation procedure and included a new program to create a bootable floppy disk. If you use the program floppywz.exe to install NTFS4DOS to your thumb drive, you end up with a 1.44 MB thumb drive and cannot install F-prot.

DO NOT run floppywz.exe, but navigate to the installation directory: by default, C:\Program Files\Avira\NTFS4DOS and simply copy the NTFS4DOS to your thumb drive. Copy F-prot and then boot to your thumb drive. You’ll no longer see a startup menu, but just a DOS prompt. At the prompt, type "ntfs4dos" without the quotes and hit enter. Then, you can run F-prot.

Here’s the last update prior to this one:

http://askthegeek.kennyhart.com/2007/03/update-how-to-make-bootable-thumb-drive_20.html

Cheers!
The Geek

Please note: the information in this post is outdated. This post has been superceded by “How to make a bootable thumb drive virus scanner for NTFS: 2008 update.” Please do not post a comment saying that this post is out of date–I just told you that! Go to the latest post.

Some nice folks have recently told me about broken links in the article. Thank you! The NTFS4DOS tool I specified is still available. Datapol is still alive, apparently having been acquired by Avira, the German company who makes the free — and very good, I might add — antivirus program, Antivir. Here’s the full orignal article with all of the links checked and fixed:

My latest Kool Tekkie Tool (KTT, pronounced “kit”) comprises a thumb drive made bootable with Datapol’s NTFS4DOS; the latest version (3.16b) of FRISK Software International’s F-Prot Antivirus for DOS is run from the command line. Both of these utilities are free for personal use, but require payment if you plan to use them in a commercial setting: NTFS4DOS is only $25; F-prot is $29 for a 20-user license.

NTFS4DOS is, in itself, a KTT. It allows you to make an NTFS-capable floppy disk or thumb drive and comes with chkdsk and defrag utilities to boot. First, make your drive bootable by following the instructions in my LockerGnome article, “Kool Tool to Make Your Thumb Drive Bootable.” (The original link to the HP utility in that article is broken click here to download the HP utility.) CAUTION! This will completely erase your drive; be sure you have your data backed up before you start. Then, download NTFS4DOS and run the setup. From the NTFS4DOS program group, select “Create NTFS-capable boot floppy.” Select the drive letter of your thumb drive and click Next twice. Your thumb drive is now bootable and NTFS capable.

Next, download F-prot, the latest virus signatures and the latest macro virus signatures and extract them to a folder on your thumb drive. You’re ready to go! Plug it in and let’s take it for a spin.

Make sure you set your PC’s BIOS to boot from your thumb drive. On most machines, you do this by making “USB” or “Removable Device” first in the boot order. If all goes well, the PC will boot to a startup menu. Choose NTFS4DOS; you’ll see the drives being mounted and if you are using the freeware version, the screen will scroll to the NTFS4DOS title screen; you will have to answer “yes” to the question “Do you use this version of NTFS4DOS for private usage only? (Yes/No):” You’ll see the mounted drives at the top of the screen and the C:\> prompt at the bottom. Change to the folder where you stored F-prot and run f-prot.exe to do a virus scan.

Pretty Kool, eh?

Cheers!
The Geek

TagJag Tags: Antivirus, ntfs4dos, freeware, lockergnome, ask the Geek

(Well, maybe not just a Tekkie Tool; it’s quite a useful tool for anyone to carry on a thumb drive.)

If you have ever had to read a PDF file on a PC that doesn’t have a PDF reader installed, then Foxit Software’s Foxit Reader is for you. At less than 3MB installed (a single executable file), Foxit Reader is a lean, mean, PDF-reading machine. Compare this with 10-20MB just to download Adobe reader. Don’t get me wrong, I use Adobe’s products on all of my systems; but I also work on systems in secure networks where I don’t have authorization to install software without approval. And since I carry lots of documentation and troubleshooting checklists in PDF format on my USB thumb drive, I’m stymied when I come upon one of these systems.

But not anymore; with Foxit Reader residing on my thumb drive, I can open and look at any PDF file I want. Foxit Reader runs on Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/2003 and is extremely easy to use; just double click it to start and then click the open button to open your PDF document. You can also print the document, save as, and do just about everything you would expect. Using the Typewriter tool, you can even type in the document, but you can’t save what you typed, unless you buy Foxit Reader Pro ($39).

Foxit Software carries other related products, including a PDF Editor that is a lot less expensive than mainstream products. Check ‘em out; tell ‘em The Geek sent you.

Please note: the information in this post is outdated. This post has been superceded by “How to make a bootable thumb drive virus scanner for NTFS: 2008 update.” Please do not post a comment saying that this post is out of date–I just told you that! Go to the latest post.

My latest Kool Tekkie Tool (KTT, pronounced “kit”) comprises a thumb drive made bootable with :datapol:’s NTFS4DOS; the latest version (3.16b) of FRISK Software International’s F-Prot Antivirus for DOS is run from the command line. Both of these utilities are free for personal use, but require payment if you plan to use them in a commercial setting: NTFS4DOS is only $25; F-prot is $29 for a 20-user license.

NTFS4DOS is, in itself, a KTT. It allows you to make an NTFS-capable floppy disk or thumb drive and comes with chkdsk and defrag utilities to boot. First, make your drive bootable by following the instructions in my LockerGnome article, “Kool Tool to Make Your Thumb Drive Bootable.” CAUTION! This will completely erase your drive; be sure you have your data backed up before you start. Then, download NTFS4DOS and run the setup. From the NTFS4DOS program group, select “Create NTFS-capable boot floppy.” Select the drive letter of your thumb drive and click Next twice. Your thumb drive is now bootable and NTFS capable.

Next, download F-prot, the latest virus signatures and the latest macro virus signatures and extract them to a folder on your thumb drive. You’re ready to go! Plug it in and let’s take it for a spin.

Make sure you set your PC’s BIOS to boot from your thumb drive. On most machines, you do this by making “USB” or “Removable Device” first in the boot order. If all goes well, the PC will boot to a startup menu. Choose NTFS4DOS; you’ll see the drives being mounted and if you are using the freeware version, the screen will scroll to the NTFS4DOS title screen; you will have to answer “yes” to the question “Do you use this version of NTFS4DOS for private usage only? (Yes/No):” You’ll see the mounted drives at the top of the screen and the C:\> prompt at the bottom. Change to the folder where you stored F-prot and run f-prot.exe to do a virus scan.

Pretty Kool, eh?