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Adding hardware write protect switch

February 14th, 2011, 15:51

Hi All,

I have seen lots of modding and hardware hacking on this forum, so I hope this is the right place to ask my question.

I will appreciate, if somebody suggests a way of adding a hardware write-protect switch to a SATA HDD, or SATA Enclosure.

HDD - Hitachi HTS545032B9A300
Enclosure - Toshiba Transcend StoreJet 25 SATA (Chipset: JMicron JM20329)

Thanks in advance

Re: Adding hardware write protect switch

February 14th, 2011, 20:20

There is no easy way to write protect your drive.

You should modify the FW, or use linux.

Under Linux you can write-protect any HDD as you want with this:

blockdev --setro /dev/sd....

If you want write protected usb storage, (without modding) you should look around for older pendrives wich can be write protected.

Janos

Re: Adding hardware write protect switch

February 15th, 2011, 3:40

Actually hardware "Write-Blocker" is used mainly for forensic imaging.

You can find it here:

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/USB-WriteBlocker.php
http://www.tableau.com/index.php?pageid=products&category=forensic_bridges

Good luck!

Re: Adding hardware write protect switch

February 15th, 2011, 13:54

Thank you N.C. and mdarwish for the prompt response.

Does "use Linux" mean using Linux on the host computer, or I could run some type of Linux on the USB HDD itself, so it can protect the transfer and prevent from infection?

Regarding the USB Flash Drives, I found an effective software way to protect it; just filling the empty space to the last byte with a dummy file, or files in case the space is more than 2 GB.

I am still open to any suggestions,
Kind regards

Re: Adding hardware write protect switch

February 15th, 2011, 15:21

alabala wrote:Thank you N.C. and mdarwish for the prompt response.

Does "use Linux" mean using Linux on the host computer, or I could run some type of Linux on the USB HDD itself, so it can protect the transfer and prevent from infection?

Regarding the USB Flash Drives, I found an effective software way to protect it; just filling the empty space to the last byte with a dummy file, or files in case the space is more than 2 GB.

I am still open to any suggestions,
Kind regards


The filling is not good enough because this will not protect from boot sector viruses or under NTFS, from viruses wich can fit in <1KB.
Additionally there is more spaces are left on the filesystem's spaces wich is reserved from file-usage, but viruses can use these...


btw i have an idea:

I have seen some utility wich can configure the pendrive's controller, and you can "partition" the space and build up a CD-rom image on it. ;)
This must be useful for you.... ;)

Janos

Re: Adding hardware write protect switch

February 15th, 2011, 15:25

http://situsnya.wordpress.com/2009/01/1 ... indows-xp/

Re: Adding hardware write protect switch

February 16th, 2011, 14:06

Thank you all for the suggestions.
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