Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.forth > #19617

Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/

Show all headers | View raw

"Richard Owlett" <rowlett@pcnetinc.com> wrote in message
news:vI-dncAjquwIjIXMnZ2dnUVZ_s2dnZ2d@supernews.com...

> I'm just assuming Forth is best solution to my problem.

Why?

I think most standalone Forth or Forth OSes will have the exact
same problem that DOS has (discussed below).

> I NEED 2 things and desire 3.
>
> Item 0: solution resides on bootable CDROM
> Item 1:  solution can erase *ALL* sectors of 1st hard disk
> Item 2:  solution can erase *ALL* sectors of flash drive
> connected by USB
>
> Optional: solution can run memory test on 1st 4 Gigs of memory
>

It sounds like you need a so-called Live-CD, i.e., bootable, runs
in memory, filesystem loaded to ramdisk, OS and tools on the CD.
Let's look at Windows, Linux, and DOS.

Windows doesn't seem to have bootable CDs available, including
Live-CDs, due to legal issues involved in the licensing it.

Linux is the primary OS that has the tools to do what you
requested and also has Live-CDs.  The problems with Linux Live-CDs
are usually two-fold: 1) you typically can't unmount the CDROM
that is live to insert another CD with more files or utilities
which means you typically need two CDROMs 2) Live-CDs are designed
for trying out the distro, and are not usually designed for error
recovery or for Linux OS setup, so they are typically missing the
utilities you need.  You might have to search through quite a few
Linux distro's to find a Live-CD with the needed utilities, or
ability to unmount the CDROM, if needed.

DOS has the tools to do that and will fit in a small image.  The
problem with DOS is that it uses the BIOS to access devices.  DOS
doesn't directly program devices.  Direct programming of harddisks
is required to access all the sectors on larger harddisks.  That
means the sectors on very large hard disks are inaccessible to DOS
since BIOS cannot access them.  However, I doubt that's a problem
with your laptop.  Most standalone Forth solutions will likely use
the BIOS too.  You'd need a full featured OS like Linux or Windows
for drivers which directly program the harddisk.  The other
problem with DOS is the USB support.  It's not built in.  It's
available, but it requires testing a bunch of different device
drivers until you find what works for that PC.  IIRC, DOS needs
two files to work together to get USB support, an ASPI driver and
a physical device driver.


Rod Pemberton

Back to comp.lang.forth | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ Richard Owlett <rowlett@pcnetinc.com> - 2013-02-10 15:30 -0600
  Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ "Clyde W. Phillips Jr." <cwpjr02@gmail.com> - 2013-02-10 13:43 -0800
  Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2013-02-10 14:07 -0800
    Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ "Rod Pemberton" <do_not_have@notemailnotz.cnm> - 2013-02-10 19:26 -0500
    Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ Hannu Vuolasaho <hannu.vuolasaho@nospam.tut.fi.invalid> - 2013-02-11 04:52 +0000
    Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ Andy Valencia <user@vsta.org> - 2013-02-11 19:43 +0000
      Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ "Clyde W. Phillips Jr." <cwpjr02@gmail.com> - 2013-02-11 12:41 -0800
      Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2013-02-11 22:01 +0100
  Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ "Rod Pemberton" <do_not_have@notemailnotz.cnm> - 2013-02-10 19:26 -0500
    Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ Richard Owlett <rowlett@pcnetinc.com> - 2013-02-11 09:52 -0600
      Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ "Rod Pemberton" <do_not_have@notemailnotz.cnm> - 2013-02-12 08:43 -0500
        Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ Richard Owlett <rowlett@pcnetinc.com> - 2013-02-12 08:56 -0600
          Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/ Howerd <howerdo@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-02-12 11:38 -0800
          BIOS drive capacity limit, was [Re: FORTH for brute force test available? ??? ;/] "Rod Pemberton" <do_not_have@notemailnotz.cnm> - 2013-02-13 02:00 -0500

csiph-web