INFO-VAX Sun, 25 Nov 2007 Volume 2007 : Issue 645 Contents: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Re: W/XP PC HD Crashed ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:51:56 -0600 From: David J Dachtera Subject: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <47489CFC.7BEB9F63@comcast.net> Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and such). David J Dachtera DJE Systems ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:09:40 GMT From: VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: In article <47489CFC.7BEB9F63@comcast.net>, David J Dachtera writes: > > >Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; >so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > >Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining >that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > >Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data >recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and >such). Buy a Mac or use your VMS boxes. :) I've had one catastrophic disk failure on a Mac (and it wasn't an Apple drive) but I was able to recover everything on the drive easily with a software recovery tool. I'd bet you'll be cussin' up a storm until you get that Weendoze box back to gaming state. Strange game, Professor Faulken! The only winning move is not to play! Remember, the first time Micro$oft makes something which doesn't suck will be the day that they start making vacuum cleaners. -- VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)COM "Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?" http://tmesis.com/drat.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:10:45 -0800 (PST) From: "winston19842005@yahoo.com" Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <0d0d7b6a-9c32-4d62-8585-61979fe39265@e23g2000prf.googlegroups.com> On Nov 24, 4:51 pm, David J Dachtera wrote: > Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; > so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > > Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining > that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > such). > > David J Dachtera > DJE Systems I bought a product called Get Data Back some years back. Unfortunately, I misplaced the key last time I needed it. Fortunately, it still allows single file copies even in this mode, and I only needed a few files! It is slow, but very thorough. However, if you are having hardware issues, most such software will pretty much complete the burial process for you... ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:25:52 -0600 From: David J Dachtera Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <4748A4F0.8786CE8E@comcast.net> VAXman-, @SendSpamHere.ORG wrote: > > In article <47489CFC.7BEB9F63@comcast.net>, David J Dachtera writes: > > > > > >Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; > >so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > > > >Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining > >that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > > > >Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > >recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > >such). > > Buy a Mac or use your VMS boxes. :) > > I've had one catastrophic disk failure on a Mac (and it wasn't an Apple > drive) but I was able to recover everything on the drive easily with a > software recovery tool. I'd bet you'll be cussin' up a storm until you > get that Weendoze box back to gaming state. Never got into "gaming", other than the local casino. Having been to Vegas to visit the wife's daughter and the daughter's spouse, we wanted to find something local for an occasional "lose $20 or two" evening. We both like slots. > Strange game, Professor Faulken! The only winning move is not to play! True; however, the world is enamoured of it, so ... > Remember, the first time Micro$oft makes something which doesn't suck > will be the day that they start making vacuum cleaners. Hhmmm... The "blue dustbag of death"? David J Dachtera DJE Systems ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:15:21 -0500 From: JF Mezei Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: David J Dachtera wrote: > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > such). Plug it on your VMS machine and use BACKUP/PHYSICAL. If the hardware is starting to fail, getting a fill image of the drive will safeguard whatever data is left on it and you could move that image to a new disk. Shirley there must be utilities on window (like Norton) to recover files from a corrupt disk ? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:16:19 -0500 From: bradhamilton Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <4748B0C3.4070707@comcast.net> David J Dachtera wrote: > Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; > so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > > Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining > that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > such). I don't suppose a second PC is available, with a "free" "disk slot". If such were available, you might be able to take the bad disk out of the PC, insert it in the other PC, and attempt to read files (like *.PST) off the "bad" disk. A bad boot sector may not mean that the rest of the drive is unreadable (but is probably on its way). Alternatively, could you find a spare disk, switch around the disks, and load a copy of XP on the "new" disk? Again, you may be able to read files off the bad drive, if it's not the boot drive. I assume you've checked the bad PC for something you've overlooked, like a floppy disk in the floppy drive, or a CD/DVD in the CD/DVD drive? If you've set up your BIOS to boot from either of these devices, the cryptic DOS messages might (mis)lead you into believing that your HARD disk is toast, rather than a non-bootable floppy/CD/DVD. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:57:36 -0500 From: bradhamilton Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <4748BA70.2090109@comcast.net> David J Dachtera wrote: > Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; > so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > > Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining > that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > such). Another alternative - GParted . It's a partition mangler, (a Linux Distro on CD) and claims to be able to read data off of an NTFS file system. I've never used it for that purpose, but it works well on my Linux laptop for resizing/fixing partitions. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:34:54 -0500 From: "Richard B. Gilbert" Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <4748D13E.6090905@comcast.net> David J Dachtera wrote: > Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; > so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > > Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining > that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > such). > > David J Dachtera > DJE Systems If you didn't make a backup somewhere you may be out of luck. There are data recovery services but they charge high! Before you panic totally, power down, open up the box, reseat the ribbon cable connectors on the disk's interface cable. If you are using a PCI bus disk controller, reseat the PCI card as well. Power up and try again. If that fails, THEN you enter panic mode. For not too terribly much money you can buy an external disk. These are available with USB, Firewire, and Network interfaces. I use a Buffalo LinkStation Pro 320 GB network drive for making backups. I think it cost me something like $229 US plus shipping. It speaks "Samba" and I'm thinking of trying to bring up Samba on my Solaris boxes so as to be able to back them up too. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:33:17 -0500 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?= Subject: Re: OT: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <4748deea$0$90264$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> David J Dachtera wrote: > Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze; > so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions. > > Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining > that the hard drive seems to have disappeared. > > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > such). First thing is to try and get the disk copied. And then you can work on the copy. Then you can try various recovery tools. Some of the more well known tools are http://www.getbackdata.net/ and http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk. Consider getting someone with experience with such tool to help you. Else read a bit about like http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1139 ! If that does not help, then there are the desperate solutions left like paying thousands of dollars to a data recovery company or the worst trick of them all: put the drive 24 hours in the freezer. Arne ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:17:42 -0500 From: "Peter Weaver" Subject: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: <23e001c82f09$5cb5d250$2802a8c0@CHARONLAP> TCPIP> show ver HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Alpha Version V5.6 on an AlphaServer 800 5/500 running OpenVMS V8.3 Three times in the past few years I have been attacked by someone trying to find a valid username/password on my system using POP, two of those times have been when I was out of town installing CHARON-VAX for a customer. I can not find any clues at all about who was doing the attack, TCP/IP does not log the attacking address at all, all I can see is; %%%%%%%%%%% OPCOM 23-NOV-2007 04:13:14.02 %%%%%%%%%%% (from node AXP800 a Message from user TCPIP$POP on AXP800 POP server authentication error: User account "abigail" is invalid. %%%%%%%%%%% OPCOM 23-NOV-2007 04:13:14.13 %%%%%%%%%%% (from node AXP800 a Message from user TCPIP$POP on AXP800 POP server authentication error: User account "adam" is invalid. %%%%%%%%%%% OPCOM 23-NOV-2007 04:13:14.24 %%%%%%%%%%% (from node AXP800 a Message from user TCPIP$POP on AXP800 POP server authentication error: User account "alan" is invalid. After 13,996 of these messages I started getting NOSLOT errors, at that point the system becomes unstable; some email messages get through, some do not, some web requests are served, some are not... When I am not home the only option is to have my wife hit the power button to reboot the system. Does anyone; 1. Know of any way I can find out which IP address was attacking me? 2. Know of a way (excluding "Turn off POP") to stop these POP attacks from breaking my system? Peter Weaver www.weaverconsulting.ca CHARON-VAX CHARON-AXP DataStream Reflection PreciseMail HP Commercial Hardware ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:17:17 -0500 From: bradhamilton Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: <4748E93D.30303@comcast.net> Peter Weaver wrote: > TCPIP> show ver > > HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Alpha Version V5.6 > on an AlphaServer 800 5/500 running OpenVMS V8.3 > > Three times in the past few years I have been attacked by someone trying > to find a valid username/password on my system using POP, two of those > times have been when I was out of town installing CHARON-VAX for a > customer. I can not find any clues at all about who was doing the > attack, TCP/IP does not log the attacking address at all, all I can see is; [...] > After 13,996 of these messages I started getting NOSLOT errors, at that > point the system becomes unstable; some email messages get through, some > do not, some web requests are served, some are not... When I am not home > the only option is to have my wife hit the power button to reboot the > system. > > Does anyone; > 1. Know of any way I can find out which IP address was attacking me? Does $ANA/AUDIT/EVENT=BREAKIN tell you anything? > 2. Know of a way (excluding "Turn off POP") to stop these POP attacks > from breaking my system? I use TCPware as my IP stack. When I'm on my laptop, and I "see" someone trying to break in using FTP, (Login:Administrato :-)) I can use the command $NETCU SHOW CONNECTIONS to see the IP address of the offender; I can then use $NETCU KILL CONNECTION/REMOTE=.* to close the connection. I realize this is of little help to you, but I'm wondering if there is (and would be surprised if there isn't) a similar facility in TCPIP$SERVICES - it would at least help you if you happen to catch the intruder in the act. BTW - I've never run into a NOSLOT condition, even after coming home from work to notice that one of the script kiddies had been banging away (without success) at FTP for hours. Can you change stacks? :-) [...] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:56:41 -0500 From: JF Mezei Subject: Re: POP attacks and NOSLOT errors Message-ID: Peter Weaver wrote: > Does anyone; > 1. Know of any way I can find out which IP address was attacking me? No. I reported this some time ago. There is also no breakin evasion triggered. > 2. Know of a way (excluding "Turn off POP") to stop these POP attacks > from breaking my system? No. But you can reduce the impact by setting a service limit ( SET SERVICE POP /LIMIT=2 for instance). So if the hacker make multiple simultaneous connection attempts, only the first 2 get through and this limits the damage to your system and also slows down their dictionary attacks. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:50:23 -0500 From: "Peter Weaver" Subject: Re: W/XP PC HD Crashed Message-ID: <23da01c82f05$8baf42c0$2802a8c0@CHARONLAP> >... > Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data > recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and > such). >... Get someone with a working PC to download the 196MB file from http://www.ubcd4win.com/ and follow the build instructions to build you a copy of the "Ultimate Boot CD for Windows." Put the CD in your drive and boot it. It will boot Windows with a bunch of freeware utilities including 3 or 4 disk recovery programs. I forget which one I used when my sister took 70 some-odd pictures of my daughter's Christening then formatted the memory card, but it worked rather fast and very easy just stepping through blocks and rebuilding whatever files it could. (For those who really hate Windows there is also an "Ultimate Boot CD" at http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ that also includes disk recovery tools.) Peter Weaver www.weaverconsulting.ca CHARON-VAX CHARON-AXP DataStream Reflection PreciseMail HP Commercial Hardware ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2007.645 ************************