Last Thursday, my Acer Travelmate laptop crapped out on me and stopped booting Windows XP. I tried everything to fix it: booting into safe mode, using Windows recovery console to fix the boot.ini, fixing the corrupted partition boot sector with Fixboot, and fixing the Master boot record with Fixmdr. I even tried to reinstall windows, but it still wouldn’t boot! So I decided I would just backup all my stuff with a liveCD, format the drive, and use the recovery cd to start all over. Guess what? Acer doesn’t ship their laptops with a Recovery CD; they require you have to burn it yourself when you first get the computer, and of course I was way too lazy to do that. Well after some research I found out there is a hidden recovery partition that the Acer repair people use to fix your computer. If you are having the same problem as me, heres how I accessed the hidden partition and recovered my computer.

1. Boot your computer with the Backtrack liveCD (I used BT2 because it was the only thing I had off hand)
2. Backtrack will automatically mount the hidden drive (sda1). Navigate to it in the /mnt/sda1 folder.
3. Copy mbrwrwin.exe and rtmbr.bin from the /mnt/sda1 folder to the /mnt/sda2 folder (your C drive).
4. Next, you need to run the mbrwrwin install rtmbr.bin command. You can do this a couple different ways: You can use the Windows Recovery Console to run the command, or use a Windows LiveCD like BartPE (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/). I used BartPE because I already tried to re-install windows and I couldn’t access the recovery console because I wasn’t able to set an Administrator password.
5. Restart your computer, and press Alt-F10 at the Acer splash screen. This will bring you to the Acer eRecovery on the hidden partition, and all you have to do is follow the directions to restore the factory settings. (If you can’t access the eRecovery make sure d2d recovery is enabled in BIOS. You can access the BIOS by pressing F2 at the Acer splash screen).
6. After your computer is restored, burn the damn recovery cd so you don’t have to do this next time!!!

For more information check out:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=175697
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=11476

This last month we didn’t produce many videos; however, we did make quite a few updates to the website. First off, we created the new video page with the thumbnail preview of each video. We also have the donations up and running, as well as, the new video series, Infinity Exists Underground. Also, I made several fixes to the forums: Threads are now sorted by the last post (which was not easy to do, since WP-Forum was not designed to do that =O), I changed the way posts and threads are created to prevent multiple posts, and I also did various small fixes. Tomorrow we will be releasing Full Disclosure Episode 19 - a short video on Lock Picking Basics. Hopefully in the upcoming weeks we will have a couple more videos released.

We finally got the donation button added to the website. We are currently taking donations in hopes to get a new camera. We love making videos for all of our viewers and want to up the production value. So please donate if you can and we will be sure yo let all our users know how close we are to our goal.

We said we would release a Vblog on how to Dual boot Windows and Backtrack so here it is. The process is slightly different, there is not need for an extended partition because you only need four primary partitions, and we use Lilo for the boot loader. Since we aren’t installing Ubuntu we have to manually create and configure the linux swap partition. Also, we have to manually configure Lilo; however, this allows us to change the Splash image when your computer starts.
Full Scale Video Here
Download Here

For episode 17, we demonstrate how to triple boot a computer with Windows, Backtrack, and Ubuntu. Nox and I go through the process of setting up the various disk partitions, installing Backtrack and Ubuntu to different partitions, and how to configure your computer to boot between each of the Operating Systems. Hopefully, this episode will give you guys insight on how to go about multibooting your computer with several different OSs.

Live Stream Here
Download Here

Download Backtrack
Download Ubuntu

Awhile ago I was asked to rewiring a company’s 66 Block, a type of punchdown block used to connect sets of wires in a telephone system, because they wanted to replace their plain old telephone service (POTS) with multiple VoIP telephone lines. I had little knowledge on the 66 Block before doing this job, so I got out my trusty Beige Box to figure out how it was wired. Here’s a short video on how to tap a 66 Block. (Watch Episode 6 if you need help making a Beige Box)

Full Scale Video Here
Download Here

An anonymous viewer brought to my attention that McAfee’s so called “SiteAdvisor” had labeled Infinityexists.com with the big evil red X

It turns out that McAfee SiteAdvisor scanned Infinity Exists and found the Jamesgo.dll Worm, which I uploaded so you guys can see how it works. Not only is the virus zipped to prevent anyone from accidentally running it, but also, there is an explanation on how to remove the virus in the blog post.

(I have to agree with the Nuisance ‘O Meter. Jamesgo is definitely an 8!)

Don’t get my wrong, I think it is a good idea for McAfee to try to inform non-techie computers users that those free screensavers are going to mess up their computer. I just think McAfee should take into account the content of the website instead of just blindly scanning the internet for viruses. Now people interested in computer hacking will be disinclined to visit Infinity Exists because they’ll see this:

Well anyways, that my rant on McAfee SiteAdvisor

This weekend was UIUC’s annual Engineer Open House, and last night there was a Singing Tesla Coil show. The Tesla coils were built by Steve Ward, a EE student at UIUC. “Steven has developed Tesla Coils with high levels of control allowing audio modulation of their lightning-like display. Interfacing the Continuum Fingerboard with this technology will generate a musically expressive and highly energetic, multi-voiced performace” (EOH Exhibit Guide).

Full Scale Video Here
Download Here

This episode of Full Disclosure illustrates the progress of Cracking weak WPA Preshared Keys. Before you can crack the Preshared Key you must capture the four way handshake between the Access Point and a client; to accomplish this you must force the client to reconnect to the AP with the DeAuthentication attack we showed in episode 3. If you are using the Linksys WUSB54GC you will have to update your drivers to RaLink RT73 USB Enhanced Driver. In this episode we show you how to do this, and I also made a Backtrack module to automate the process. The module works in the same way as the IPWRAW Module for the Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG card, so you can watch that Vblog if you are having troubles.

Live Stream Here
Download Here

Download RT73 Module Here
Watch IPWRAW Vblog Here

For Full Disclosures first Modding episode, we show you how to turn your old Xbox that’s collecting dust, into a ultimate gaming/media playing/linux machine without opening the case. We use a specially crafted save game that exploits a vulnerability in Mech Assault to install a new Dashboard on the Xbox. The Xbox Media Center dashboard allows you to manage your music and videos, play your old favorite games with emulators, and it allows you to play backed up Xbox games. Furthermore, you can install various versions of Linux.

Live Stream Here
Download Here