Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Corsair on February 15, 2004, 01:52:57 pm
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Anybody ever heard of a program called Deep Freeze?
The damn techie people at school put it on my laptop cuz they were tired of seeing junked up machines with too much crap on them being brought in to be fixed.
After three restarts, this program locked down my C: drive and so now whenever I restart, anything that isn't saved to My Documents disappears. And I have to install it all again. I've gotten around this by just leaving my laptop on standby until it crashes but that's annoying as hell.
Anybody know of a way to get this damn thing off, short of having the administrator password?
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no, never heard of it, so i don;t know about how to kill it.
format c: is a garantueed way though, unless this includes on of those hardware jokes.
out of curiosity, is this your machine or does the school own it?
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Heh heh. I really don't know if I can bring myself to be helpful, that's the most excellent abuse of tech powers I've heard in months...
Anyway. Not familiar with the product, but it looks like it's rather the point to keep people from bypassing it. I'd email the support guys at the company, or just go in and grovel before the repair guys for a while. That is, unless it's the school's computer, in which case you're just ****ed, and serves you right.
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It's my computer. The school just thinks it can play Big Brother from 1984 and get away with it. And they are.
I'd reformat except that I'm not sure quite how to do it and I don't want to lose all my stuff...which is too much to back up. :sigh:
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I like these guys more and more.
Anyway. Like I said. DeepFreeze support'll probably help, if you come up with a plausible story. The "I just bought this computer used..." line has served me well in the past.
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*cough* nevermind, read it wrong.
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wait if it's your computer then how could they have put it on there
you might want to try a secondary OS to kill it.
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Why not just ask those guy's to remove it? as you said you own the machine so they have no right to put stuff on your machine with out your permission.
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Install everything in My Documents?
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it resets the registry ect
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Any reason why you can't just kill the process with a CTRL-Alt-Delete?
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Ermm... yeah. It manages to hide itself so it doesn't appear to be running, even when it is.
As for why they won't take it off...well...they won't. If it gets taken off, then they reserve the right to cut off all my internet, email, etc. from school. I own it as a part of the school's tech program. :sigh:
Maybe I will just reformat...errr...someone want to tell me how to do that?
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So it aint realy yours?
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http://www.deepfreezeusa.com/enterprise/index.htm
this is the program I believe....
EDIT: It IS really mine. I bought it. With my money. Mine. But the school thinks that they have some right to fiddle with it because I bought it through their program and got a discount on it. But it's mine.
[Gollum]My precioussssssssssss....[/Gollum]
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well then it is your property not theres so.
My sister also bought a laptop at her school and she also sended it to the tech guys to have a look at it they also installed some security crap on it. But because she owned it they had to remove the program.
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Well...I emailed the contact they gave on their website. Maybe they'll give me a good answer. Otherwise I'll just have to go back to pestering the people at IT.
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save all important files some were else, insert the XP instal disk, it should boot from cdROM when you turn it on (hit key to boot from CD if it finds a bootable CD) after loading a buch of stuff it'll give you the option to delete partitions delete the one partition you have (I'm assumeing you only have one) then make two new ones one should be about 5 gigs the other should be as big as you can make it, format the 5 gig one in NTFS and install XP on it
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I guess I should really ask at this point- why the devil would you ever give your computer to college techs in the first place? The ones out here, at least, are out of their league when doing any troubleshooting that doesn't involve a hammer.
And if it's a claw hammer, they're liable to hurt themselves even then.
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They said they would cut off my internet if I didn't. Like a fool, I gave it to them.
I actually have two partitions. C drive is locked down but T drive is free (and that's where My Documents is).
Ermm...meh. I don't have time to reformat anyway. I'm doing applications for the summer right now... going to try to take some foreign relations courses at Georgetown. I'll go bug them after the long weekend.
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Awfully controlling, aren't they?
Yeah, this is sounding less and less like some respectable malicious bastards and more and more like a bunch of pigly ****s. Can you locate the program at all?
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No.
EDIT: I take that back. I found the folder, which has three files.
DF5Serv: Deep Freeze 5 Service
FrzState2k: Deep Freeze 5 Utility
DfDiagnoseDll: 4.0.0.0
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Hmm. Yeah, something sweeping like a format might be the only way to do it.
Though I wonder what making everything read-only would do...
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I can't delete this folder by the way... Administrator password required or some crap like that.
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You don't even have admin access?
Good christ, man, what the hell do you expect to happen to this computer when you graduate?
Anyway. Can you delete any part of the folder? Taking out a key DLL would probably disable the beastly thing. Or might make your entire system unstable. Hard to tell from here. Worth a shot, though.
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I expect them to ****ing unlock it.
And I was able to delete the DLL. I'll restart tonight and see what it does...
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Well, it'll be interesting.
Fortunately, security's generally pretty lax at schools, so that was probably a genuine omission and might do it.
Kinda wish I ran into interesting problems like that here more often, actually. On other peoples' computers, ahem. Anybody who so much as touches mine gets nasty bleedy machete-hacking death.
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Oh yeah, hey Stryke. Once I click "empty recycle bin" then it's not totally gone, right? Where's that hidden folder with the recently deleted crap?
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[color=cc9900]Unless Windows does something totally screwy with saving files, it ought to be a ghost of a file on the hard drive. i.e., the file is still there but Windows doesn't know it is, so will eventually write over it with something else.[/color]
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Okay.
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I think it must be a Temp thing, for future reference.
Doesn't really matter anyway. The program'd basically be dead as soon as the DLL was moved out of its folder, most likely. Basically nobody builds their software to survive a deletion, unless they're making a really fancy virus.
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Okay, going for a restart. Into the hands of fate...
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If it survives this, it'll be time for Drastic Measures™.
Or, really, just trying to overwrite the executable with "****" repeated 500000 times in Notepad. But Drastic Measures™ are more fun.
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Time for drastic measures.
I restarted. It had absolutely no effect. Everything went back to the way it was when it was locked. I have to reinstall half-a-dozen programs...luckily no files were lost because those I don't put in C: drive.
Oh, and did I mention that the DLL file I deleted apparently managed to RESPAWN itself? I deleted it, and then I deleted the one that appeared in TEMP, but it's still back in it's old folder.
Damn these people.
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That probably means it's backed up somewhere. So, yeah, try the Notepad thing on the executable first (which wouldn't be so easy to restore, at least assuming you checked for hidden programs), 'cos everything else I can think of takes a while and is kinda dangerous. And totally untested, which probably ties back into "dangerous"
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I know it's a hassle - but is there any way you can back up what you need to another separate hard drive, format the drive you're on, then reinstall everything from new?
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I've been wondering how this thing works, I (haveing no viable evedence to back this up) think is makes some sort of virtual drive and runs everything off of that, but this is just a personal theory from looking at how things like turning it off work (if you have an admin password, you can't just turn it off you have to restart before it will save anything)
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you could always try looking for files made durring the time you know it was installed on
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Could I install XP back onto ONLY the C: drive and leave the drive with My Documents untouched? Cuz then I could probably save... everything, more or less.
EDIT: Bob's right. I think that even with the admin password you have to restart before it will be totally turned off.
Meh. I'm not gonna screw around with .exe's when I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'll go bother them Tuesday when classes start up again.
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if you have two partitions already then you have a much nicer situation, the reason I sujested makeing two partitions is so that in the future you could do a clean sweep of the OS and reinstall windows without looseing any data, if there is nothing on C that is of importance then just put in your XP install disck and kill the C partition and reinstall, actualy be fore you do that go into windows/system32 and look for a file wpa.dbl (I think that's the extention) copy that and replace it after you have reinstaled so you don't have to go through the painful windows activation proces. after saveing that file reboot with your instal disk in and reformat and reinstall c
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I am assuming you've already tried rolling back your system to before they installed this program and taking it from there?
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I just did a look around and damn I'm good, I was right on corect, it does make a virtual drive. :cool:
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oh, one thing, before you reformat/reinstall make sure you have ether another computer with internet access or that you are damn sure that you have all the drivers and software to regain your internet connection.
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Originally posted by Flipside
I am assuming you've already tried rolling back your system to before they installed this program and taking it from there?
I can't. The damn techies have made sure of that... I can't even change the ****ing clock.
And Bob... I'll investigate this later. Maybe I will just reformat...I should have all those drivers and stuff.
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Dude, I'd just get a crap computer for internet and make 'em take the **** off of your "real" one. That's just unholy, and when something goes wrong you'll be completely unable to fix it- and you'd better believe they won't in any hurry.
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heh, the admin at my local uni uses this on all the pcs on campus.
its a sort of.... uber powerfull permission tool. it can allow/deny acces to just about anything. it can keep u making folders or putting stuff in folders or instaling things. stop u from doing anyting really. Unless u have admin acces ur fuct. if u dont have admin acces ull need to reformat or get the techies to remove the softwere. is very illegal to do that to someone elses computer.
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Yeah...you're probably right.
:sigh: Nothing's going right today. I can't even find my XP CD...maybe when I'm more awake. Thanks for all the help guys.
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[color=66ff00]Hmmm, personally I'd format the bugger and start from scratch, it is your property afterall.
Unless it's possible to bruteforce the thing? Try admin/password and all the usual common passes, techies are dumb sometimes...
[/color]
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Take the computer, march into there office with the president of the school(if possible), and demand that they immediately remove the software they surreptitiously installed on your computer. If they don't remove and don't give you a damn good reason why not, sue their sorry, myopic ass. You can probably get help as they've almost certainly done this to other students.
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Yes! Lawsuits solve EVERYTHING!
Especially when you're, you know, a college student and can totally afford a lawyer- hell, get a twelve-pack of 'em!
Oh, wait, no, I'm thinking of beers. Most college students can afford beers. Lawyers are expensive.
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:sigh:
Dear Sir,
Thanks for the email; unfortunately to remove the software you will need
to format the hard disk on the computer and reinstall the operating
system from scratch.
Regards,
Adam Zilliax
Technical Support
Faronics Technologies USA Inc.
Suite 170-2411 Old Crow Canyon Rd
San Ramon, California, 94583 USA
Toll Free: 1-800-943-6422
Fax: 1-800-943-6488
time to dig out the XP CD...
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ouch... i don't think the techie people can legally do that anyways...
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Time for a formal complaint to your school for damaging your property methinks.
I'm not too sure on the details, but basically, to install something without your permission which causes your computer to crash, and which limits your access to your own computer is more than a little shifty.
No need for lawyers, the letter of complaint is the best start, and it's free ;)
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Are you paying for using their internet? Because if you're getting net access for free, then they can say "If you're using our internet for free, we want the computer not to crash or whatever".
Still...that's a little extreme. Do what Flipside said and ***** to the school (formal complaint letter would be better:D)
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Internet basically always is part of the tuition.
*****ing at the school isn't likely to work; it is likely to tip them off that you're diddling with their precious control setup. Considering that there's nothing you can really expect from them than what you're going to do yourself, it'd probably be a bad call.