Contact: mm99@windstream.net

Ghostbuster has 3 stand-alone components. Each may be used independently.

1. Ghostbuster Back-Up System
2. Ghostbuster Secure Boot Control System
3. Ghostbuster Security Module

.. How Ghostbuster Works

Ghostbuster - Download

All three Ghostbuster Component Apps are included in the Ghostbuster.ZIP package

DOWNLOAD IT- Ghostbuster.ZIP - 130 kb (password protected, see, below)
MD5 checksum: 15d0a7ce81ef620cbfc98587e0f4da0b

Files List: GB-TOC.TXT

REGISTER IT- Required, to receive the .zip file password and a serial number key to run the apps..

Ghostbuster Support Test

- You can test your Computer, BIOS and Hard Drives to be sure they support Ghostbuster. . Download and run the Ghostbuster Support Test application, 8.9 kb, MD5 checksum: 62b56bf21f187e0cc9ce71c572bd7000)

Requirements: -An x86 or x86-64 Computer and a simple MS-DOS system floppy boot disk to run SUPPORT.EXE.

How Ghostbuster Works

.........The basic idea is, simply, to be able to copy an entire hard drive partition, containing system or data, to a back-up file, quickly, and then, later, and also quickly, to be able to restore the partition to its original form from the back-up file.
.........In the real world, however, the idea is not so simple, and there are many examples of apps that attempt to do this efficiently. . In order to achieve maximum transfer speeds, Ghostbuster is a low running, boot app, like a tiny operating system. . It uses sector-to-sector transfer, disregarding the source file system, it copies the entire partition, boot code, file tables, data, and empty space, to its own partition and its own relatively simple, fast file system. Ghostbuster can achieve overall transfer rates of approx. 97% of the hard drives' rated speeds, but in order to achieve best results, you must repartition your hard drive, and reinstall your operating system and drivers on a reasonably sized partition, and you must use two hard drives (speeds are about 1/3 as fast if you use only one hard drive).

An example:
I have two, 80 GB, ATA 100 hard drives with maximum read speed of 100 MB/sec, and maximum write speed of 50 MB/sec. So, one read + one write yeilds a maximum transfer speed of 33.3 MB/sec or 30 sec per GB.

1. My Primary Master Drive 0 is my normal system drive:

-Partition 1 is a 5.5 GB Windows XP partition.

I can back-up or restore this partition with a transfer time of 3 min. and 18 sec. (32.3/MB per sec. or 31 sec per GB, to read the source and write the destination).
This actually takes about 5 to 7 minutes, including time to reboot, switch drives, operate the app, and transfer the data.
Double the transfer time if you want it to re-read both and verify the data afterward.
I always used the verify function to begin with, but with newer hard drives, and after much testing and no errors, I seldom select to verify the data.

-Partition 2 is a 9 GB partition for applications, data, or a larger XP system.
-Partition 3 is a 24 MB Ghostbuster Secure Boot Control partition.
-Partition 4 is a 60 GB partition which could be for applications or data, but I don't use it

2. My Secondary Master Drive 1 has one 80 GB partition and is my Ghostbuster Back-Up System drive. I have also used this drive in the Primary Slave position with the same good results.

3. I can configure different systems, for example:

- I installed Windows XP on the 5.5 GB partiton, using my OEM Windows XP disk, OEM drivers disk, Windows XP SP-2 disk, Internet Service Provider disk, downloaded Internet Explorer 7 upgrade installer, downloaded Windows Installer and Windows Defender, and then I configured Windows XP settings, email accounts, etc., the way I wanted them, and installed a few applications I always use and trust. This took approximately 4 hours, and used about 2.7 GB of the partition. Then I rebooted on the Ghostbuster Back-Up System drive and made a back-up copy of the 5.5 GB Windows XP partition in about 5 minutes. This file is my "Windows XP 5.5 GB clean, basic system" file, and I can reinstall it (restore it) to the 5.5 GB partition in about 5 minutes, anytime I want to.

- Then I rebooted on the Windows XP 5.5 GB system and added Quicktime, Move, Real, and Shockwave media players and upgraded Windows media player. Again, reboot on the Ghostbuster system and make another back-up file. This one is my "Windows XP 5.5 GB system w/media players" file.

- Now I start over. I install a Windows XP clean, basic system, as before, but this time on the 9 GB partition, and then I add all of my programming languages This takes approximately 5 hours, and uses about 6.7 GB of the partition. Then I reboot on the Ghostbuster Back-Up System drive and make a back-up copy of the 9 GB Windows XP partition in about 7 minutes. This is my "Windows XP 9 GB system w/prog. languages" file. I can reinstall it (restore it) to the 9 GB partition in about 7 minutes, anytime I want to.

So, okay, you get the idea, maybe, but exactly how to do this, and how to keep this organized, clean, updated, etc. would vary from one user to the next. Currently you are only allowed 4 primary partitions on a hard drive. This is a standard observed by all MBR disk partitioning utilities. In the future the GPT partitioning scheme will allow more partitions, but this is not the current standard, and Ghostbuster only works on MBR scheme drives. For many uses, Ghostbuster is adequate, but it will only back-up primary partitions. It will back-up an extended partition containing many logical drives as a single whole extended partition, which is like a primary partition, and Ghostbuster will keep only 17 files, total. These two limitations may be changed in future versions to allow individual logical drives to be backed-up separately, and to allow more files.

4. Additional features... Using Ghostbuster Secure Boot Control in the 24 MB partition, when I boot on my normal system drive, and its integral Ghostbuster Security Module, I can password lock my back-up drive so that it can not be read or written to by anything which might hack or spy in my Windows XP system, apps, or online processes. I can also Freeze the lock on my normal system drive to protect it from password setting attacks. . The Ghostbuster Secure Boot Control also can be used to set the active boot partition on a drive, and to switch off or reboot the computer which facilitates switching drives.

5. After I have installed and configured my basic systems, and made Ghostbuster back-up files of them:

- I can try software or system updates that I am unsure of in my Windows XP 5.5 GB system. . If for technical or trust reasons I do not like the results, or if I think it has gunked my system, and I may not be able to uninstall it completely, I can restore my system from the clean back-up file in an absolute way that I do not trust, from experience, MS Windows system restore process to acomplish.

- I can visit web sites that I might not fully trust, and later if I wish I can restore my system from the clean back-up files.

- With my back-up drive pasword locked, and my system drive lock frozen, and my clean systems backed-up and fully restorable, including the system drive's Master Boot Record, I am virtually unhackable.

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Ghostbuster Back-Up System
May 2008

.........Ghostbuster Back-Up System is a binary boot app, written in fasm assembly language. .It is used to back-up and restore hard drive partitions, and optionally their MBR boot sectors. .It runs on any standard x86 Computer, regardless of the Operating System. .It is installed on its own hidden bootable partition, it boots and runs like a simple operating with its own file system, and this is why it is so fast and capable of backing up and restoring hard drive partitions at near maximum hard drive speeds. .In addition, it displays a list of up to 4 hard drives, and their 4 primary partitions, with details, and can also be used to set the active partition on any drive partition and to reboot or power off your computer.

Requirements:

-An x86 or x86-64 Computer ... Examples: Intel... Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium Extreme Edition, Pentium M, Pentium D ... Pentium 4, Core, Dual Core, Core Solo, Core Duo, Core 2, Celeron, Xeon, Atom .... Windows computers, Linux Computers, DOS Computers, IBM (Non-Apple) compatible Computers.

-A computer manufactured since about 1995+ which sould have BIOS int13h Extended Disk Drive Functions.

-ATA or SATA Hard Drives manufactured since about 1995+ and also Recommended that you have an extra hard drive to achieve maximum speed, data security, and to provide enough back-up space.

-Basic knowledge of hard drive partition formats, a partitioning utility (included in Windows or DOS fdisk), and the ability to re-install and configure your operating system and drivers on a hard drive partition.

-A free primary partition on a hard drive where you can install Ghostbuster Back-Up System, a minimum 5 MB for the app, but much larger if you plan to use it to create back-up files which it keeps on its own partition, only, using its own file system. Recommended, a partition, min. 30 GB for Windows XP back-ups, 60 GB for Windows Vista back ups (unformatted), but this can vary depending on how large you build your system and data partitions and how many variations you want to back-up. .Ghostbuster keeps a maximum of 17 files, which are about 4 MB larger than the partition being backed-up)

Screenshot

Ghostbuster Secure Boot Control System
May 2008

.........Ghostbuster Secure Boot Control System allows you to configure which system partition will boot on your boot hard drive. It is also a binary boot app, written in fasm assembly language. .It runs on any standard x86 Computer regardless of the Operating System. .It is installed on its own small (5+ MB) hidden bootable partition, it boots quickly and runs, and after a 5 second delay (so you may choose to delay booting and run its utilities menu) it boots the operating system partition you have configured it to boot, and (your option) also automatically Freezes the Lock on your primary system hard drive to protect against password setting attacks which can render a hard drive unusable.
.........It contains three additional utilities, which can be run from its menu, one can be used to set the active, boot partition on any drive partition. The second you can use to reboot or power off your computer, both to facilitate making changes, and booting different system partitions and/or drives. .The third is a functionally identical version of the Ghostbuster Security Module, except MS-DOS is not required, you run it directly from the boot control system's menu and use it to execute the Security Mode Feature Set commands for ATA and SATA internal hard drives (see topic below for more details).

Requirements:

-An x86 or x86-64 Computer ... Examples: Intel... Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium Extreme Edition, Pentium M, Pentium D ... Pentium 4, Core, Dual Core, Core Solo, Core Duo, Core 2, Celeron, Xeon, Atom .... Windows computers, Linux Computers, DOS Computers, IBM (Non-Apple) compatible Computers.

-A computer manufactured since about 1995+ which sould have BIOS int13h Extended Disk Drive Functions.

-ATA-3+ (1997) or higher hard drives which optionally support the Security Mode Feature Set (only required to use the Security Module, otherwise ATA or SATA Hard Drives manufactured since about 1995+ )

-Basic knowledge of hard drive partition formats, a partitioning utility (included in Windows or DOS fdisk).

-A free primary partition, 5+ MB, on a hard drive where you can install Ghostbuster Boot Control System. .Recommended: a 24 MB (unformatted) partition.

Ghostbuster Security Module - GBSECM1.EXE - Hard Drive Lock
March 2008

.........The Security Module is a stand-alone .exe file which runs in MS-DOS operating system. You can use it to execute the Security Mode Feature Set commands for ATA and SATA internal hard drives.
.........The Security Module runs from an MS-DOS system floppy boot disk you can make in Windows (any version) or an MS-DOS System Boot Partition on your hard drive. ..You can then boot your computer on the DOS disk and run the Ghostbuster Security Module's GBSECM1.EXE...This a fail-safe and a convenience feature you can use to lock or unlock hard drives.
.........For computers with ATA-3+ (1997+) or SATA hard drives which optionally support the Security Mode Feature Set, you can:
..................-Set A Master Password
..................-Set A User Password and Lock
..................-Unlock (temp, with the password)
..................-Freeze Lock (temp prevent locking)
..................-Disable Passwords (unlock completely with the password)
..................-Erase Unit (if user password is lost in the maximum security mode, or for other reasons - delete all data on the drive and unlock completely with the master password).
.........The Security Mode Feature Set is a hardware feature built into the controller chip on the actual hard drive. It is operated by software with a special set of commands sent directly to the hard drive's command registers at their hardware port address, and the passwords are kept by the hard drive in a non-data area on the disk. ..The only known way to defeat this system is a complicated technical feat, requiring disassembly of the hard drive and the ability and devices to remove the password from the actual disk.

Intended Use:
1.. After copying a back-up of your system partition (Windows 9x, XP, Vista, or any other Standard PC op. system) or a data partition or just data files to a back-up internal hard drive connected to your Standard PC computer, you shut down your computer. . Then you can reboot on an MS-DOS disk or partition, run Ghostbuster Security Module, and use it to Lock the back-up hard drive.. . Then you reboot on your normal operating system, and nothing, absolutely nothing, not BIOS, not system drivers, not software, not spyware online, not viruses, not malware, not hacks, not trojans, nothing exploiting any means what-so-ever can read or write to your back-up hard drive. It is absolutely locked.
Other Posible Uses:
2.. The Ghostbuster Security Module can be used to lock any or all hard drives on a computer, prior to shutting it down for a period of inactivity, to protect the data on the drives from anyone (spies) who might gain physical access to the hardware during your absence. . Then, when you return, you run the Security Module, disable the passwords (unlock the drives completely), and then reboot your system, normally.
3.. Prior to disposing of or selling a computer or hard drive which might contain data which you do not want to share, you can use Ghostbuster Security Module to erase all data on the hard drive, and this is a single command given to the drive, which deletes all data on the drive at maximum write speed for the drive.

Requirements:

-An x86 or x86-64 Computer ... Examples: Intel... Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium Extreme Edition, Pentium M, Pentium D ... Pentium 4, Core, Dual Core, Core Solo, Core Duo, Core 2, Celeron, Xeon, Atom .... Windows computers, Linux Computers, DOS Computers, IBM (Non-Apple) compatible Computers.

- ATA-3 (1997) or higher hard drives which optionally support the Security Mode Feature Set (drives to be locked).

- Your computer BIOS must not Security Freeze Lock the hard drives and must not disable the Security Mode Feature Set. (most do not, but to be sure, you can download and run the Ghostbuster Support Test, above.) (**also, see notes below)

- Any simple MS-DOS system floppy boot disk or an MS-DOS System Boot Partition on a hard drive (to run GBSECM1.EXE or SUPPORT.EXE).

Screenshot

Notes

.........** More detailed information about the ATA hard drive Standards, and the "Security Mode Feature Set." ... ATA and SATA Hard drives have many features which a drive manufacturer, can optionally support or not support in any particular hard drive model.. The drive will report whether or not it supports a particular feature, when the BIOS, or the operating system, or in some systems when software issues an Identify Device command to the hard drive.
.........Another optional feature in ATA-5+ hard drives allows a Device Configuration Overlay command to be sent to the hard drive which makes the drive appear not to support certain features which it actually does support, thus disabling the feature. Since ATA/ATAPI-3, approx 1997, many hard drives have supported the Security Mode Feature Set which can be operated using the Ghostbuster Security Module to set passwords, lock, unlock, etc. hard drives, but in some computers the Security Mode Feature Set may be disabled.
.........Additionally, some BIOS may issue a Security Freeze Lock command to the hard drive when the computer is booting up, and this command disables all of the Security Mode Feature Set commands until the next time the power is switched off to the drive and then back on, which in that computer would be the next boot, and then BIOS would issue the Freeze Lock command, again. . I have read that in about 1/3 of the notebook computers made, the BIOS does this, but I have no exact knowledge about this number. I am also not aware of whether or not the BIOS issued Security Freeze Lock command in those computers can be controlled by the computer user with a BIOS setting. It may be posible to disable it temporarily in the BIOS settings window at the boot so that Ghostbuster Security Module could be used, but it would be a good idea to reenable the Freeze Lock before booting normally on your Windows, or other op. system.... The reason for the Freeze Lock is that if malicious software, a virus, or an online hack can gain access to the hard drive ports in a computer, it could set passwords and lock the hard drive making it unusable.. So, the Freeze Lock is a very good defense, during normal operation, for any drive which must be accessible for read and write operations in the computer.

.........*** The Ghostbuster Support Test's SUPPORT.EXE executes an Identify Device Command for each internal hard drive, and then displays a list of features currently (if not disabled by a Device Configuration Overlay) supported by each drive. . This command will be executed, regardless of the security state the drive is in, Frozen, Locked, etc. ..Also note: after installing Ghostbuster, the same information can be viewed using the Ghostbuster Security Modules.

...The highest UltraDMA Mode supported by each drive and the currently selected UltraDMA Mode for each drive will be displayed. . The mode is selected by your computer BIOS (or disk driver) based on what they (the drive and the driver) support and the mode may also be affected if, for example, you connect an older, slower drive as a slave on the same channel (cable) with a newer, faster drive, the newer drive's selected mode may be lower than the highest mode it supports.

...The Security Status of each drive will be displayed:
...1. Supported (the drive supports the Security Mode Feature Set commands).
...2. Enabled (here, enabled means a user password is set, and the drive is either locked, or unlocked temporarily).
...3. Locked (a user password is set and the drive is locked, data is inaccessible).
...4. Frozen (none of the security commands can be executed until the next power cycle).
...5. Count Expired (meaning 5 unsuccessful attempts to unlock with a password since power up).
...6. Enhanced erase support (an additional feature supported by some drives)
...7. Security Level in effect, High or Maximum.

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