QUOTE (MedEvil @ May 7 2008, 12:12 AM)
Could you elaborate on that? And what means a "security area" in this context?
A USB stick is made by three main parts, a USB interface, a mass storage controller and some flash memory.
First two parts are enclosed in a single chip, that can, through "firmware", be programmed for a number of parameters, like Vid/Pid, Fixed/Removable, Serial ID, etc.
Some (not all) chips have also different ways to access the flash memory, as an example as having two LUN's, i.e. behaving like a "normal" IDE adapter with two channels with two hard disks attached.
In other words the stick is "low-level partitioned" to behave as being two drives.
And often together with this comes a third "data area" security protected, i.e. you need to input a password to accept it.
Point is that these settings can only be changed by using a particular "low-level" program by the manufacturer that is usually offered not for download by the "final" user.
For some controllers these utilities are known and can be found, for others they are either unknown or never reported as found anywhere.
QUOTE (MedEvil @ May 7 2008, 12:12 AM)
Let's say i want to get myself a new USB-stick and want to have this feature. How can i find out which stick has it or which don't?
Good question.
You cannot.
The ONLY possible way is to test the stick, check it's Vid/Pid and device name, hope that there are reports for matching Vids/Pids, search a lot to see if any of the infinite numbers of "re-branders" state somewhere on their site which chip is used, and so on.
There are a few, a little more than a handful, controller chip manufacturers.
There are several USB stick manufacturers, i.e. people that assemble the controller with some flash chips and a connector and enclose the lot in a plastic or metal case.
There are tens or hundreds of re-branders, i.e. people that buy from USB stick manufacturers sticks in bulk and sell them to shops branding the with their name.
Exactly the SAME USB stick can be sold with different brand/model name on it.
Exactly the same USB stick can have FOUR Vids
1) The original controller manufacturer one
2) The USB stick assembler one
3) The rebrander one
4) A "fake" or invalid or copied or simply "invented" one, hust
And the same happens for Pids.
And the same happens for device names.
This makes for about 4^3=64 possibilities in the worst case, and although some combination are more frequent than other ones, and device names are not really important (though sometimes useful to get to the manufacturer) due to the semi-random nature of 4) above, it is sometimes overly difficult if not impossible to understand what is really inside a stick.
And you still have to try and find the appropriate tool....
See this for some reference/ideas:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=15776You may want to note that, notwithstanding the over 32,000 thousands view of the referenced thread, just a couple of dozens (maybe) of sticks data have been reported/documented.
Also check this:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=1659
jaclaz
May 4 2008, 10:50 PM
) enough to be able to find the needed Manufacturer Tool and also a "Recover" app, that has almost the same functions as the above.
