i want to be able to lock my system.

[mvsfan]

What i am looking for is information on how to hardware lock an established (going on 7 years now) mame system to Sd cards or compact flash.

basically i want all unchanging data like game data and hiscore info to be stuck on a locked SD card using one of those IDE to SD interfaces. I also want to have plenty of backup cards i can just plug right back in to replace a failed card.

what i dont understand fully, is how much of your basic XP operating system data is required to remain read/write and how much of it can be locked to read only.

or could i just stick the whole OS onto An sd card and be done with it without it crashing?

thanks.

[mvsfan]

What i am looking for is information on how to hardware lock an established (going on 7 years now) mame system to Sd cards or compact flash.

basically i want all unchanging data like game data and hiscore info to be stuck on a locked SD card using one of those IDE to SD interfaces. I also want to have plenty of backup cards i can just plug right back in to replace a failed card.

what i dont understand fully, is how much of your basic XP operating system data is required to remain read/write and how much of it can be locked to read only.

or could i just stick the whole OS onto An sd card and be done with it without it crashing?

thanks.

I see i got something wrong. Hiscore data you would definately want to be read/write.

Basically i want the whole core of the system to be read only and the basic os stuff thats required to have write access will go on a writable drive.

this takes the entire headache out of a HDD crash, a system failure, or a nasty virus since all i would have to do is reinstall the basics and at the same time i would be 100% certain with no guesswork that the failure or virus never could migrate to the important stuff.

[smalltownguy]

I'd say if you're concerned about HDD failure, then get a solid state drive.

As far as infection goes, the only real protection is to never turn it on.

That aside, your best bet is to get a ghosting program to clone your HDD, and religiously back up at regular intervals. Preferably, use two spare drives, for redundancy.

I haven't seen a fool proof way to lock down a system yet. As soon as someone figures something out, someone else has hacked it.

[mvsfan]

yeah, i know. i didnt say hack proof. im looking for hack resistant.

best thing ive come up with over the years is #1 if you can get away with it, example being its not a POS terminal or something that has to send data, never connect an embedded system to the internet.

the second thing would be local attacks. for the example of an arcade cabinet, dont have any external Drives or USB ports where someone could just slink up and plug in their usb flash drive and flash your system, or pop their dvd in, or such, while you leave a good game to go to the bathroom, im sure you get the idea.

Ive got a whole bay of easy access disk drives and card slots and usb ports so i can easily update things, but they are all closed up behind a big happ door with security locks and a hasp on top of that.

Ive also got a guinea pig.

ive got a pc that i test everything on first to see if any ill effects are noticed from an update or a new skin or whatever.

That is that PC's sole purpouse. if it gets eaten alive during a test, i dont give a crap.

truth is that ive got the physical show up at your house hardware hacker locked down and also the internet hacker searching open tcp ports is not even an issue.

my basic question that i am seeking an answer for is that lets just say for instance that some malicious bug gets to things and slips under all of the levels of security already in place,

my goal is to physically limit by using Hardware locked media so that the amount of damage that it could possibly do is severely limited Internally.

at the least i want to be able to make a backup of the OS, And Mame 32 and all related configurations to Mame,

So at rock bottom all i have to do is reinstall the OS and Mame, and everything else on top of that i dont even have to think about because its still all there unchanged.

[mvsfan]

I think ive figured out a solution.

i was looking at an ide pinout the other day and one of the wires on the ide cable is for a write signal.

so basically if i cut this wire ive got my lock dont i ?

option 2 is to get one of those ide to sd card boards that lets you use an sd card as an ide drive.

[SavannahLion]

BartPE

edit: Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, July?! I thought the last post was this month! NVM then.