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Mijide

Joined: Sep 09, 2008 Posts: 1
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Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:55 pm Post subject: Bsafe Hell |
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Hey everyone,
Recently (as in, two days ago recently) my hard drive bit the dust and took most of my wonderful things with it. But being the resourceful broke person I am, I decided instead of using money I don't have on a new computer, I could just hit up my local thrift store, snag an oldie and jam it's drive into my tower.
Great plan? Yes, yes indeed. Things were going great up until I tried to install Verizon Wireless via CD. The disk kept asking me if I had any firewalls on and I kept cursing at it until I noticed a small icon in the corner. It turned out to be something called Bsafe.
I tried uninstalling it the normal way, but when that failed, I turned to it's user manual where it explicitly states that if I didn't install it initially, I can't rip it. It also made sure to warn me in big bold letters that if I tried to be sneaky, it would ban me from the internet permanently or just destroy my computer data altogether.
I tried calling customer service, but that basically went nowhere (surprise!), I was only able to provide them with the ID that shows up on my log in window. I tried asking the thrift store who the computer belonged to, and it was a church that donated it. I called the local church, and the administrator-fella who previously ran their computer lab had quit and moved somewhere much too far for me to inquire, so I hit a dead end there.
Then I tried calling back again, this time with a church staff member backing me up but we both got nowhere. They insisted it had to be the guy, even though the thing was installed on the computer back in '02 and he could be dead for all they know.
Is there any way I can safely extract it from my computer myself without destroying anything? I should also point out that the computer has no internet access at all, I was installing Verizon to get it online, not to upgrade from dial up or something. |
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zlim

Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2422
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Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:37 pm Post subject: |
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| You aren't going to be able to remove it. It is also proably password protected and since you don't know the password, you can't do much.
Call the company
https://secure2.bsafeonline.com/ContactUs.aspx
to find out what options you have.
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drwho07

Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1134
Location: Central FL, USA
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:32 am Post subject: [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
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That program has been written up several times on this very forum over the past year. All those posts are still in the archive. Do a search for them.
If that drive has something of value on it, I'd set up that drive on another Pc as a slave and copy off all the important data files, and burn them to CD or DVD's, then wipe the drive clean and reinstall an OS on it.
Since the 'new' drive with BSAFE on it came from who knows where, I'd have to assume that there's NOthing of value on it. So reformat it and move on.
Another problem,,,,,if the OS in question is XP, then you can't move an OS drive from one computer to another.....Windows won't run!!!
You might get away with it if the OS is Win-98, but NEVER XP.
Even with 98, you're still going to have to acquire all the hardware drivers for your PC to install into the OS.
It just gets hairy'er and hairy'er!!!
I'd have to say that you're taken off down a very bumpy dirt road, full of potholes and pitfalls and even then, you might find that the bridge is OUT!
If you lived here in FL, I'd say bring that beastie over here and I'd fix it for you.
Good Luck,
The Doctor  |
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