[syslinux] Remotely Wipe Hard Drive

Miller, Shao shao.miller at yrdsb.edu.on.ca
Wed Jun 16 11:59:54 PDT 2010


Good day Matthew:

1. Syslinux can only access files from within the Syslinux-installed
filesystem at this time.  That could change in a future version, once
filesystem logic has been enhanced.
2. Syslinux cannot be installed on an NTFS filesystem, since there is no
Syslinux NTFS filesystem logic at this time.

Would an accurate statement about your scenario be: All computers
_currently_ are remotely accessible and have Windows installed on their
HDDs.  If that's the case, were you hoping to use a Windows boot-time
menu to chain-boot some flavour of Syslinux and initiate the cleansing
process?

If so, Ghost used/uses a strategy whereby they write a contiguous
partition image file somewhere in the NTFS filesystem, identify the
image's start sector, then hack the MBR to include a new partition which
points at the sectors occupied by that file, then they set that
partition active.  On the reboot, BIOS knows nothing about the fact that
this partition is actually an image file resident in an NTFS partition.
To BIOS, it simply boots it.  Such could be a FAT partition image with
Syslinux installed.  From Syslinux, you could chain a gPXE .lkrn image
for pxeknife, etc., etc.

- Shao Miller




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