BIOS Bypass...

[toastydust]

HI...I am trying to design a code to put on a usb drive that will allow me to load a custom bios instead of the bios for that computer. it needs to take priority over all eprom/cmos chips and be universally compatible with all hardware. this is for use in my pc repair business not hacking but i think it would be an effective way to recover data and do diagnoses if i could run my own bios and boot into a variety of diagnostic tools. if anyone has any ideas or knows of a way to do this please respond here or e mail me:toastydust@gmail.com.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

It doesn't work that way... You can't, ever, EVER "bypass" a BIOS at boot. Get something like Hirens and use that on your thumb drive.

 

[Yami]

Indeed. It doesn't even make sense; in order for a computer to recognise the USB stick is even there, the BIOS must load. Plus about 20 other issues with that idea, ranging from copyright on the software required to make it work to just plain electronic engineering.

 

[toastydust]

ok...well how about something on the thumb drive that automatically changes the boot order in the bios without having to go to the setup menu so that the usb takes priority over all other drives. i know there are ways around bios passwords...i'm just looking for some code that can make that, as well as changing the boot order, automatic.

 

[Yami]

That's vaguely more realistic (in a sense) but not something we'd actually be allowed to help with while staying within the forum's rules.

The main problem there is a chicken and egg scenario. In order to run anything from the USB (such as the software required to make changes to the BIOS), it would need to be booted from (otherwise it's just sitting there, since there's nothing in the BIOS that would try to run anything from the USB drive). So if it's not already in the boot order, you're not going to be able to run the software from it to put it in the boot order... repeat ad nauseum.

The main way around that would be to disconnect anything else that could be booted from - hard drives, CD/DVD drives, floppy/zip drives, and hope that 'USB' is somewhere in there
(rather than in most cases where the options are:
1. Hard Drive
2. Disabled
3. Disabled
4. Disabled,
to prevent exactly such a scenario).

But then you're just into basic manual BIOS security circumvention along with 'remove the BIOS battery' which isn't really the point of what you're trying to achieve.

 

[toastydust]

well thank you guys for your input...i am going to continue to research this issue and hopefully be able to reach my goal if not, compromise with something close. thanks again.