How To Lock Your Computer With USB Drive

Posted on December 31, 2008 by lionjkt

Tired of people starting your computer when you are not around and messing up custom settings? Wouldn’t it be cool if you could lock your computer by just removing your USB stick from it? I’ll show you how you can use your USB stick, Flash Drive or Pen Drive what ever you call it to lock your computer, among other things…

Boot Lock
This trick will allow you to use your USB to BOOT into Windows. If someone tries to start the computer without your USB stick, it will display boot errors. Before begin, you playing with the BIOS and boot files of your computer may result in you not being able to boot into your Windows partition; so continue at your own risk! Things you need: A 64MB or larger sized USB Stick, Windows Recovery Disk (just in case).

 Unhide hidden and protected files : Go to Tools > Options > View, check Show hidden files and un-check Hide protected system files.

  • From the drive where Windows is installed (normally C:\), copy the files boot.ini, ntdlr and NTDETECT.COM to your USB Stick.
  • Now, we need to go into your BIOS, so restart the computer and keep jabbing [F8] as soon as the computer starts.
  • Once in the BIOS, enable USB Drive as the first boot device. You might have to enable USB Legacy  Support on older BIOSes.
  • Restart your computer, if all goes well, you should be able to log into Windows. If not, then unplug the USB Stick, return to the BIOS and change the First Boot device to your hard disk drive and repeat the steps above.
  • Once you are logged into Windows, go to your Windows drive and rename boot.ini to boot.bak.
  • To check if you have setup everything correctly, eject your USB stick and reboot the computer. You should get error messages on the screen such as Invalid Boot.ini” or “Windows could not start”.

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Filed under: security, utility, windows | Tagged: , , , , ,

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26 Responses

  2. Marty, on April 22nd, 2009 at 7:17 pm Said:

    Could this work with mac?

    Reply
  3. Marty, on April 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 pm Said:

    Could this work with a mac?

    Reply
  4. Chintan, on April 22nd, 2009 at 9:44 pm Said:

    hey nice post, but i wont be allowed to get on my pc without the flash drive anymore, right?

    Reply
  5. legendary tj, on April 22nd, 2009 at 11:07 pm Said:

    Awesome. My friends all get mad when they cant use my computer when im not around hahaha

    Reply
  7. 64 cosas que todo geek deberia saber | Tecnologia y Sociedad, on April 23rd, 2009 at 2:16 am Said:

    [...] 50. Bloquear tu computador con una USB [...]

    Reply
  8. Custom Flash Drives, on April 24th, 2009 at 11:45 pm Said:

    Great work! I also have my own blog I just find it hard to write quality content like this.
    I guess I really don’t have the time.

    Reply
  9. Brian Ward, on April 27th, 2009 at 10:21 pm Said:

    Why not just put a system startup password in the BIOS? I think every BIOS now a days has that option…

    Reply
  11. Will, on May 13th, 2009 at 8:35 pm Said:

    This is bad advice. The idea will work, but the work around is as simple as booting from a CD with a portable operating system. It might keep your average user from starting the machine, but it’s not going to protect or secure any of the data on your machine.

    There are also easier (and less dangerous) methods to lock your computer. Like passwords….

    Reply
  12. Link Love | Kaeli's Space, on May 17th, 2009 at 9:37 pm Said:

    [...] How To Lock Your Computer With USB Drive – i haven’t tried this yet, but it sounds like a seriously neat trick. You’re in trouble if you lose your flash drive, though. [...]

    Reply
  14. relaxman, on May 20th, 2009 at 12:53 am Said:

    Couldn’t someone just change the boot order again???

    Reply
  15. relaxman, on May 20th, 2009 at 12:54 am Said:

    NVM read the last step more carefully… lol

    Reply
  16. 64 cosas que todo geek deberia saber « Dark Andrew, on June 9th, 2009 at 10:43 am Said:

    [...] 50. Bloquear tu computador con una USB [...]

    Reply
  17. womens high heel shoes, on June 14th, 2009 at 9:12 pm Said:

    YAA Adding this to my bookmarks. Thank You

    Reply
  19. Top 5 programs for the Paranoid | The Technology Goat, on June 28th, 2009 at 6:44 am Said:

    [...] Key (literally) http://lionjkt.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/how-to-lock-your-computer-with-usb-drive/ Savvy scale ***** Worried that someone knows your password? scared that they might be able to crack [...]

    Reply
  21. MT, on July 7th, 2009 at 11:07 am Said:

    Then when you lose the USB stick or your USB stick dies.. you’re out of luck. Welcome to format.

    Reply

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