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Tools

Because every great hacker has great tools!


99% of the hacking can be done outside of the box however if you're like me, you just gotta take the stuff apart.. :P You will need the following tools to open it.

  • A #1 Phillips (+) Screwdriver
    Remove the two warranty stickers (warranty? what's that?)and remove the four screws. The front hinges off at the top, be careful when you open it not to break that hinge. After the front's pulled off you can open it like a clamshell and pull out the heavily shielded innards. To remove the top shield you will need to remove the three screws in the brass hex tubes, the two screws that hold down the modem card, the one screw by the RJ11 jack, and the two bolts that are on both sides of the VGA connector. Once that is off you have a pretty decent view of the motherboard and you can clearly see the jumpers, etc. If you need to take the bottom shield off, you will need to take all of the screws out of the aluminium heat sink and all of the standoffs must also be removed. Remove the back metal piece by popping the standoffs out from the holes in the motherboard. The only thing worth noting on the bottom is the SanDisk branded chip that SanDisk claims not to know anything about.

    Now if you are wanting to hack it's software none of the above steps are necessary. In fact you don't even need the screwdriver. You will need a diffrent arsenal of toys to hack this thing:

  • One Zip100 disk formatted for DOS that contains the following files:
    FORMAT.COM - Used to format disks and prepare them for use. Use the /s parameter to make a disk bootable after it is formatted.
    FDISK.EXE - Used to partition hard drives. This is needed to work with the SanDisk
    DOLLY.EXE - A shareware app that allows you to save and restore a disk image of a drive's contents.
    Your Disk Image
  • One of the translucent sky-blue USB Zip100 drives that is SELF POWERED This CAN NOT be a Zip250 USB or a Zip100USB that is not self-powered.
  • Associated cables and extras that are needed to connect the USB zipdrive to the box.

    All you need to do is make sure that the BIOS is set under "Advanced Options" to Boot Order="USB-ZIP,C". Connect the Zip100 to the TOP USB port (remember the arrow in the picture in Section 1?)