Hack #1: Installing Tails OS on an Internal Hard Disk Drive

Short answer: You cannot do this. Tails OS does not support booting from internal drives.

Long answer: You can do this, but you must (1) be extremely careful and (2) really know why you are doing this. Tails OS works well from USB thumb drives and is designed to fit on very small USB thumb drives. USB thumb drives are easy to destroy if needed by smashing them with a hammer or by "accidentally" crushing them under the leg of a chair. Tails OS ensures that a computer booted from a USB thumb drive will not leave a trace on the computer indicating that it was used to boot any particular machine. By contrast, a hard disk inside a computer is harder to destroy (it requires disassembling the computer), and if left inside the machine, it provides evidence that the user of the machine was using Tails OS and thus the Tor network.

Having said all that, here's how to install Tails OS on an internal hard disk drive. To do this, the internal hard disk drive must be removable, which is a given on most PCs and older Intel Macs, but is not a given on newer Intel Macs and some PCs with tightly integrated hardware. Most Intel Macs allow booting into target disk mode if you absolutely cannot physically remove the drive. You can Google "target disk mode, Mac" to learn how to do this. If you are using "target disk mode" instead of removing the internal drive, you must have a second computer.

STEPS TO INSTALL TAILS OS ON AN INTERNAL HARD DRIVE:

(1) Disassemble your computer and remove the internal hard drive.  You must have a device that will allow the internal hard drive to connect with the computer from the outside via USB.  For example, SATA to USB connectors are cheap and common to find on Amazon, but you can also find M.2 to USB connectors and others.

(2) You must install Tails OS onto a USB thumb drive using instructions from the official Tails OS website and boot the computer into Tails OS from the USB thumb drive.  When you arrive at the welcome screen after booting, you MUST enable persistent storage AND set an administrator password.

(3) Plug the internal hard drive into the computer via USB and mount that disk using the disk mounter program in Tails (located in the "Utilities" tab of the Applications menu).

(4) Open the Tails Cloner app, which is located in the "Tails" tab of the Applications menu.  Clone Tails to the hard drive you mounted in step 3.  You can choose whether or not you want to include Persistent storage.

(5) DO NOT TURN OFF THE COMPUTER YET

(6) After you have successfully cloned Tails to the drive you mounted in step 3, the drive will be unmounted.  Go back to the disk mounter program and re-mount the drive.

(7) Open the "Root Terminal" app, which is located in the "System Tools" tab of the Applications menu.

(8) In the Root Terminal app, type and enter the following command:

(If you cannot view this code, you can download the PDF version of this guide here.  The password to open the PDF document is "aboutwes.com")

(9) Next type and enter the following command:

(10) A long string of computer code will appear.  Highlight all the text below the previous command (cat live64.cfg) to the prompter (but not including the prompt).  Right click with your mouse and select "Copy."

(11) Open the Text Editor app.  This app is found in the "Accessories" tab in the Applications menu.  Paste the text you copied in Step 10 into a text document.  Save the text document to the Persistent folder.  This text document is a backup.

(12) Create a new text document in the Text Editor app.  Paste the text you copied in Step 10 again into the new text document.  Press the control key + F to reveal the find function.  Search within the document for the following code "live-media=removable".  Wherever you find the code "live-media=removable" delete the code.  When you have (very carefully) deleted all instances of "live-media=removable" AND NOTHING ELSE, highlight the entire document, right click, and copy the text.

(13) Go back to the Root Terminal app and type and enter the following command:

(14) You should see blinking cursor indicating that you can edit the file.  Right click after the cursor and select "Paste."  When you use the "cat >" command you delete the contents of the file and are adding entirely new content.

(15) Press the control key + D to exit.

(16) Next type and enter the following command:

(17) Similar to step 10, a large string of programming code will appear.  Highlight all the text below the command and above the prompter and right click with your mouse to select "copy."

(18) Go back to the Text Editor app, create a new document and paste the code into the new document.  Save the document to your Persistent folder.  This is a backup.

(19) Create a new document in the Text Editor app and paste the code again into the document.  Press the control key + F to reveal the find function.  Search within the document for the following code "live-media=removable".  Wherever you find the code "live-media=removable" delete the code.  When you have (very carefully) deleted all instances of "live-media=removable" AND NOTHING ELSE highlight the entire document, right click, and copy.

(20) Go back to the root terminal and type and enter the following command:

(21) You should see blinking cursor indicating that you can edit the file.  Right click after the cursor and select "Paste."

(22) Press the control key + D to exit.

(23) Type and enter the following command:

(24) Type and enter the following command:

(25) Type and enter the following command:

(26) Similar to step 10, a large string of programming code will appear.  Highlight all the text below the command and above the prompter and right click with your mouse to select "copy."

(27) Go back to the Text Editor app, create a new document and paste the code into the new document.  Save the document to your Persistent folder.  This is a backup.

(28) Create a new document in the Text Editor app and paste the code again into the document.  Press the control key + F to reveal the find function.  Search within the document for the following code "live-media=removable".  Wherever you find the code "live-media=removable" delete the code.  When you have (very carefully) deleted all instances of "live-media=removable" AND NOTHING ELSE, highlight the entire document, right click, and copy the text.

(29) Go back to the root terminal and type and enter the following command:

(30) You should see blinking cursor indicating that you can edit the file.  Right click after the cursor and select "Paste."

(31) Press the control key + D to exit.

(32) Type and enter the following command:

(33) Repeat steps 25 through 31.

(34) Power off the computer.  You do not need to save the modified system files that you pasted into the Text Editor (unless you want to).

(35) Disassemble the computer.  Reinstall the internal hard drive.

(36) Boot from the internal hard drive.

KEEP READING -> : Hack #2, Running Skype, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams in Tails OS

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