Ultimate Boot CD

[Freecare Spiritwise]

For those that haven't heard of it, there's a diagnostic CD (it can even boot from a flash drive) that allows you to boot a system and run lots of diagnostics, drive recovery, malware removal, etc., straight off the CD. It boots a compact version of linux and even has free versions of DOS it can load.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

There's even a windows version. It took me a couple hours to update the latest AV / spyware removal defs and build it, and it requires a windows XP CD, but it's badass. My sister sent me her computer to fix and she left the hard drive out (oops). This CD boots Windows XP and surfs the internet without a hard drive. It touts itself as everything you need to diagnose a computer on one CD. Just about any tool you could ever need to diagnose a computer is on this thing, and it's all free (except for requiring a WinXP CD SP1/SP2 to build the ISO image.)

http://www.ubcd4win.com

Check these puppies out. I'm starting a local PC repair company and plan on getting plenty of mileage from these CDs, and thought I'd pass along the info to other geeks.

[Ddrak]

Agreed on UBCD. I use it a lot. Haven't had as much mileage from UBCD4WIN, but that's just me.

Another useful thing to have around is NTFS4DOS on a boot CD.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Agreed on UBCD. I use it a lot. Haven't had as much mileage from UBCD4WIN, but that's just me.

The cool thing about the windows version is that it runs all the mainstream windows AV / anti-malware tools, and can be configured to include any Win32 app (like siSoft Sandra, Acronis True Image, etc.) It's better than safe mode.

Another useful thing to have around is NTFS4DOS on a boot CD.

Doesn't the ultimate boot CD already include a boot image that can read NTFS? If not, it's easy to add boot images. I'll check that one out. UBCD has a good community and they're doing some interesting things with it...

Another fun tool to have:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6812226001

[Ddrak]

Doesn't the ultimate boot CD already include a boot image that can read NTFS?

Yes, but not *write* NTFS. I use it all the time for renaming directories before I do a fresh install onto a hard drive I don't want to blow away.

Edit: Although UBCD4WIN would eliminate this need, I realize.

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I usually just yank the drive and hook it up to my laptop using a cable like the one I linked above - then it's just me and the drive - just in case the original hardware is suspect. I also almost always prefer to recover any data first and then nuke the partition before re-installing windows. I might rethink the procedure since UBCD4WIN can do all that without removing the drive - asuming the existing machine is alive and functional.