Six downloadable boot discs that could save your PC

by Lincoln Spector

May 7, 2008 —

Way back in the 20th century, Windows prepared you for the day your PC wouldn't
boot. It came with a program that formatted a bootable floppy disk, complete
with diagnostic and repair utilities. If you had the forethought to create that
floppy while Windows was still working, you were ready when it eventually failed.

Alas, the Windows Boot Floppy went the way of DOS (the operating system it
actually booted). Modern versions can't make that floppy (they can format a
bootable DOS floppy--if you have the drive--but without utilities), and DOS
can't handle NTFS hard-drive partitions.

Since Microsoft
doesn't supply you with the ability to create an emergency boot disk, others
have stepped in to fill the vacuum. Here are six worthwhile emergency boot CDs,
all downloadable, and most of them free.

Yes, I know you can't download a CD. Most of these packages come as .iso files--easily
burnable disc images. If you double-click an .iso file, there's a good chance
that a program you already own--perhaps Nero Burning or Easy Media Creator--will
come up and burn it to CD. If that doesn't happen, download and install ISO
Recorder.

Know Your Rescue OSs

Since DOS doesn't handle XP or Vista repairs well, each of these discs boots
into one of the following three operating systems. It's good to know a little
about them.

Windows PE: The official, CD-bootable version of Windows (the PE stands for
Preinstallation Environment) makes the obvious choice for this sort of thing.
Unfortunately, Microsoft maintains strict control, and few utility authors have
received permission to use it.

BartPE: Since Microsoft won't share its preinstallation environment, Bart Lagerweij
created his own, and he gives it away for free. But to avoid copyright infringement,
he can't give you everything you need to create a BartPE disc. The missing elements
consist of Windows XP installation files you may or may not already have.

Linux Live CD: The name refers to any version of Linux you can download as
an .iso file and boot off a CD. But Linux can be an intimidating environment
for the uninitiated, it doesn't always handle NTFS well (many versions can read
NTFS but not write to it), and it is seldom geared to help with Windows problems.

The Six Great Rescue Discs

So let's get on with it. I'll start with discs that simply give you access
to the files on your hard drive, and work my way up to the powerhouses that
can diagnose and repair most boot problems.

Puppy Linux

If Windows won't boot, nothing gets you into your hard drive faster or more
easily than Puppy Linux. Puppy isn't the most powerful version of Linux by a
long shot, but it's great for accessing NTFS-formatted hard drives--especially
if you're not comfortable with Linux's whole mount concept. Just open the Drives
window and select a drive, and Puppy will mount it for you--in read/write mode,
if possible.

If Puppy succeeds in mounting the drive with read/write permissions, you not
only can copy your files elsewhere, but you can also edit them. Puppy Linux
comes with AbiWord, which supports .doc files, and Gnumeric, which supports
.xls. And even if it mounts read-only, you can still copy the files to an external
drive, most of which are formatted in the universally accessible FAT32 file
system.

But be careful how you click. Actions that take double-clicks in Windows, such
as opening a file, take only one in Puppy.

Price: Free

Download Puppy
Linux.

BartPE

The BartPE operating system makes a pretty good boot disc on its own, getting
you into Windows and letting you access your drive. It doesn't have much in
the way of repair utilities, but it has chkdsk, which should probably be the
first one you try. And it can run any portable Windows utility (that doesn't
require an installation) you care to give it.

Creating a BartPE disc isn't as easy as double-clicking an .iso file. You have
to download, install, and run Bart's PE Builder. To create a CD, the program
needs the Windows 2000 or XP installation files. One place you're sure to find
them is an actual Windows installation CD-ROM. But the recovery disc that came
with your PC probably doesn't have them.

Luckily, if your PC came with XP installed (and thus, not with a true XP CD),
the necessary files are probably in a folder called C:\Windows\i386. But I do
mean probably, not definitely. However, since the PE Builder is free, you're
not losing much if it can't create a disc.

Although BartPE's program selection is slim, the PE Builder lets you add other
programs to the disc before you burn it.

Price: Free

Download BartPE.

Vista Recovery Disc

It looked like Microsoft was finally going to do the right thing. Beta versions
of Vista SP1 came with a modern equivalent of the old Windows Boot Floppy--a
Start menu option called "Create a Recovery Disc" that burned a Windows
PE-based emergency CD.

Alas, Microsoft removed that feature before SP1 shipped--but not, fortunately,
before NeoSmart turned the disc into an .iso file and made it available on their
site.

Running on the Vista version of Windows PE, the Recovery Disc is basically
a Vista installation disc minus the install files. It even has an "Install
now" button that asks for a Product Key before failing. You're better off
clicking the Repair your computer button. Among its Vista-only options are a
tool for diagnosing and fixing startup problems, a version of System Restore
that uses restore points on the hard drive, the restore portions of Vista's
backup program, and a memory diagnostic tool.

Price: Free

Download Vista
Recovery Disc.

Ultimate Boot CD for Windows

This BartPE-based boot disc comes with a huge selection of tools to access
your data and get your PC booting properly again. Some of them are even useful.

UBCD takes a long time to load and asks you some odd questions before it's
finally up. But once it's there, you can edit the Windows Registry (yes, the
one on the hard drive) in RegEdit, recover deleted files, and even run benchmarks.
There are several malware scanners, four defraggers, and eight diagnostic programs
(including HD Tune and Windows' own chkdsk).

This boot CD also includes backup utilities to help you salvage your files.
There's a driver backup and a system profile backup whose Web-based documentation
no longer comes up. And four separate image backup programs. One of those programs,
DriveImage XML, I considered recommending in past articles but didn't because
restoring from it requires a second Windows installation--something the program
gets with UBCD.

The experience of setting up UBCD is identical to creating a BartPE disc--with
the same possibility of failure. But when it works, you get a lot more.

Price: Free

Download Ultimate
Boot CD for Windows.

Trinity Rescue Kit

This is the only Linux Live CD variant I've ever encountered that is intended
specifically for rescuing Windows computers. As such, it's no surprise that
it's a powerful and versatile repair environment.

But it's really not designed for Windows users. TRK's command line interface
could humble anyone but the most devoted Linux geek.

If you take the time to read the 46-page documentation and learn the program,
you'll be rewarded next time disaster strikes. Among the tools that will be
at your disposal are a script that runs 4 different malware scanners, a tool
for resetting passwords, a Registry editor, a program that clones an NTFS partition
to another PC over a network, a mass undeleter that tries to recover every deleted
file on the drive, several tools for recovering data off a formatted or dying
disk, two tools for fixing master boot record repair programs, and hardware
diagnostics.

Price: Free

Download Trinity
Rescue Kit.

Active@ Boot Disk

Finally, we come to a boot disc that offers useful tools, is easy to use, and
can be created from virtually any XP or Vista computer. The catch? At US$80,
it costs $80 more than the other five options put together.

Based on Windows PE, LSoft Technologies' Active@ Boot Disk offers a well-chosen
collection of utilities, including image backup and recovery, a CD/DVD-based
data backup program (Windows PE and Active@ load entirely into RAM, making the
disc drive available for other uses), and a tool for recovering deleted partitions
and files. You can change Windows passwords, wipe your hard drive, and choose
between three partition managers. A Windows Explorer clone lets you copy files
off of the hard drive.

You can even bring up Windows' Task Manager, although I'm not sure why you'd
want to. And if you're feeling really geeky, there's even a HEX editor.

Price: $80 (ten-day free trial period)

Download Active@
Boot Disk.

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