What files to put on Emergency/Recovery CD?

[thomaspecht]

what about cloning your system drive - and update the clone for every major installation step you have done? in that case you'd need a second disk drive and for the actual clone process a linux boot cd seems enough.
it's more expensive but i figure also way more convenient that juggling rescue and backup discs while hoping for the best.

[Hazdaz]

what about cloning your system drive - and update the clone for every major installation step you have done? in that case you'd need a second disk drive and for the actual clone process a linux boot cd seems enough.
it's more expensive but i figure also way more convenient that juggling rescue and backup discs while hoping for the best.

No, see what I want is more of an Emergency CD that I can use on ANY PC. Someone calls me up that they messed up their install, I can use this CD to try to get windows back up. Cloning a drive is a good idea for MY computer, but I know that not everyone would be willig to do this.

Basically I want a boot CD and a bunch of utilities on it that wll help me recover a PC from viruses, messed up Windows installed and stuff like that. In the good olde days you only had 1.44 MBs to load up any utilities on your Boot Disk, but with 600 MBs, I figured there has got to be many cool utilities that would come in handy in troubleshooting a PC.


I double posted this thread (maybe a mod can combine them?), and in the other one someone mentioned BART PE - looks promising and I am reading up on it now.

[daraeill]

well recovering from viruses isn't a problem if said windows install went completely FUBAR...just format and re-install...things i put on my recovery cd's are win xp sp2 (install this onto your comp before hooking up to the internet after you reinstall windows) the latest good drivers for my hardware (this won't do much for someone else with different hardware though) and several tools like nero, norton av, winrar...(if you install those onto another person's comp then you could be liable for software piracy...see the EULA's for each piece of software)

[grogoreo]

hi

Doesn't Norton do something like this? Or even Nero? You could have a look at this http://unattended.msfn.org/ which will let you plonk in a CD and it will install Windows for you. If you follow it, it will tell you how to make the installer install other applications like Nero or a Virus checker.

Hope this helps,
Greg

[Hazdaz]

Well NERO has some backup tools/features, but nothing like I was looking for. I can backup my system file, but creating a recovery utility CD that I can use on other people's PCs when they crap out is a totaly didn't matter though.

I am gonna do that Unattended site tonight - looks pretty darn cool... but once again, I think it is aimed at one specific PC. It doesn't really look like you could use it to get someone else's PC going again. But the site does look cool none the less.

DARAEILL - yea I realize I can't just copy over a version of Windows onto a CD and use that on every PC that has crapped out. MS doesn't really make it easy to fix an install of Windows once it has been messed up - besides reinstalling it, which to me is a totaly last resort cuz you'll have to reinstall all your other software also. PITA!

[Simon]

hazdaz.

What I really recommend is the knoppix cd bootable linux.

My mates computer broke the other day and I used it to save all of his files and fix the corruption on his hardisk.

It saved the day. :D

Simon

[Hazdaz]

hazdaz.

What I really recommend is the knoppix cd bootable linux.

My mates computer broke the other day and I used it to save all of his files and fix the corruption on his hardisk.

It saved the day. :D

Simon

Is that that really tiny isntall of Linux that you can run right off the CD (no installing)??
I have been curious about that.

[Simon]

yeah runs off the cd. its a FULL version of linux with everything youd have on a windows install. Over 2.2 gb of data compressed onto one disk. theres hundreds of apps that youd have on a normal linux install. It recognises all the system devices and peripherals and .. well its amazing.

It does use all 650 mb of the cd though.

:D

Simon

[Simon]

Oh and its amazingly fast too. because it creates a virtual hardisk in the ram.. a "ramdisk". this means that once the data is in the ram, it runs hundreds of times faster than a magnetic disk.

Simon

[grogoreo]

I am gonna do that Unattended site tonight - looks pretty darn cool... but once again, I think it is aimed at one specific PC. It doesn't really look like you could use it to get someone else's PC going again. But the site does look cool none the less.

Well I think the opposite, because this is an unattended install so you could put it in the drive and it will install everything without anyone touching it. So effectivly you wouldn't need to go round, they could just do it. More or likely your friends computers will have a near enough same set of utilities so you can just put them on the CD. So straight after the install every one of your friends will have the same install. There are factors of liscenses for windows but I think you can leave out the set liscense code. The way I'm thinking this would be used is in a computer lab where there are lots of computer which need to have an OS install and this is where an unattended install would come. (Even though if they do use Windows in a lab (if they haven't found the wonders of Linux or are just scared!) they would install it off of a server)

Oh and I second 99sproth (member.php?u=36933)'s proposal. Linux LiveCD's are great for backing things up. You could connect a removable storage device and copy over the documents form the hard drive to the device. You couldn't do that in DOS!

[Hazdaz]

Well I think the opposite, because this is an unattended install so you could put it in the drive and it will install everything without anyone touching it. So effectivly you wouldn't need to go round, they could just do it. More or likely your friends computers will have a near enough same set of utilities so you can just put them on the CD. So straight after the install every one of your friends will have the same install. There are factors of liscenses for windows but I think you can leave out the set liscense code. The way I'm thinking this would be used is in a computer lab where there are lots of computer which need to have an OS install and this is where an unattended install would come. (Even though if they do use Windows in a lab (if they haven't found the wonders of Linux or are just scared!) they would install it off of a server)

I think you said it this there

...this would probably be PERFECT for a computer lab or a corporate environment where everyone has the same PC with the same generic software and they all come with corporate liscenses, but I think this could turn out very bad for an individual that has a personal liscense of Windows and a personal liscense of different software. I can not imagine it being legit that way.

I mean if you are using it for your own PC then fantastic, but probably not legit to make it on your PC and then use it on your friend's b0rked PC or your sister's fried laptop. I plan on checking out that site more tonight for my personal PC, but probably not the answer for what I originally wanted to do.

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