Leo writes:
Ever since Microsoft shipped Windows XP creating a boot disk has become much trickier. You can’t simply make a floppy with DOS and some utilities on it. DOS won’t read the NT file system, and most DOS utilities are useless (or worse) with XP discs. And yet a boot disk is a critical tool for rescuing a downed system. Many folks have solved this conundrum by rolling their own boot CDs. Here is a list of some recommendations from listeners.
- Hiren’s Boot CD - an illegal (yet very useful) compilation of disk utilities on one CD. I removed utilities I don’t already own from mine (to ease my conscience) and update the anti-virus definitions and re-burn regularly. This is a wildly useful disc.
- Leo
- The Ultimate Boot CD - A boot CD that contains about 50 DOS and Linux based tools
- Bart’s Preinstalled Environment - a tool for making a bootable Windows live CD/DVD it includes a number of freeware diagnostic and reporting tools, and plugins can be used to include additional software.
- SysRescue An open source that contains “Ghost like” and “Partition magic” like software.
- Bootdisk - just basic boot disks.
- Also just as important is an easy way to burn these .ISO image files. I use ISOrecorder. Just right-click an ISO and “burn to CD”, or right-click a CDROM with a CD in it “make .ISO file”.
- Burke
- Trevor Evans
- bruceb
- MandrakeMove and Knoppix. Actually, they are portable Linux OSs. Download the ±700MB ISO and burn it to a CD. A follow me OS to take with you where ever you go. Not bad at all. Don’t install it - BOOT it!
- Kalic