The
Windows installation disc contains the files necessary to start
Windows, so it is itself a boot disk. A boot disk is actually not a computer disk in the shape of a boot. If
it was, most disk drives would have a difficult time reading it.
Instead, a boot disk is a disk that a computer can start up or "boot"
from. If a problem is preventing
Windows from starting, you can use the installation CD to start
Windows. The installation CD also contains Startup Repair, which you can use to repair
Windows if a problem prevents it from starting correctly. Startup Repair can automatically fix many of the problems that in the past required a boot disk to fix.
A boot disk (sometimes called a
startup disk) is a type of removable media, such as a floppy disk or a CD, that contains startup files that your computer can use to start
Windows. CD and DVD boot disks are often used to start up a computer when the operating system on the internal hard drive won't load.The startup files are also stored on your computer's hard disk, but if those startup files become damaged, you can use the files on a boot disk to start
Windows
Earlier operating systems that used the FAT or FAT32 file systems, such as
Windows 95 and
Windows 98, a boot disk was especially useful because it allowed a person to access files on a hard disk even if
Windows was unable to start. This ability also represented a security risk, because anyone with a boot disk and access to the computer could start the computer and access any file. Hard disks formatted with NTFS have built-in security features that prevent using a boot disk to access files..
Let looks at some useful "boot CD downloads" to create one for Windows OS,s.
1-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. 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. 2-Puppy Linux - A third party application to create a boot CD using Linux and 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.Puppy will mounting the drive with read/write permissions and 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. 3-
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.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.
Price: Free
Download
BartPE.4-
Vista Recovery Disc - a unique distribution of Microsoft's own recovery tools.This 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. 5-Trinity Rescue Kit - 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. Hope that you understand the benefits of having a boot disk on your wardrobe.
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