how do you recover a failed OS

[Toadster]

trying to expand the technical toolkit and when the event arises, it's always nice to be able to recover a system that won't boot... like a 'mini miracle' to those who have no other options but to rebuild...

what types of software do you use? bootable OS disks? (like BartPE, WinPE, Linux)?
and what tools? Partition/virus/file fixes/defrag, etc....

 

[lxskllr]

My favorite is Ultimate Boot CD For Windows. It has just about everything needed to fix a computer. I also keep some Linux live CDs around, as well as a GParted live CD.

 

[Toadster]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
My favorite is Ultimate Boot CD For Windows. It has just about everything needed to fix a computer. I also keep some Linux live CDs around, as well as a GParted live CD.

very cool!

i'm looking for some lightweight stuff as well - i.e. sub 50MB ISO's

any ideas?

 

[bruceb]

Do not worry about the size of the utility cd you need. A cd can do about 700MB and most usb flash drives are 1GB or larger now & very cheap. In effect, the cost of the media, to store small or medium size (up to 4GB) images is the same
or the cost difference is pennies.

 

[Toadster]

Originally posted by: bruceb
Do not worry about the size of the utility cd you need. A cd can do about 700MB and most usb flash drives are 1GB or larger now & very cheap. In effect, the cost of the media, to store small or medium size (up to 4GB) images is the same
or the cost difference is pennies.

but what if you're doing the fix remotely? i.e. think PcAnywhere, vPro, Avocent KVM, or Remote Desktop solutions where you don't have the files local to the PC - you're essentially sending them 'down the wire'

 

[bruceb]

I don't know if you do all the fixes remotely. And even so, you would just run the one app you need at that time.
Or maybe the files need to reside on his pc if you try to fix it remotely. Haven't had to try it that way, so far.

 

[Toadster]

Originally posted by: bruceb
I don't know if you do all the fixes remotely. And even so, you would just run the one app you need at that time.
Or maybe the files need to reside on his pc if you try to fix it remotely. Haven't had to try it that way, so far.

hmm - a 'rescue' partition may be a good idea, put things like the i386 directory in there, and other stuff...