What to stick on a ThumbDrive?

[Xsorovan]

I got a 512mb thumbdrive for Christmas and I've been using it to transport files back and fourth. But I want to take it up a notch. I was wondering what kind of tools you would suggest I put on this little thumb drive so that when a family member or SOMEONE asks me to fix their computer I will have a full range of tools at my service.

(I already put the Sysinternals stuff on the drive)

Thanks!

 

[AdamSnow]

Spyware tools, antivirus, data recovery software, etc.

 

[Electric Amish]

I have Spybot Search & Destroy + updates on mine.

 

[Xsorovan]

Yeah, obviously... I'm looking for more SPECIFICS than that.

 

[ActuaryTm]

AVG. Adaware/Spybot. HJT. SP1/SP2 Network Install. A few critical patches (MS03-007, MS03-026, or the rollup KB 826939).

Prefer a CD however. And at least one version of Knoppix as well.

 

[piroroadkill]

Everyone else uses these things for boring shit.

I'd try and put a fully working distribution of Linux or XP Embedded on it.

I haven't got one so I haven't tried this yet.

 

[UNCjigga]

Steam's cache.

 

[Xsorovan]

Originally posted by: piroroadkill
Everyone else uses these things for boring shit.

I'd try and put a fully working distribution of Linux or XP Embedded on it.

I haven't got one so I haven't tried this yet.

See, I thought about that, the problem is that you have to format the thumbdrive with an active partition on it. Which effectively makes it useless for doing anything BUT booting off of. (Windows only allows one active partion at a time)

 

[piroroadkill]

Originally posted by: Xsorovan

Originally posted by: piroroadkill
Everyone else uses these things for boring shit.

I'd try and put a fully working distribution of Linux or XP Embedded on it.

I haven't got one so I haven't tried this yet.

See, I thought about that, the problem is that you have to format the thumbdrive with an active partition on it. Which effectively makes it useless for doing anything BUT booting off of. (Windows only allows one active partion at a time)

Aww, but how cool would it be to walk up to any machine, jack your ThumbDrive in, and then have your own entire system to play with.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: piroroadkill

Originally posted by: Xsorovan

Originally posted by: piroroadkill
Everyone else uses these things for boring shit.

I'd try and put a fully working distribution of Linux or XP Embedded on it.

I haven't got one so I haven't tried this yet.

See, I thought about that, the problem is that you have to format the thumbdrive with an active partition on it. Which effectively makes it useless for doing anything BUT booting off of. (Windows only allows one active partion at a time)

Aww, but how cool would it be to walk up to any machine, jack your ThumbDrive in, and then have your own entire system to play with.

but not everything is USB bootable.

 

[Xsorovan]

Originally posted by: piroroadkill
Aww, but how cool would it be to walk up to any machine, jack your ThumbDrive in, and then have your own entire system to play with.

Well, yeah, that would be cool, but I only have 1 thumb drive. And for the time being I'd like it to be use-able... however a linux embeded thumb drive would be very cool... especially with all the "boot from USB" options available (that aren't turned off) on most machines...

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: piroroadkill

Originally posted by: Xsorovan

Originally posted by: piroroadkill
Everyone else uses these things for boring shit.

I'd try and put a fully working distribution of Linux or XP Embedded on it.

I haven't got one so I haven't tried this yet.

See, I thought about that, the problem is that you have to format the thumbdrive with an active partition on it. Which effectively makes it useless for doing anything BUT booting off of. (Windows only allows one active partion at a time)

Aww, but how cool would it be to walk up to any machine, jack your ThumbDrive in, and then have your own entire system to play with.

Why would windows come into play if you boot off the USB? You could still access the data on the HD just not run the programs.

 

[jst0ney]

Originally posted by: lnguyen

Originally posted by: piroroadkill

Originally posted by: Xsorovan

Originally posted by: piroroadkill
Everyone else uses these things for boring shit.

I'd try and put a fully working distribution of Linux or XP Embedded on it.

I haven't got one so I haven't tried this yet.

See, I thought about that, the problem is that you have to format the thumbdrive with an active partition on it. Which effectively makes it useless for doing anything BUT booting off of. (Windows only allows one active partion at a time)

Aww, but how cool would it be to walk up to any machine, jack your ThumbDrive in, and then have your own entire system to play with.

but not everything is USB bootable.

More and more are now

 

[Xsorovan]

Originally posted by: Squisher
[Why would windows come into play if you boot off the USB? You could still access the data on the HD just not run the programs.

Well, no windows wouldn't be a problem if you were booting from the thumbdrive. It would be a problem if I tried to plug the thumbdrive into a running version of windows. (Like if I needed to do do a spyware sweep on someone's machine real quick.

 

[cerebusPu]

i just use mine for work. i keep backups of papers and programming on it.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

You can't put XP on a 512MB stick. The XP installer checks the size of the disk and, IIRC, won't let you install on a drive smaller than 4GB.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Porn? Never know when you'll get stuck somewhere and have that urge.

I just keep mp3's and sh!t on mine. I have my tools on a bootable cd.

 

[TwoMix]

you could put xpe on a 128 stick if you wanted, but the os is target specific.

 

[loup garou]

I keep a copy of the free version of Belarc on mine. Whenever I work on a workstation at a client's, I run Belarc and save the results in a folder called [workstationname] under a [clientname] folder on the thumbdrive. Then, when I get back to the office, I dump them to our IT database. In the future, I, or any other employee, can get all the hardware, software, service tag/express service code and user info on that workstation in seconds.

 

[Xsorovan]

Originally posted by: werk
I keep a copy of the free version of Belarc on mine. Whenever I work on a workstation at a client's, I run Belarc and save the results in a folder called [workstationname] under a [clientname] folder. Then, when I get back to the office, I dump them to our IT database. In the future, I, or any other employee, can get all the hardware, software, service tag/express service code and user info on that workstation in seconds.

Oooo, good link! Thanks for that!

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Xsorovan

Originally posted by: werk
I keep a copy of the free version of Belarc on mine. Whenever I work on a workstation at a client's, I run Belarc and save the results in a folder called [workstationname] under a [clientname] folder. Then, when I get back to the office, I dump them to our IT database. In the future, I, or any other employee, can get all the hardware, software, service tag/express service code and user info on that workstation in seconds.

Oooo, good link! Thanks for that!

One of the nicest parts of Belarc is that it grabs Windows and Office CD keys in case of misplacement. I think it'll grab other software keys as well (Acrobat for example).

 

[shilala]

belarc advisor

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: werk

Originally posted by: Xsorovan

Originally posted by: werk
I keep a copy of the free version of Belarc on mine. Whenever I work on a workstation at a client's, I run Belarc and save the results in a folder called [workstationname] under a [clientname] folder. Then, when I get back to the office, I dump them to our IT database. In the future, I, or any other employee, can get all the hardware, software, service tag/express service code and user info on that workstation in seconds.

Oooo, good link! Thanks for that!

One of the nicest parts of Belarc is that it grabs Windows and Office CD keys in case of misplacement. I think it'll grab other software keys as well (Acrobat for example).

Seems to be only free for personal use, do you have a corporate liscense or something?

 

[Kaido]

Stinger, StartupCPL standalone, TreeSize standalone, Belarc, Adaware, Spybot, ZoneAlarm

some other stuff but that's the basics for quick info + fixes