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(A) Troubleshooting CDs

1. Emergency Boot CD (EBCD) Pro via FTP ~17MB and Lite via Direct Download ~5MB.

The program is free software and can be redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation; (ebcd-0_6_1-lite-sfx.exe MD5 Checksum=1b28e6c97ea3ea08fc0ab9452bb7679c)

These exe files are self extractors of version 0.x whose contents contain some help files and a way of compiling the ISO ready for burning. The original site is no longer accessible. Version 1.x by the same author is a completely different utility with different functions and interface.

The resultant CD includes: DOS 7 command prompt; Console versions of archivers; Free FDisk; WinNT/2000/XP bootable floppy disk; NU's DiskEdit, Unerase & Unformat; CMOSPWD; Floppy disk reanimator; Smart Boot Manager; WipeFree; XOSL; Volkov Commander; SCSI disk support; Long file name support; AIDA16 diagnostics; NTFSDOS (read-only version); Image for DOS, Rescue Linux; Linux: NT password recovery and a lot of other useful tools.

The CD can also be further customised by adding one's own utilities to it. This is not so easy to do but will be addressed in another helpfile later-on.

2. Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) Basic=80-120MB/Free

Includes: Hard Drive Installers and/or Diagnostics for many HDDs (including Maxtor/Quantum, Seagate, Samsung, IBM, Hitachi, Western Ditital, Fujitsu, Gateway and Generic); Hard Drive Device-Managers, Wipers, Cloners, Editors, Partition & MBR tools and Boot Managers. There are also File Managers, Eraser Tools & NTFS Tools and a wide range of Testing Tools for Harware such as the CPU, RAM, BurnIn and PCI devices; Benchmark Applications; BIOS utilities; DOS Boot Disks; Antivirus and Networking Tools.

If anything there is almost too much on it because it is quite hard to keep so many applications up-to-date.

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(B) Live CDs (Operating Systems on a CD)

Note: (Full list of Live CDs at LIVE CD LIST) We particularly recommend Knoppix and Ubuntu.

Windows Based

1. BartPE CD (Preinstalled WinXP Environment on a CD)

We have created a specific page with help on how to create a BartPE CD and how to include a new plug-in onto it. The basic compilation includes numerous configured plug-ins listed in an appendix at the bottom of the page. You will require a Windows XP/2K3 installation and licence.

2. Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4WIN) 256MB/Free

This utility is, in essence, a BartPE and UBCD hybrid bootable CD. Once created by you it has very many useful utilities on it on a familiar Windows-type desktop. It can be further customised (just like a BartPE) with extras and plugins.

The biggest problem with UBCD4WIN is that, just as with a BartPE CD, it is not available as an iso that one can simply download and burn. In that respect it is inferior to most Linux Live CDs when used as troubleshooters. There is work to do and it really is not a utility for the non-geek or if you want a functional build in a hurry.

It is also mandatory that you have an appropriate version of a (preferably retail and not OEM) installation Windows CD at your disposal. The UBCD4WIN advice is to use a version of autostreamer from their site if there is a need to slipstream a service pack into the appropriate Windows Installation. We had problems with this utility and would suggest using nLite in its place.

The basic steps are:-

• Download the UBCD4WIN.exe from one of the mirrors. It is not a small download.
• Check its MD5 Hash or Checksum; (we strongly advise this).
• Run the download, which extracts to a folder of your choice; (use a simple name with no spaces).
• Run the UBCD4WinBuilder.exe found in the chosen folder and it should compile a UBCD4WinBuilder.iso in the same location
• The utility can burn direct to a CD though we recommend making the iso first and then burning it with burncdcc or whatever other iso burner your prefer.
• If you want to access a USB drive then insert it before booting to the CD.
• Boot to the CD and start playing around and experimenting. We did find the boot time pretty long-winded.

We have not yet used the utility much at all. It was very "faffy" to build and there were a number of issues on the way. Not least of these was a problem with a cygwin1.dll conflict. We ran into this because we were already running "linux-based ssh" on the PC in question. This was overcome by doing the initial UBCD4WinBuilder.exe build having first booted into Safe Mode.

Network (and hence broadband internet) support worked seamlessly for the on-board NIC (Network Interface Card) on the first and only PC we have so far experimented with.

Linux Based

1. Knoppix Live Linux CD (based on Debian with KDE desktop) ~700MB/Free

GNU/Linux KNOPPIX is a bootable Live system on CD or DVD, consisting of a representative collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a productive Linux system for the desktop, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it (over 8GB on the DVD "Maxi" edition).

If you don't have access to broadband and/or a CD-burner then instead of downloading the ISO you can order a copy of a physical CD for small bucks.

Use Knoppix to Backup Your Data

We particularly like and recommend Knoppix because it has some of the best hardware detection.

2. Ubuntu Live Linux CD (based on Debian with Gnome Desktop) ~700MB/Free

Ubuntu will probably be the easiest environment for those not used to Linux. The Gnome desktop has a very nice clean appearance and this distro (Linux or "nux" distribution) is one of the easiest for newbies to install to their hard drives. Its support forums are also top of the league.

3. SLAX Live Linux CD Standard Edition (based on Slackware) 167MB/Free

SLAX is a bootable Live system based on the Slackware Linux distribution and uses Unification File System (also known as unionfs), allowing read-only filesystem to behave as a writable one, saving all changes to memory. It is perhaps a little geekish to use but comes with a small footprint and is one of the smaller downloads.

4. Puppy Linux CD 94MB/Free

Puppy Linux can run from a variety of media but the CD version is probably the easiest to use. It is a surprisingly full-blown operating system despite its small download size. All native applications have been chosen with special care so that it loads and runs quickly even on far from modern hardware and with smallish amounts of RAM.

It doesn't have the same elaborate troubleshooting tools or capabilities such as can be found on a BartPE or a UBCD4WIN or a Knoppix or Ubuntu Linux CD but for a quick download one can quickly obtain a utility that can help one sort out all sorts of problems and get on line.

5. Damn Small Linux <50MB/Free

DSL's basic ISO is always under 50MB. A slightly bigger version is to be found as DSL-N. Faster and smaller than Puppy Linux it has its place as a portable operating system that can sit totally on a mini (or business card) CD. In the battle of the minis it probably loses out to Puppy on ease of use and the number of features. The basic philosophy of keeping everything under 50MB is really the raison d'être of the project. To some extent this has constricted its development but it is still pretty incredible just how much can be done with so little data. So, as far as we are concerned, it has its place; its own little niche.

For those that are interested in Linux development, DSL is a very much cut down version of Knoppix with both of them coming from the Debian stable.