How-To: Making a Bart PE Disk

[Kougar]

Reviewer: Mr. Clint "Calibur" Peitz

Date Published: June 13, 2007

Excerpt: "Have you ever been in a situation where you were trying to fix a friend’s computer, or yours for that matter, and the PC had so much spyware that it locked up and prevented you from running any tools? Or maybe you’ve had a situation where you couldn't even boot into Windows because Windows was corrupt or missing a file. I have and it’s not fun. Fortunately, a friend told me a couple years ago about Bart's PE and it has been a great tool ever since. I take it with me whenever I go out on call to fix a PC."




Please feel free to post your comments and questions here!

Link To Review (http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1112)

[Unregistered]

I have salvaged a couple of windows systems by using Knoppix dot org.
It's a free and userfriendly linux live-CD with a bunch of tools. Just download the ISO, burn, and put it on your shelf for future emergencies.
It mounts all volumes and connects to anything on the network for copying files. You can even install programs with the package manager (like the latest virusdefinitions) into RAM when running live, without touching any harddisks.
Very smooth. Even if it's not as specialized as a win-PE it is still worth mentioning. Face it, if your computer is so infested it won't even boot, then you just wanna rescue your documents and reinstall everything. Not running every spyware-remover on the planet.

[liqnit]

Thanks for a great guide!
I have been working with bootable media for a long time now and i think anyone should have such knowledge.
Great job

[vfrex]

I've been using UBCD4WIN in addition to Knoppix for a year or so now. Both have their merits, especially when there are hardware issues when reading struggling hard drives and what not.

On a side note, have you guys experimented at all getting UBCD4WIN to boot from a USB flash drive?

[Calibur]

I do like UBCD4win a lot. It has more tools incorporated. I have tried putting it on a USB drive but have been unsuccessful... I will try again. If I succeed I will make another How-To USB Edition.

[vfrex]

Calibur: I also tried pretty extensively ~11 months ago, but ended up failing. There were some tools that integrated PEBuilder with a utility to put it straight onto a flash device. Couldn't get it working, but I wonder if that stuff has progressed any in the last year.

[Calibur]

Not that I know of. But I do wonder if someone has come up with another method. The last time I tried I found a how-to that told me to find some HP utility to put it on to a usb drive. The how-to was very difficult to understand.

[vfrex]

Check this out: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=10806&st=0

[Calibur]

Very helpful. I will try it.