How-To: Making a Bart PE Disk

INTRODUCTION

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.

The Bart's PE disk was created by a man from the Netherlands named Bart Lagerweij.  He had been engaging in the age old method of creating and using DOS-based boot disks to help him troubleshoot PCs.  He would carry around several diskettes that had an assortment of programs.  In 2002, he saw a Windows PE (Pre-installed Environment) bootable CD-ROM from Microsoft in action and wondered if he could make something better.  He began coding a program to build a new customized PE disk.  He eventually figured out how to do it and anticlimactically named it PE builder.  His PE builder program allows a person to add programs and utilities to the CD that you might want to use in the Windows environment. 

There are several different programs that can be added to the disk to help backup, recover, image the PC, and troubleshoot many problems.  Examples of the many programs that can be installed include Lavasoft Adaware SE, SpyBot Search and Destroy, HijackThis, CWShredder, AV7 Personal, McAfee Stinger, RootKitty, Handy Recovery, Free Undelete, DBXtract, DriveImage XML, Symantec Ghost, and many many others.  Once you have added the files needed in the builder, pop the CD or DVD into the drive and boot from the CD/DVD ROM.  It will start with a bootup screen for Bart's PE and then will go to a "Windows is Loading" screen.  It is actually loading off the CD instead of the hard drive.  The operating system loads into RAM so that it does not physically use the hard drive.  Once the PE disk has booted you can browse the internet, update programs, make an image of the PC with Ghost, run file management tools, use remote desktop, and there is even an option to use VMware while in PE.  USB support is also standard now with the latest version of PE Builder.  Most people use Bart's PE to retrieve files off of a hard drive that will not boot, use Ghost to reimage the hard drive, run an integrity check on the disk or run some defragment tools.  Defragmenting from within Bart's PE is a better option because none of the files on the hard drive are actually being accessed by Windows at that time.  Sometimes Windows will not allow a file to be moved while it is in use.  That is not a problem if you are using the Bart's PE disk. 

Disclaimer: In order to install the programs and utilities on to the disk a licensed copy must be purchased.  This includes the operating system.  That being said, we can move on.