SOFTWARE - WINDOWS - 28.03.2013

The best boot disks for your computer

Boot disk

Windows contains all the startup files required for making your computer boot. However, if your system has been infected by a virus or if your hard drive is defective, you will need to use a separate boot, rescue or startup disk in order to boot your computer. Rescue disks used to consist of several diskettes or CD-ROMs, but now you can create them on a memory stick, which only needs to be a couple of gigabytes large. Tip 1. Use a separate memory stick for this purpose, as a boot disk erases all the files on the stick. Tip 2. To boot from the memory stick, shut down the computer, plug the stick into a USB port and reboot the computer. Immediately click on Esc, F12, Del, F1 or another key in order to open the selection screen where you can choose the memory stick as startup disk.

Hiren’s BootCD

Hiren’s BootCD (http://www.hirensbootcd.org) is a very good boot disk which is 600MB. Tip. On the download page, click on Hirens.BootCD at the bottom beside the filename, but don’t click on the other download links (ad banners). Unfortunately, the installation on a memory stick is not always plain sailing. You should first download grub4dos from the USB page (http://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting). Unpack the file, double-click on grubinst_gui, click on Run and select the USB memory stick beside Disk. Tip. Choose the right disk and mind its size - don’t select your hard drive here. Next to Part List, click on Whole disk and then on Install. Now use a program such as WinImage (http://www.winimage.com - free) to unpack the ISO file contained in this zip file and copy it onto the USB memory stick.

When booting, choose Mini Windows XP. In the Program Launcher at the bottom, you will find dozens of tools for “rescuing” files on the disk, plus network tools, browsers, etc. Tip.Antivirus/Spyware lets you perform virus scans without having to launch Windows. Avira AntiVir, Anti-Malware, Spybot Search & Destroy and CCleaner are part of the BootCD. Tip. On http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd you can check which tools are included.

The Ultimate Boot CD

If you have a more technical background, you can also use the free Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com). This boot CD only contains the so-called command line tools (resembling DOS), not a graphic environment such as Windows. Such tools aren’t as user friendly, but they are more powerful in case of major problems. The package contains two virus scanners (ClamScan and F-Prot), besides tools for testing your processor, changing the boot menu of your computer or reformatting your disk (Parted Magic). Tip. There’s also a graphical version of this boot CD: UBCD for Windows (http://www.ubcd4win.com). It includes anti-virus tools such as Kaspersky, Avast and McAfee, as well as password-recovery tools. To install UBCD for Windows on a memory stick, check out Make your pen drive bootable (http://foribb.blogspot.com/2009/01/make-your-pen-drive-bootable-install.html).

To install a fully-fledged operating system on the boot disk try the free Knoppix (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html).