It shouldn't happen to an IT consultant
Spend your time doing business, not IT.
Saturday 29 November 2008, 3:14 AM
Zero cost recovery – part 1
Most of the utilities I turn to to fix sick PCs are free. Even more conveniently some of my favourite are bundled on The Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) for Windows.
It’s an offshoot of the also useful DOS/Linux UBCD (which I’ll explore here shortly). While not on the whole open source, it is stuffed full of collaborative generosity.
UBCD 4 Win includes many more useful apps than I can do justice to in a reasonable number of words, and admittedly a minority of less than useful and some non-working ones. Here are the five I return to time and time again.
Space Monger by Sixty-Five Software reveals where all your disk space went via a clever graphical representation. UBCD includes the free version under Programs/File Management/Explorers
Kevin Solway’s excellent Disk Investigator on the Programs/File Management/Recovery menu. It’s a simple hex editor / viewer that makes searching for and recovering otherwise lost text a doddle. Ideal for rescuing the contents of Word files.
‘Tom’s’ Ez-PC-Fix (On UBCDs 4 Win’s desktop) Is an incredibly useful non-specific malware remover that, id desired, acts on every user’s settings at once, for example emptying every temp folder (a favourite malware hideout) in just three clicks.
Vadim Druzhim’s NTPWEdit under Programs/Password Tools
Removes Windows Login passwords while Christophe Greniers Find CMOS PWD reveals most BIOS passwords.
As a certain proverb doesn’t quite go, writing a bootable CD in time can save nine gigabytes later, or erm something.
It’s an offshoot of the also useful DOS/Linux UBCD (which I’ll explore here shortly). While not on the whole open source, it is stuffed full of collaborative generosity.
UBCD 4 Win includes many more useful apps than I can do justice to in a reasonable number of words, and admittedly a minority of less than useful and some non-working ones. Here are the five I return to time and time again.
Space Monger by Sixty-Five Software reveals where all your disk space went via a clever graphical representation. UBCD includes the free version under Programs/File Management/Explorers
Kevin Solway’s excellent Disk Investigator on the Programs/File Management/Recovery menu. It’s a simple hex editor / viewer that makes searching for and recovering otherwise lost text a doddle. Ideal for rescuing the contents of Word files.
‘Tom’s’ Ez-PC-Fix (On UBCDs 4 Win’s desktop) Is an incredibly useful non-specific malware remover that, id desired, acts on every user’s settings at once, for example emptying every temp folder (a favourite malware hideout) in just three clicks.
Vadim Druzhim’s NTPWEdit under Programs/Password Tools
Removes Windows Login passwords while Christophe Greniers Find CMOS PWD reveals most BIOS passwords.
As a certain proverb doesn’t quite go, writing a bootable CD in time can save nine gigabytes later, or erm something.
PreviousComments on this post
I'll chek this out, sounds like it oculd save me a bundle of time. I've been taking out the CMOS battery to get around the password lockouts. Not always fun on a laptop!
Absolutely Roger, it won't of course get you into a laptop if the BIOS password is preventing you booting in the first place. So on the whole more useful for getting at Admin BIOS passwords.
