Build the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 at 8:28 PM by Randall
It would be nice to have a bootable copy of Windows on a CD for those times your computer just will not boot due to Windows or drive problems. It would even be nicer if this CD had a bunch of tools on it that could help repair your system or rescue data from it. With Linux, you can just download a "Live Linux" ISO and burn it on to a CD. Copyright laws prevent this with Windows, but there are programs and procedures one can use to build such a CD from your own system and Windows install CD. One of the best is UBCD4Win. Here is a description from the UBCD4Win website:
UBCD4Win is a bootable CD which contains software that allows you to repair/restore/diagnostic almost any computer problem. All software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows®. UBCD4Win is based on Bart's PE©. Bart's PE© builds a Windows® "pre-install" environment CD, basically Windows® booted from CD. With network support, the ability to modify NTFS volumes, recover deleted files, create new NTFS volumes, scan hard drives for viruses, etc. this project includes almost everything you need to repair your system problems. There are many types of utilities included that allow you to recover and/or repair a damaged system. Please visit the "List of Tools" page for a complete list of what is included in the latest version of the project.
Building a UBCD4Win CD is a fairly complex procedure (which is why my rating is only 3.5), but the result is worth the effort is it saves your hide just once. Be sure to read the instructions on the website before you do anythng.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Operating System: Windows XP SP1 or
higher
License: Freeware
Price: Free
Version
Reviewed: 2.6
Web Site: http://www.ubcd4win.com/
See
Screenshots