Ultimate Boot CD instructions needed

Michael T. wrote:
I used CDBurner to burn ISO file ubcd51b1.iso.

This seemed to go smoothly creating a bootable CD for my WinXP SP3
computer.

The Nero SmartStart suggested in UBCD's Tutorial at the following link did
not work.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/nero6.html
It displayed an error message that it was not compatible with my operating
system. Hmmm. I was unable to find a free Nero tool that was comparable.

The bootable CD has some diagnostics, but I had hoped for something
different. For example, I thought I might be able to use this to recover
saved music and pictures from my hard drive in the event my computer ever
failed to boot. No problem as this was all an experiment to see what UBCD
provided.

I already have a bootable CD that came with my Dell computer It runs (i.e.,
boots) if I press F12 during boot. It may be too early to rule out ever
using my newly created UBCD bootable CD. But at this point my first option
would probably be to use the Dell CD if my laptop won't boot.

This procedure is not for the faint of heart and I totally agree with this
comment by Paul.

********************
"Some people, if I mention a free software, they run off and find some "hell
hole" to download from, and then complain they got a "registry cleaner"
instead :-) Even when you do find the source website, it can be hard to find
the proper download link, due to so many adverts being present.)"
*********************

I had to do a lot of cleanup (i.e., uninstalls of unnecessary software)
after I was done. My Avast! anti-virus software even displayed a warning
about using one of these undesirable downloads.

Thank you everyone for your excellent comments.

In terms of rescue software as such, there is Photorec. This could be
a scavenger, looking for sectors containing the "signature portions"
of the file. Tools like this may not work well, if the disk is fragmented,
as the idea is, the file system is damaged enough, there is nothing to
tie the fragments together. Photorec can be run from Windows or Linux.
For a test, I used this to find a deleted file (as deleted files aren't
overwritten until the file system needs the space).

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/File_...ed_By_PhotoRec

The other tool you can look for, is Drive Rescue. The person who wrote this
originally, was giving it away for free. And then one day, sold the source
to a commercial company, and shut down his site. This link is to a copy
of the tool. I can also find the original site, in archive.org . The site
seems to be unchanged, all the way back to 2003.

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/Wou...rescue19d.html

http://web.archive.org/web/200701010...rescue19d.html

http://web.archive.org/web/200303031...rescue19d.html

One person who had an NTFS disk problem, he tried that out, and got all his
files back. You connect a second disk, and I think that tool tries to find
the files and writes them to your spare disk. You generally don't want to
try writing the recovered files to the same disk you are scavenging if possible.

Tools like CHKDSK, attempt to "repair in place", and that is a dangerous
option. If you have severe damage and know it, you want to make a forensic
copy of the disk first, before letting CHKDSK run. There is a two pass,
sector by sector backup method for damaged disks you can do from Linux,
using "ddrescue". It's for cases, where the disk is badly damaged enough,
that each sector copy is taking 15 seconds or so, and it would take
infinite time to complete. This does a quick first pass, and keeps a log
of "missing" sectors. If the disk has a "bad patch", this is intended to
get the good sectors first. And then, the second pass tries to fill in the
blanks. Sectors which fail to read, I think they're replaced by all-zeros.
The destination disk here, should be same size or larger than the original.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damaged_Hard_Disk

# first, grab most of the error-free areas in a hurry:
./ddrescue -n /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log

# then try to recover as much of the dicy areas as possible:
./ddrescue -r 1 /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log

If you want to run tools like CHKDSK from a DVD, you can download
a Windows 7 installation DVD, and it has recovery options which
include a "command prompt" environment. A Windows 7 machine can
make a 200MB CD with that purpose, and one site was providing
links to an image of such a CD. The download in that case was
via Torrent. Now, the interesting thing is, the web sites
that Microsoft uses for selling Windows 7 from, have "open"
download links, and you can get the entire DVD image from
such a site. You burn that to a DVD, and then that can be used
as your rescue disk. You could run CHKDSK from there, for
example.

This site shows some links. Digital River is a company that sells
software for download, and is an authorized dealer. I got a copy of
24208 and 24209 from the links shown here, in case I need to do
a "repair install" of my Windows 7 laptop. Slipstreaming doesn't
work as well for Windows 7, as for WinXP, so having one of these discs,
for the day the laptop dies, is why I got 24209. And 24209 can be booted
and you can run the Command Prompt from there.

http://www.mostiwant.com/blog/downlo...ownload-links/

There is also a recovery console image for WinXP floating around.
I think I may have run that in a VM, and it gives you a command
prompt, and it would give you capabilities like "fixboot", "fixmbr",
and chkdsk. The original site is now gone, but you can find this
on the archive. There should be an iso inside the zip.

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/Tool...xp_rec_con.zip

4,677,680 bytes
MD5SUM = 230f7800105440e8433006a033186f6f

As for the "Hell Hole" comment, a few people I help, are quite insistent
on doing a random search when some software is mentioned, and clicking
every link in sight. Maybe it's the notion of "well, I'm running an AV
software, so nothing can harm me". I use Siteadvisor on occasion, as
a way of warning about certain sites. You enter the domain, and in
some cases, they actually test downloads coming from the site, for
malware. Most sites get a "pass" via this thing, so again, only
the most egregious sources of malware will get flagged. Some are
given a pass, when they need more analysis.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/allflac.com

HTH,
Paul

"Hot-Text" wrote:

Maybe that SoCal, computer guy not that knowledgeable at all,
if he can not take the time to read a website, and ask the Caller is his
computer is a SP1, 2, or 3.......


For the record, the name of the "computer guy" is Leo Laporte. I just found
out he is syndicated nationally. I'm surprised that he may have been off
base with regard to his UBCD recommendation. There's also a chance I am
misquoting him,

I've been using and programming computers since the 1970s and found most of
his comments (or should I say other comments - ha) spot on. He also comes
across as very personable and thorough.

*******
From my radio station's website:

Leo is nationally syndicated and also appears regularly on many television
and radio programs including Live with Regis and Kelly. He hosts and
produces some of the most popular podcasts in the world including this WEEK
in TECH, Security Now!, net@nite, The Daily Giz Wiz, Windows Weekly,
MacBreak Weekly, and Jumping Monkeys under the TWiT banner.

http://www.kogo.com/pages/personalit...xz z1rstM4cvp
*******

"SC Tom" wrote in message ...

"Hot-Text" wrote in message ...
"SC Tom" wrote in message ...

"Michael T." wrote in message ...
A local radio program here in SoCal had a computer guy on that seemed very knowledgeable.

One caller could not get his Windows XP computer to boot, so it was recommended that he try Ultimate Boot CD.

I'm a retired software engineer, so I am seldom stumped by new software. But I have to confess I thought the absence
of any kind of "Getting Started" section left me ill equipped to use this tool.

I checked their FAQ, but no joy.

I also posted a question on their forum, but it looks like this forum is somewhat inactive with few posts recently.

Does anyone know what the first few steps are? I know I need to create and ISO image of my hard drive (or part of my
hard drive). But I cannot determine how that is done. head scratch

Tia.

Michael



The first step is to download the UBCD ISO and create a bootable CD with it. Once it's created, you can boot from it,
and there are a number of programs on it (all of the ones listed at the bottom of their page). I don't know why you
would need to create an ISO of your hard drive, unless you're doing so as a backup. Or are you asking about
customizing the UBCD4Win? If so, the tutorial is he http://www.ubcd4win.com/slipstream.htm .


Tom no XP Sp3 in that software and makes it out of date...

Maybe that SoCal, computer guy not that knowledgeable at all,
if he can not take the time to read a website, and ask the Caller is his computer is a SP1, 2, or 3.......

That's why you have to use an XP installation CD. If you don't have one that's at SP2 or SP3, you can slipstream the
service pack into the original installation CD, creating a new XP SP3 installation CD and/or a folder on your work
drive. It's very simple, really. The instructions appear harder than the actual process itself. The folder with all of
the new files will be necessary to create the UBCD4WIN at whatever SP level you want to make it.

SC Tom

Microsoft always give you new
and Free CD with updates SP ..

All have to do is copy them to a USB-Flash Disk
or to a CD/DVD...

C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\
564 MB (592,135,051 bytes)

In message , Paul
writes:
[]
There is also a recovery console image for WinXP floating around.
I think I may have run that in a VM, and it gives you a command
prompt, and it would give you capabilities like "fixboot", "fixmbr",
and chkdsk. The original site is now gone, but you can find this
on the archive. There should be an iso inside the zip.

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/Tool...xp_rec_con.zip

4,677,680 bytes
MD5SUM = 230f7800105440e8433006a033186f6f

I get a 404 from that link now )-:.

As for the "Hell Hole" comment, a few people I help, are quite insistent
on doing a random search when some software is mentioned, and clicking
every link in sight. Maybe it's the notion of "well, I'm running an AV
software, so nothing can harm me". I use Siteadvisor on occasion, as
a way of warning about certain sites. You enter the domain, and in
some cases, they actually test downloads coming from the site, for
malware. Most sites get a "pass" via this thing, so again, only
the most egregious sources of malware will get flagged. Some are
given a pass, when they need more analysis.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/allflac.com
[]
Or just http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

`The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph
is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los
Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.' Attributed to Albert
Einstein 1879-1955 (Computing, 1999-12-16).

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Paul writes:
[]
There is also a recovery console image for WinXP floating around.
I think I may have run that in a VM, and it gives you a command
prompt, and it would give you capabilities like "fixboot", "fixmbr",
and chkdsk. The original site is now gone, but you can find this
on the archive. There should be an iso inside the zip.

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/Tool...xp_rec_con.zip

4,677,680 bytes
MD5SUM = 230f7800105440e8433006a033186f6f

I get a 404 from that link now )-:.

As for the "Hell Hole" comment, a few people I help, are quite insistent
on doing a random search when some software is mentioned, and clicking
every link in sight. Maybe it's the notion of "well, I'm running an AV
software, so nothing can harm me". I use Siteadvisor on occasion, as
a way of warning about certain sites. You enter the domain, and in
some cases, they actually test downloads coming from the site, for
malware. Most sites get a "pass" via this thing, so again, only
the most egregious sources of malware will get flagged. Some are
given a pass, when they need more analysis.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/allflac.com
[]
Or just http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/

You can get the webtree.ca entry via archive.org .

I didn't provide a link, on purpose (because of previous incidents,
where I mention something, and it is later removed).

Paul