We all have heard of the linux distributions that could be booted from
a CD, now we can do the same thing with Windows. It's called BartPE (BART
Pre-installed Enviroment). It will give you a complete Win32
environment with network support, a graphical user interface (800x600)
and FAT/NTFS/CDFS filesystem support. Very handy for burn-in testing
systems with no OS, rescuing files to a network share, virus scan and
much more. It runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003/BartPE. It does not run on
Windows NT4/ME/9x.
Here's a little caveat from the website.. "PE Builder is not a
Microsoft product and does not create Microsoft Windows
Pre-installation Environment ("WinPE"). Using PE Builder does not
grant you a license to Microsoft WinPE or to use the Windows XP or
Server 2003 binaries in a manner other than stated in the End-User
License Agreement included in your version of Microsoft Windows XP or
Windows Server 2003. Microsoft has not reviewed or tested PE Builder
and does not endorse its use."
Grok Headline matches for Bootable WinXP CD or DVD
Top Tip: Bootable CD?
Top Tip: Bootable CD?02/10/2004 03:00 AM I'm looking to make a bootable CD Rom disk. Do I just need the basic
boot files just like you would a floopy? For instance, if I took an
already working boot disk and just burn that to a CD, would it boot
the computer? Obviously I the computer's BIOS needs to support
this...
VolumeWorks 1.1 adds bootable Mac OS X CD, more06/08/2004 03:27 PM New Zealand-based developer SubRosaSoft Ltd. announced the
availability of VolumeWorks 1.1 on Tuesday. The new version of the partition
management tool features a bootable Mac OS X CD option that supports
the latest Macs, partition shifting for combining multiple free volume
spaces into one, support for Diskology's Disk Jockey and a new user
interface. This is a free upgrade for current owners of the
application; the company asks those who want to upgrade to the
bootable CD to contact its sales department. VolumeWorks 1.1 requires
Mac OS X v10.2 or higher and the license is US$49.95, or $59.95 plus
shipping for the bootable CD version.
This week’s How to from Engadget is a handy one for the
Mac folks out there who want to
run multiple operating systems, but not install them to their hard
drive, all using an iPod as a bootable FireWire drive. They also cover
ways to simply back up your home directory (or anything else to your
iPod) which can be handy too, and even used in conjunction with this
how-to. Still no word on where Apple's "Home on iPod"
is.
Linux Bootable Business Card (BBC) Testing12/31/2002 01:09 PM The fine folks at lnx-bbc.org need your help in tested version 2.0 of
the Linux Bootable Business Card. The LNX-BBC is a mini
Linux-distribution, small enough to fit on a CD-ROM that has been cut,
pressed, or molded to the...
Create bootable clones via the command line09/21/2004 10:20 AM There are many good disk cloners out there, but all of the ones I know
of require a Quartz connection -- and so they can't be used remotely.
I have written this wrapper around asr(8) that copies the Startup
Volume to the Volu...
Bootable CD turns 486s into meshing WiFi routers
Bootable CD turns 486s into meshing WiFi routers04/28/2004 04:00 PM Glenn Fleishmann has written a blog entry about an amazing new WiFi
project at Champaign-Urbana, to create a bootable disk image that
turns its host machines into meshing wireless repeaters.
The CUWiN project wants to allow self-forming, noncentralized,
mesh-based Wi-Fi networks using standard, old PCs with no
configuration. Slightly more advanced units could be ruggedized boxes
using Compact Flash, but the basic unit would be a 486 or later PC
with a bootable CD-ROM or bootable floppy that bootstraps a CD-ROM.
Once booted, a unit finds other similar units without any other
configuration or control and forms a mesh.
"We've been developing software now since about 2000, and our idea is
to build software that is super user friendly, super easy for someone
who doesn't understand the nuances of the technology or community
wireless networking to set up their own system," said Meinrath. It's
an attempt to enable community networking to spread beyond the folks
who are self-starters.
Slipstreaming a Service Pack, is the process to integrate the
Service Pack into the installation so that with every new installation
the Operating System and Service Pack are installed at the same time.
Slipstreaming is usually done on network shares on corporate systems.
But with the advent of CD burners, it does actually make some sense
for the home user or small business user to do the same. This is a
very handy guide on…
Creating your own Bootable Windows XP CD-ROM and installing XP from boot disk
FCCU GNU/Linux Forensic Bootable CD 7.2 (Default branch)
FCCU GNU/Linux Forensic Bootable CD 7.2 (Default branch)03/19/2005 03:22 AM
FCCU GNU/Linux Forensic Bootable CD is a
bootable CD based on KNOPPIX that contains
a lot of tools suitable for computer forensic
investigatins, including bash scripts. Its main
purpose is to create images of devices prior to
analysis, and it is used by the Belgian Federal
Computer Crime Unit.
Changes:
The brand new SleuthKit 2.0 was added. There is support for
LVM and hfsplus. Tools added include lshw, scsitools, glark,
mdbtools, gpsd, and more.
FCCU GNU/Linux Forensic Bootable CD 8.0 (Default branch)
FCCU GNU/Linux Forensic Bootable CD 8.0 (Default branch)04/12/2005 05:18 PM
FCCU GNU/Linux Forensic Bootable CD is a
bootable CD based on KNOPPIX that contains
a lot of tools suitable for computer forensic
investigatins, including bash scripts. Its main
purpose is to create images of devices prior to
analysis, and it is used by the Belgian Federal
Computer Crime Unit.
Changes:
This release is based on Knoppix 3.8.1. It includes the Sleuthkit
2.01. dcfldd is included. A lot of packages were added.
WinXP Manager v4.8.0.111/04/2003 11:02 AM Offers an easy way to optimize, tweak, maintain, and tune up Windows
XP. it bundles more than 25 different utilities in one! Get system
Information, get access to hidden hundreds options to improve system's
performance and security, clean registry and junk files, optimize
network to speed internet connection, backup data of Outlook Express,
shreded files, and other much miscellaneous utilities. It is a good
assistant of windows XP. [Shareware $29.95 10 Days 1.24 MB]
WinXP SP2 - changes will affect many web pages07/09/2004 08:10 PM If you use automatically launched downloads, ActiveX, automatic popup
windows, Java, modal windows, or window JS functions, then read on
because the new Service Pack 2 for Windows XP will affect you.
Frozen WinXP? Just Wait, Microsoft Says02/11/2004 11:00 PM Microsoft KnowledgeBase article says waiting three minutes for
locked-up computer during boot due to wireless networking issues is
"expected": This troubleshooting page, updated on Feb. 10 of this
year, states that Windows XP could lock you out of your computer for
up to three minutes if a Wi-Fi card fails to respond properly when you
boot your machine. It's "expected," so there's nothing you can do
about it. [link via LockerGnome]...
I'm thinking of writing a tutorial on how to use the Windows XP
file system as a photo database. My theory is based on the
following premises:
people need a database method that will last 30+ years
very few software products have a 30+ year life
ergo, one cannot rely on a proprietary photo database and even
reliance on a standard relational database management system (RDBMS)
such as Oracle may be risky
the average consumer photographer does not have time/inclination
to write computer programs nor to maintain an RDBMS
the Windows file system seems likely to outlive many of us
if you create a document using Notebook and click right on the
file icon then select Properties you get to a page where a "Summary"
tab is an option. You now have the opportunity to edit Title,
Subject, Author, Category, Keywords, and Comments fields. These
fields are searched if you use the built-in Windows file search
mechanism and look for "a word or a phrase in a file"
ergo, Windows seems to have the capability of recording a photo
caption, extra keywords, and indexing those
If you look at the properties of a Word document and click
"Advanced" from the Summary tab you find a whole lot more properties
and they are editable. There is also a Custom tab on a Word
document in which you can create your own property name/value
pairs. However these property values don't seem to be searchable
using the standard Windows search tool. If you look at the
properties of a JPEG taken with a digital camera and choose Advanced
you see a huge list of "Image" properties separated from the default
Windows file system Description and Origin fields. Some but not
all of these fields seem to be searchable.
So... to the questions:
where are these file system features documented?
is it possible to add, on a system-wide basis, an extra default
property that will appear in the simple or advanced dialog boxes?
how does one add extra properties to an individual file that
wasn't created in Office? Is it possible through menus and
dialog boxes?
any other comments from an expert on the viability of using the
Windows file system and its full-text indexer as a photo
database?
Thanks for helping! Posting ideas in the comment section is
most welcome but email to philg@mit.edu would also be
appreciated.
So, I finally tried Knoppix
today. I'd heard a lot about it and was ready to be impressed, but it
still took me by surprise. If you haven't heard of Knoppix, it's a
full Linux distribution on a CD that is designed to boot straight from the CD, without you needing to install
anything and without you having to worry about it modifying the
contents of your hard drive.
Getting it running was pretty simple. I had to change the boot
order in my BIOS so that my PC would try booting from the CD before the hard drive (not difficult
at all: hit delete as the PC is booting up and the option for changing the
boot order was pretty obvious, at least on my machine), then all it
took was inserting the CD and
powering up the computer.
Knoppix auto-detected everything - from my graphics card
and network (I guess it used DHCP) right up to the scroll wheel
on my mouse. There was a moment of confusion when it came up with a
'boot?' prompt, but it turned out I just had to hit enter for it to
start auto-detection (the prompt appeared to be for advanced users to
specify additional options). After that, it booted straight in to an
attractively set up version of KDE 3. The ease with which it started up was
the first pleasant surprise, but what really impressed me was the huge
amount of software that came on that one CD. As well as KDE, Knoppix comes with the full Open Office
and Mozilla application suites, all the usual Linux tools and editors,
plenty of multimedia software, the GIMP (a photo editing program similar
to Photoshop), even Python 2.3. Everything was available through the
KDE application
menus, and everything Just Worked.
The icing on the cake though was WINE. WINE is an emulation layer for Linux that allows
you to run Windows applications. I had heard about it, but always been
put off trying it because it sounded so complicated. Knoppix comes
with WINE already
installed, so I figured there was nothing to lose by trying it
out.
wine notepad.exe
Windows notepad loaded up in a new, KDE style window. Wow.
Knoppix mounts your Windows hard drive (in my case as hda2) as read
only, so you can play with your existing files without fear of
damaging them. I browsed around my Program Files directory and tried
to run WINE on
various applications. Several failed, including Internet Explorer
(hardly essential software, but useful for testing). I don't know if
this is because they do weird, screwed up things that WINE doesn't yet know how to
handle or if they were upset that they couldn't read the filesystem.
Whatever the reason, I was blown away by the fact that any of it
worked at all. When UltraEdit loaded under Linux I positively
cackled.
I've only made one venture in to Knoppix land so far, but it really
was everything as good as people had said it was. If you have access
to a CD burner and a fast
internet connection you owe it to yourself to try it out.
I've been long bemoaning the fact that if you want to repartition
your hard drive to install Linux as a dual boot with an existing
Windows system the most frequently recommended method is to buy a copy
of Partion Magic. You would have thought the open source software
world would have provided a free alternative by now.
Via Andy Todd, it turns out that they
have. GNU Parted is
a repartioning tool for Linux. QtParted wraps it in a
GUI with a
Partition Magic style interface. And the awesome Knoppix comes with QtParted included
on the disk. So instead of shelling out for an expensive package that
you are unlikely to ever use more than once, you can download and burn
a Knoppix CD, boot in to Linux
and repartition from there. I'll be trying this out for real on
Monday, and I'll report back with the results when I do.
As an aside, has anyone ever found a web page that lists all of the
software included on the Knoppix CD?
I'm writing this
entry from a Linux machine...but I never installed Linux. I've booted
my PC off a Knoppix disc, which is a bootable Linux CD. I'm in Linux
now, but I just need to pop the CD and reboot, and I'm back to
Windows.
You can get the CD image file at www.knoppix.com (I used Bit Torrent to get my
version). Burn it to a CD, stick it in the drive, and reboot. You
will boot into a really nice Linux distribution.
There are no users on the system — you're automatically
logged on as root. If you're worried about this, don't be —
remember that you booted from a CD. If you screw something up as
root, just reboot and the system will be back to normal.
While Knoppix can read everything on your hard drive, it has no
write access by default, so it's not going to do anything to your
existing stuff. You can allow it to write, but it's not advisable
with an NTFS drive. Knoppix creates a ramdisk to store all the stuff
it needs while running. It accesses everything else off the CD, just
like it would off the hard drive normally. When you run a new
program, you can hear the CD spool up. Consequently, it's slower than
a normal Linux machine, but not by much.
It's fully functional — it detected everything on my machine,
including FireWire and USB devices. I just had to get the network
card to broadcast a DHCP request and I was on the network. It
recognized my Lexmark E210 printer just fine, and I'm listening to MP3s on XMMS as I write this. I had more
trouble with my dedicated Linux install at work, and I spent days
fiddling with that.
It comes with scads of software, like most Linux distributions
— KDE, Open Office, The Gimp, Mozilla, Konquerer, etc. Since it forms a
ramdisk when it boots, you can save files and work with them just as
if it were a normal operating system. I saved the image above off a
Web site, cropped it, and converted it to JPG in The Gimp. If I
wanted to keep it beyond this session, I could always FTP it somewhere
(remember that KDE is FTP-aware — you can map an FTP site to a
local folder, so you'd never really know the difference).
I'm fairly well stunned by this. It's really amazing. Sure, it
can't really store or persist anything locally from session to
session, but most of my apps are Web-based and my email is IMAP, so
I'm actually pretty functional.
If you ever wanted to try Linux but you don't want to make any
changes to your current Windows set-up, Knoppix is exactly what you're
looking for.
Knoppix Saved My Dad's Data11/10/2003 11:39 PM Even before today, I couldn't say enough good things about Knoppix,
the coolest run-from-CD Linux Distribution ever. But it gets better.
When I got home from flying this evening, there were two messages on
my answering machine. Both were my Dad telling me that his work laptop
was fubar. He wanted to find a way to backup the data to his Linux box
(one that I setup for him as a home server last year--that he doesn't
know much about)....
Configuring Knoppix for Dad's Workstations
Configuring Knoppix for Dad's Workstations12/29/2004 03:27 AM As noted earlier, I've been using Knoppix to get a pair of Linux boxes
up and running for my father. Both sit on a private LAN (along with
his notebook and a Deskjet color printer) via an old Netgear RP114
broadband router connected to the cable modem. He uses a "Leave it to
Beaver" theme for his machines. They are: June ABit BP6 Motherboard
with dual 500MHz Celeron (PII) CPUs 512MB PC100 RAM 80GB Disk
Soundblaster Live 17" HP LCD...
Hackers, Windows passwords, Linux and Knoppix04/11/2005 05:06 PM Being the kind of technical person you are, you most likely identify
with the old-time hacker ethic and disdain the popular use of the word
"hacker" when "cracker" would be more apropos. ...
Einam: Knoppix en la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
FCCU GNU/Linux Forensic Bootable CD is a
bootable CD based on KNOPPIX that contains
a lot of tools suitable for computer forensic
investigatins, including bash scripts. Its main
purpose is to create images of devices prior to
analysis, and it is used by the Belgian Federal
Computer Crime Unit.
I'm writing this
entry from a Linux machine...but I never installed Linux. I've booted
my PC off a Knoppix disc, which is a bootable Linux CD. I'm in Linux
now, but I just need to pop the CD and reboot, and I'm back to
Windows.