What is the best boot disk for recovering files?

[Dos_Box]

What boot disk\live distro would you recommend for doing file transfers from an infected drive to a USB connected drive on a Windows laptop?

The easiest to use the better please.

[Guest TheLibrarian]

BartPE would be my choice if I didn't already have O&O's Bluecon.

 

Of course, this is a *nix question so my answer really looks dumb... Sorry - didn't look at the forum name before I answered...

Edited July 28, 2010 by TheLibrarian
Read the forum name...

[BatchFile]

Windows PE and xcopy - I'll send you a .iso if you like

[Senseichuck317]

Personallly I would recommend a copy of ***** CD, which has a Mini Windows XP utility with a simple GUI, however I am unsure as to whether or not the tool is legal... The tool can be found easily by doing a Google search of *******

 

 

Edited to remove reference to illegal software - Dos_Box

Edited July 28, 2010 by Dos_Box
Typo

[LeMarchand]

however I am unsure as to whether or not the tool is legal...

 

It's not.

 

I use UBCD4Win.

[Gerry]

I'd recommend Ubuntu Live CD too. How-To-Geek has some good articles about using it to do virus scans and recover files:

Scan a Windows PC for Viruses from a Ubuntu Live CD - How-To Geek

Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek

[SYNACK]

I have to say that I would also go with windows pe from the AIK. Nothing does NTFS like full blown Windows and I have had *nix solutions bake the partitions before. Sometime the *nix variants will read slightly corrupted volumes but this comes with the danger of further corruption - in my experience despite the supposed read only nature.

 

If you are really after a *nix solution then yet just booting to Ubuntu portable will do fine and give you a full GUI.

 

If you want a quick easy way to get a GUI file listing in PE without needing to add any software just bring up notepad from the command shell and use the open file dialogue which supports cut, copy, paste etc.

[Dos_Box]

Personallly I would recommend a copy of *****, which has a Mini Windows XP utility with a simple GUI, however I am unsure as to whether or not the tool is legal... The tool can be found easily by doing a Google search of ******

 

Please do not recommend illegal software on this forum, and a simple look at the software on this CD is proof enough.

[Dos_Box]

I'd recommend Ubuntu Live CD too. How-To-Geek has some good articles about using it to do virus scans and recover files:

Scan a Windows PC for Viruses from a Ubuntu Live CD - How-To Geek

Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek

 

I think Ubuntu would be best too. It's not for me, but for someone rather far away.

[jamesfed]

Windows PE would be my choice - can get it as part of the Microsoft Deployment Tookit/Automated Installation Toolkit

[linuxgirlie]

I also would say ubuntu, though I have had trouble on laptops with graphics before, the recent being yesterday, where I had to use a pclinuxos disk instead as that did recognise the graphics.

[djm968]

Another vote for BartPE. Had a similar issue after a virus corrupted the MBR on a laptop very recently and needed to copy all documents onto an external USB HD drive. Worked like a charm. Incidentally attempts to “fix-boot” and “fixmbr” as discussed in on other sites did not work for me but I found a few 0k (zero) device drivers in the Windows\System32 folder. After deleting these using BartPE, I was able to boot the device and clean it up.

[dhicks]

What boot disk\live distro would you recommend for doing file transfers from an infected drive to a USB connected drive on a Windows laptop?

 

SystemRescueCD:

 

SystemRescueCd

 

Always seems to be up-to-date with the latest drivers and so on, boots on pretty much any machine, even the ones that refuse to boot anything else.

 

--

David Hicks

[gshaw]

One of my technicians found an open source rescue disk called Redo Backup, without exaggerating it is brilliant!

 

Redo Backup and Recovery | Download Redo Backup and Recovery software for free at SourceForge.net

 

It's so easy to use and quick as well... and for those bored technicians on private jobs while files are copying you can even go on Facebook

 

Check it out, you won't be disappointed! I'm also using it to take paranoia copies of our gold build images before capturing into SCCM just in case anything goes wrong... the copies are really quick and again click, click, click to copy over... just how it should be

 

(one little thing, when trying to find your local HD in the file explorer remember to look in the MNT folder for SDA1 etc for each partition)

[Dos_Box]

Nice. Thanks for that. Another tool for the box