Bootable

Creating and using a bootable USB rescue disk is a much faster, easier and smarter approach than a bootable cd/dvd, earlier we had shared a trick which allowed users to create a bootable USB disk with Kaspersky Rescue ISO, now Kaspersky has listened to the need and released an official bootable USB disk maker for Kaspersky Rescue Disk.

EASEUS is a well-known brand specializing in easy to use data-recovery and backup software development, few days ago they did an exclusive promo with our blog giving away unlimited free licenses of Partition Table Doctor utility to our readers - now we have another promotional giveaway of unlimited free licenses of EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard V 5.0.1 worth $69.95 for our blog readers.

The newest version EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard V 5.0.1 supports advanced data recovery from Hard-disks, RAID's, USB drives, memory cards etc. allowing users to get back their deleted files or lost data due to partition loss or damage done because of software crash, virus infection, unexpected shutdown or any other unknown reasons.

Having a bootable USB disk drive comes in handy, and what else can be better then to have your bootable computer rescue kit or favorite linux distro right with you on your iPhone, as my previous post shared how you can make your iPhone work as a mass storage device somebody used USB Drive creatively making it work as a bootable disk drive which lets you use iPhone as a bootable computer rescue kit, launch Windows setup, and use other bootable USB distros/live cd's.

Imagine the security nightmare if general users are able to bypass your operating system security and logon as Administrator or root account having all privileges by simply inserting an floppy or CD, now this scary situation is possible using a prototype software KON-BOOT which hacks into Windows and linux kernel on the fly while booting, the novice friendly softwares allows users to bypass logon passwords completely by simply booting via the KON-BOOT CD or Floppy disk, in its current incarnation the software has been tested to bypass logon passwords on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003/2008, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora.

Just follow the simple steps ahead to create KON-BOOT bootable CD or Floppy and bypass logon passwords easily.

Reinstalling Windows is an daunting task as you have to re-install drivers, service packs, hotfixes, common software's and perform customization tasks on each install, the whole process takes about 5-6 hours on a decently powered computer requiring active user interaction, but here is a sleek solution for the problem - free utility SysAngel DVD Generator lets you create an all-in-one unattended Windows XP bootable DVD integrated with latest drivers, Service Packs, hotfixes, software's, and customizations for complete install requiring just 15 minutes of your active participation in front of the screen.

The DVD will boot a Linux-based OS asking all the necessary questions at start requiring no user intervention later, user can choose to format the hard-disk or preserve the data in which case only C:\Windows and C:\Program files folders are erased, old "Documents and Settings" folder will get renamed to "Documents and Settings.OLD" preserving customization settings and data for importing later, options for integrating an PXE/RIS server is also provided for network based operations.

If you want to create a Live Ubuntu USB key from Windows, free utility Usbuntu does the job perfectly, but if you are looking for an advanced utility having the ability to create bootable live USB drives from a variety of Linux distro's UNetbootin would be the solution you are looking for, the free and open-source utility for Windows and Linux allows users to create bootable Live USB disks for a variety of Linux distributions, the utility can download a linux distribution of your choice or can be supplied with a Linux .iso file if you've already downloaded it or if your distribution of choice is not included in the list.

If you don't have a USB disk or can't use it for some reason UNetbootin can install on your Hard-disk as a Frugal Install which can come handy for loading system utilities like - Parted Magic, Super Grub Disk, Backtrack, Ophcrack, NTPasswd, Gujin, Smart Boot Manager (SBM) and FreeDOS to name a few.

I have blogged about how to install Windows 7 as a virtual machine for a risk-free trial, Similarly, if you are willing to try one of the best Linux desktop distro "Ubuntu" without risking your existing Windows install here's a short, simple and easy to use GUI utility to create Ubuntu Live USB with ease.

uSbuntu Live Creator is a free software for Windows allowing users to create bootable USB key with Ubuntu 8.10 on it, and the best part is that the software also offers an exclusive option of automatic virtualization using portable VirtualBox for launching Ubuntu directly in Windows without any configuration or installation.

Virus's can get real nasty and make your Operating System unbootable, in such cases the user is left with only two choices either to format and re-install the operating system or to use a bootable anti-virus cleaner for removing the virus infection, obviously the second option is the preferred one, almost all major anti-virus companies provide bootable rescue disk's for removal of such stubborn virus infections, Kaspersky Rescue Disk is one of the best bootable anti-virus rescue disk out there with an fully functional option to download latest anti-virus definitions updates from internet, the free rescue disk GUI is similar to Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 allowing users to remove virus's and malware's via a familiar interface without booting into Windows.

If you don't have CD/DVD booting functionality or would prefer USB disk as the bootable medium, here is a simple step-by-step guide for creating bootable Kaspersky Rescue USB Disk:

I have written about creating bootable USB disk using free software, but it is of no use if the motherboard or BIOS does not support USB booting, if you are stuck in a situation where BIOS does not support booting from USB or CD-ROM, free boot-manager PLoP would be the best solution for the problem, the easy to use boot manager can work with your existing boot-loader and even without the need to install on hard-disk.

PLoP Boot Manager can launch from floppy, CD, network or existing boot manager like LILO, GRUB, Windows boot menu and DOS, once launched you can use PLoP to boot from USB and CD-ROM even if BIOS does not support these options.

If you are an fairly advanced computer user, at times you may need to boot from devices other then the default hard-disk, mainly to troubleshoot virus infections and other critical operating-system related issues, I had shared tips on how to make bootable cd for performing advance system tasks on windows. Today I will share few utilities enabling you to create bootable USB pen drives with ease, you need to have Motherboard/BIOS with USB boot support for this to work.

MakeBootable is an free and simple-to-use utility to make your Pen Drive act as a boot-up disk without erasing any data on the device. It consists of a single executable file and requires no installation, However the utility will only work on USB device's using Phison’s chip solution and FAT file-system only (you can re-format your drives to FAT easily).