First of all, I want to give a big thanks to the owner(s). I don't know where else I can go to ask questions like this. Everywhere else everyone is so GD tightassed about this stuff. On to my question. A few years ago I DLed an ISO from a torrent site, one of those UBCD things. Basically it was XP on a DVD. You burn it to a DVD, and when your computer goes tits up you boot from it and it runs Windows from the disc and it has a bunch of tools and utilities to help you recover your data or repair your system or whatever. But it's kinda long in the tooth, so I want to get a new one, maybe one that runs W7 and has more current tools and utilities. But I don't know what to look for on the sites. Any recommendations? I know I can get all into WinPE and UBCD and all that mess but I just want an ISO I can burn. Edit: I found Hiren's Boot CD, so that's one.
Ive used BartPE successfully, but for several years I've just booted Ubuntu LiveCD to recover files of all sorts. Ubuntu is obviously not any sort of Windows environment, but it does allow the retrieval of data so long as the disk isn't damaged. And, the .iso files are widely available and easy to burn. If I get to the point of having to circumvent the installed OS, I generally consider the OS trashed and in need to reinstalling. Of course a system image and up-to-date backups makes the whole process far less nerve racking.
Thanks for the recommendations guys. I downloaded a few different versions of Hiren's restored boot DVD but I haven't burned and tested them yet.
