Your Computer Toolbox

Do you have one? Do you know what it is?

We have computers that we buy or build and once that is done how are they taken care of? Well, with a tool box full of goodies and how to use them individually or with each other and your computer can be running in an optimum manner all the time. By having a toolbox you keep your individual computer support time to a minimum.

Webshark 2000 started a thread some time ago in the General & Business Software forum that has many programs in it. Lots of ideas there. I have some of it in my toolbox. Which is added to all the time from various sources. For example there is a simple file splitter program in it worth its weight in gold to me that was given to me by Ghouldini. Can't find it anymore to download that I know of.

A toolbox is nice to have to help keep your Hard Drive running smoothly.

Then again, in this day and age we have a significant malware problem that we did not have to put up with not so long ago. More tools needed.

This toolbox should at least support and have the tools for maintenence, backups, and malware defense.

With each tool we put into a tool box a few notes on how to use it is helpful as you might not need a particular tool for awhile.

OK then, we need someone to put a tool in this toolbox to get started.

Any ideas?? :)

The old 98 Bootdisk has come in handy many a time over the years and still today with XP it still has some useful functions.
But you do need a floppy drive therefore if you do not have one of them, then make a boot cd.

A USB storage device can come in very handy for useful programs and quick backups of important files.

If anyone has a question on "How to" use the tools posted be sure to ask. No sense in adding one if you don't know how to use it. This what this thread is for. To learn about tools and how to use them if you want to add one of them to your tool box.

One of my favourite Boot disks is the one i pointed out in another thread, BartPE.

A quick Quote for you from their description:

Quote:

---

What is BartPE and PE Builder?

Bart's PE Builder helps you build a "BartPE" (Bart Preinstalled Environment) Bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.

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 so on.
This will replace any Dos bootdisk in no time!

---

Full instructions available on the BartPE site, but if you have any questions then do ask.

Another good compilation boot disk is The Ultimate BootCD, while checking that link (to make sure it worked) i was happy to see that they now also make what appears to be a kinda "expansion pack" for BartPE, See Here for more info, it's new to me but looks very interesting indeed, I'm gunna give it a spin and put one together soon, it's real nice to have all this stuff available.

Regards :)

:( Where I work we start out with a nice tool box set up to put all our stuff in a convenient roll a round. Examples here

Not sure what the going price is now days as mine current box set up is about 8 years old. Back then it was around $3,000 American. Of course I am too cheap to go that route at home. :D

opovet 2, How the heck are you?

Now this was not exactly the kind of toolbox we are talking about. You tryin' to confuse us? :D

I know you have some of what we could use. It's nice to share you know. :)

Just built the Windows UBCD (the "expansion pack" for BartPE i discovered earlier)... Tested it, there's loads of software included in it and so far everything seems to be in working order, unless i find any new mods for it I'll probably burn it to CD later to replace my regular BartPE CD.

Well impressed with it, highly recommended from what I've seen of it so far. A lot more user friendly to me than using Knoppix :)

Regards :)

Hi all

All this talk of BartPE has really intriugued me, so I have to ask: What the hell is it? I have seen the website and read it,but i'm still not so sure...

Just to add to the list of things handy for the toolbox:

Loopback plugs, as mentioned in the BIOS/CMOS thread! They look real handy to have.

And also the PCI Slot tester cards, they would be good to have.

See Here for both (scroll halfway down)

Hong

Quote:

---

Originally posted by hongman
All this talk of BartPE has really intrigued me, so I have to ask: What the hell is it? I have seen the website and read it,but I'm still not so sure...

---

It's basically a striped down version of XP that will run from a Boot CD (without using hard drive), it's very similar to Windows PE.

Using it you can Ghost/backup/recover files and/or burn stuff to CD or edit the registry of a dead system... also offers network/internet access, virus/malware removal and lots of other stuff all from a familiar Windows GUI (with start menu) like the one we're all used to.

Regards :)

Quote:

---

it's very similar to Windows PE.

---

Whats that? :D

Is this a bit like Suse Trial Edition, where it runs solely from the CD ROM?

Quote:

---

Using it you can Ghost/backup/recover files and/or burn stuff to CD or edit the registry of a dead system... also offers network/internet access, virus/malware removal and lots of other stuff all from a familiar Windows GUI (with start menu) like the one we're all used to.

---

So in effect, if you really wanted to you could use BARTPE infinately? I.E use that as an operating system, just like anyone else would with Windows/Linux?

I started out reading this thread thinking wow this is just what I could do with. :cool: :cool: :cool:

However, I have to say that you are getting very deep and very techy to my ears. I dont understand the half of what you are talking about. Even some of the posts are asking questions to clarify their understanding. :confused: :confused: :confused:

Please guys, keep it simple so that we can all join in. :( :( :(

My toolbox? A thumbdrive with bootable diagnostic utilities (like DocMem) and a rubber mallet. I use the thumbdrive to fix the computer and the rubber mallet on the idiot who screwed up his computer for no good reason.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by hongman
Whats that? :D

Is this a bit like Suse Trial Edition, where it runs solely from the CD ROM?

---

Probably best to leave a Google Search Result for all the ins and outs... You are correct that it also runs totally from CD (also utilising RAM), but Windows PE is no "trail" tho, i believe it's something only available to corporate users and such... BartPE has been created for home use, but like i said they are both very similar to one another, just that BartPE (inc. Windows UBCD) has many other utilities included which makes it useful for what's being discussed here.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by hongman
So in effect, if you really wanted to you could use BARTPE infinitely? I.E use that as an operating system, just like anyone else would with Windows/Linux?

---

You could yes, if it has the software for the task in hand then it's a very feasible idea i think... although the number of processes that you can run at once is limited to 6 and it will reboot after 24hrs of continuous use (this is to try and prevent it from being used like a regular OS, but...)... So it has it's limits, just depends what you need it to do :) Interesting tho.

LOL Bistro, good use of the mallet! :D:D

Regards :)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by bistro
My toolbox? a rubber mallet. I use the thumbdrive to fix the computer and the rubber mallet on the idiot who screwed up his computer for no good reason.

---

I know someone who has a blow-up mallet, and does infact whack 'em over the head when they have done dumb things. :p :p :p