Create USB installer with Boot Camp Assistant. After downloading the ISO file, you'll need to use Boot Camp Assistant to move it to a bootable USB drive. Insert a USB flash drive to your Mac. Repair Boot Disk in Mac OS X with Disk Utility & Recovery HD Feb 8, 2012 - 14 Comments If you have tried to repair the boot volume before in Mac OS X before, you’ll undoubtedly have found the “Repair Disk” option is grey and unavailable within the Disk Utility tool. Chances are, the Mac with the disk, where the data was lost, will be able to start from the boot drive created. We officially recommend running data recovery on your startup disk ONLY when your Mac is booted from a different drive, using external docking stations, or Disk Drill's own bootable data recovery freeware.
Our consulting firm has had a rash of problems recently that required the help of Linux rescue tools. From corrupt partition tables to severely infected machines, Linux tools come in handy when the host system won't boot. But because of the plethora of tools available, it's sometimes tough to sift through the cruft and find the ones that are usable. So I decided to highlight some of the better tools. I hope one or two of them will find their way to your toolkit.
Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.
1: Knoppix[UPDATE:Mac Tool For Booting OfflineNew link] Knoppix is one of the better tools for rescuing data from sick machines. It's a full-blown live Linux distribution with a strong, user-friendly GUI that will allow you to easily mount a drive and then copy the data (which you will locate in an easy-to-use file manager) to an external source. Of course, Knoppix comes with the full arsenal of Linux commands, which place just about everything you need at your fingertips.2: Trinity Rescue Kit
Trinity Rescue Kit might leave you wondering, 'Why isn't this tool being developed faster and on a larger scale? Although TRK is rather slow to develop, what it offers is just short of amazing. Place it on a USB drive, boot your virus-laden machine, and scan the mounted drives with clamav, antivir, bitdefender, and more. This tool is all command line, so you might have to bone up on your commands to really make use of it.
3: Avira AntiVir
Avira AntiVir is a command-line antivirus tool that is fast, robust, and dependable. There is a GUI tool, but installing it is almost more trouble than it's worth. (It requires Java.) Installing AntiVir on Linux isn't the easiest of tasks, but it's certainly no kernel compilation.
4: GParted Live
GParted Live is a live Linux distribution that allows you to manipulate partitions on a drive. It supports numerous file systems and lets you can resize, create, and delete, partitions. You can run GParted Live from a CD or a USB drive, so it's very portable.
5: SystemRescueCd
SystemRescueCd is another live Linux rescue CD that offers numerous tools to handle numerous tasks, including partition manipulation, file recovery, hard disk testing, ftp, and disk formatting. As with most live Linux distributions, you can place SystemRescueCd on either or CD or USB drive, and it offers an easy-to-use GUI and plenty of tools.
6: Ubuntu Rescue Remix
Ubuntu Rescue Remix is quickly becoming one of my favorite data recovery tools. Like all good live Linux CD tools, it includes an outstanding GUI (it is Ubuntu after all) that can help you handle tasks other tools can't handle. You can recover and rescue Mac files/filesystems, recover data from nonstandard external drives, recover deleted files, and more. The one thing URR is missing is antivirus tools. But, since this is a Linux rescue disc, once installed, you can simply add the tools you need to your USB live CD.
7: F-Secure Rescue CD
F-Secure Rescue CD is based on Knoppix and allows you to check the integrity of your installed applications. It also allows advanced data repair and recovery, as well as recovery from that ever-dreaded malware!
8: Ddrescue
Ddrescue is a Linux tool designed to copy data from one file block device to another. This tool will aid you in rescuing data when your drive is suffering from read errors. Unlike many of the tools on this list, Ddrescue is not a live distribution but a tool you will use on a running Linux machine. So to rescue data, you will have to attach that troubled disk to the working Linux machine.
9: Safecopy
Safecopy is similar to ddrescue, allowing you to copy files from a disk suffering from I/O errors. It also includes a tool that allows you to read data from CDs in raw mode, as well as issue device resets and simulate bad media for testing and benchmarking.
10: Linux rescue mode
This is the only entry on the list that isn't a downloadable tool. Linux rescue mode is a mode booted with the help of a Linux boot CD, allowing you to repair a broken system. From rescue mode, you can recover a root password, repair or reinstall the boot loader, and more. When you boot into rescue mode, it will typically mount your installed system into /mnt/sysimage, where you can take care of any business necessary.
More rescue tools?
These 10 Linux tools can help you recover, rescue, and repair a Linux, Windows, or Mac machine. Of course, plenty more tools are out there. Have you come across a Linux tool that can help you repair or recover a damaged or sick drive? If so, share it with your fellow TechRepublic members.
When working on a computer, certain tasks can be made much easier by using tools that boot from a CD. Some of these tasks include restoring files from a computer with a corrupt operating system (the Windows Ultimate Boot CD), testing hardware, reseting a lost password, or partitioning a hard drive. I would like to share with you 10 great bootable tools that will do all of these things and much more.
Partimage Is Not Ghost Partimage Is Not Ghost or PING is a bootable utility similar to Ghost that uses Partimage to backup and restore disk partitions. The disk images can be backed up and restored to and from directly attached drives, through your network, or removable media such as CDs, DVDs, and external drives. You can also use PING to backup and restore BIOS settings. If you are new to PING, check out the great how to documentation on their website. Mac Tool For Booting PeopleBart’s Preinstalled Environment [Update – I’m sorry but Bart’s Preinstalled Environment is no longer operational – Ed.] Bart’s Preinstalled Environment is a utility that allows you to build bootable Windows CDs. It’s a great way to restore files, run virus scans, and so on when you can’t boot into your Windows installation. There are also lots of additional tools that you can install when creating the CD to aid you in troubleshooting a computer. And since it doesn’t rely on files located on the hard drive, you can even boot into computers with no OS installed to perform burn in tests. GParted LiveCD GParted is the partition editor that is used by the Gnome linux desktop environment but has been made to work from a bootable CD. It is similar to Partition Magic in that it allows you to change disk partitions while preserving the partition’s contents. It supports ext2, ext3, fat16, fat32, ntfs, hfs, hfs+, linux-swap, reiserfs, reiser4, ufs, and xfs.
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows was originally created out of a desire for a Windows version of the original Ultimate Boot CD. Three and a half years later, the project is still going strong. The UBCD for Windows is like Bart’s Preinstalled Environment, which it actually uses during the creation process, in that it allows you to build a bootable Windows CD. But what sets it apart are its many great tools that can run directly from the CD. Not only are there many great repair tools, but there are also applications like Firefox and PDF Reader that allow you to use the it for more than just troubleshooting computers. Mac Tool For Booting WebsitesDarik’s Boot and Nuke Darik’s Boot and Nuke allows you to effectively wipe all data from hard disks making it unrecoverable by forensics analysis. Just boot from the CD and perform a quick erase or choose between 6 different options including the Department of Defense 7 pass and even the Gutmann 35 pass wipe. SystemRescueCD SystemRescueCD is a bootable repair utility that is great for recovering data after a hard drive crash. It comes loaded with many system utilities such as Test-disk, Partimage, sfdisk, and many other file system tools. It can also be used to partition and image your hard drive. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor Offline NT Password & Registry Editor allows you to boot from a CD to reset forgotten Windows passwords. You can also use it to unlock locked or disabled user accounts and edit the registry. Mac Tools SetKnoppix Linux Live CD Knoppix is one of the original and best bootable live CDs available. Not only can it be used as full-fledged bootable desktop with programs such as OpenOffice, GIMP, Firefox and more but it can also be used as a rescue utility. There are two editions available. With the help of compression, the CD edition can hold up to 2GB and has more than 1000 software packages. The DVD edition can hold up to 8GB and has more than 2600 software packages. Ophcrack LiveCD Ophcrack LiveCD is a bootable version of Ophcrack, a Windows password cracker. Ophcrack can be used to recover lost passwords. It is also safer to use than Offline NT Password & Registry Editor but isn’t always successful. Helix Live CD Helix is a Live CD that is built upon Knoppix. It comes packed with tools focused on incident response and computer forensics. It can be used to copy files, detect and recover deleted files, retrieve hidden data, detect viruses, find rootkits, and much more. Certain tools on the CD can also be used in a Windows environment. ![]()
So there you have it. Probably the most popular is Windows Ultimate Boot CD. Then again tools to recover password (forgotten Windows password recovery or otherwise) are also always in need and you can be very popular with this in your bootable CD tools. I’m curious to see which bootable utilities you recommend.
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