Hiren's BootCD 7.

9
The 911 Rescue CD

Freeware Data Recovery Programs

If you have deleted partitions by accident, do not create another partitions, just leave it blank.

If you have deleted files from the recycling bin and you realize you needed it, do not save anything
to that drive. Because Hard drives do not actually erase data or partitions. When you erase a file
from the operating system, it just marked on the drive as deleted. When your system needs to store
more data on that drive, it will consider files on the drive marked Deleted as being free space, and it
copy over them. If that happens then you are in big trouble.

This rule also applies for partitions, since partition information just presents the operating system
with a way of addressing the space available on that drive. If you delete a partition, everything from
will be gone. because there is no partition information, no data can be read by the operating system.
Your data will be on the hard drive but operating system can not see that. Data-recovery programs
can see that data by scanning hard drive.

The Best thing to do in a data loss situation is to make sure no more data is written to that drive. If
you have just the one partition and it's fried, you can't boot normally to the operating system.

The best option is to transfer your hard drive to another computer. Transferring the Hard disk drive
to another computer is best because it will prevent the drive from being over written, and potentially
allowing you to retrieve files from the disk just by using Windows Explorer to look through file
structures. If you have damaged or erased important operating system files, but the partition
information is still readable Windows will not boot.

If you can not physically transfer the hard disk to another computer, The simplest way to gain
access to the files on your hard disk drive with a DOS boot disk and then use a DOS compatible file
recovery program.

If you have only one hard drive with a single partition that is no longer bootable, file recovery
becomes more difficult. Because most recovery programs will need a place to copy recovered data,
and if you are using the same drive which has the lost data on it you will be destroying more data
than you save.

It is a better idea to install a new hard drive onto the current system and save the recovered data on
new hard drive..

There are several programs such as Ontrack Easy Recovery, Winternals Disk Commander,
Active Partition Recovery and Active Uneraser that will boot your system straight into DOS, then
perform file recovery.

If you have installed your damaged hard drive into another computer, or if you have put a new drive
with a separate Operating System into your current machine, you now have a many advantages:

You can attempt to access your lost data normally through Windows File Explorer. This will not
work if the partition information has been changed, since the OS will not 'see' the logical drives.
Now you can safely play with recovering your files, since you now have a completely separate hard
disk drive on which to put recovered data without compromising the damaged hard drive drive.

There is one problem with the area of data recovery software, Software companies know that a
good recovery program is something that people will pay good money for. So most freeware and
shareware programs comes with very basic functionality.

NTFS Reader

Features:

 Can be saved and run from bootable floppy

 Displays complete physical and logical drive information
 Supports IDE / ATA / SCSI drives
 Supports large (more than 8GB) Hard Drive
 Supports NTFS, NTFS5 file systems for reading
 Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 file systems for data writing
 Supports compressed and fragmented files on NTFS
 Supports partitions created in MS-DOS, Windows XP, 2000, NT, ME, 98, 95
 Displays non-english and long file names
 Ability to preview file(s)/folder(s) before copying
 Supports search by file name or mask
 Disk Viewer displays content of the file in Hex/Text mode

The limitation of this program is that it can't read from drives with damaged partition tables or from
partitions that has damaged boot sectors, because it needs to be able to see the NTFS partition
before it can copies data from it.

Active@ Data Recovery Service (The company that made this software) has a commercial version,
Active@ Partition Recovery, this software has ability to search the drive for lost partitions and copy
data from damaged hard drive, so it is a complete recovery tool.

Please Note: NTFS reader will work under MS DOS, Windows 9x/ME but not on Windows 2000 or
Windows XP, because this program uses Direct Disk Access and these Operating systems does not
allow that.
Create a custom bootable CD-ROM
Create your own custom-made bootable CD-ROM with virus recovery and back-up restoration
options with Frank Charlton

So far in the Windows Hidden Secrets series, we've covered aspects of the operating system itself,
from working with security policies to slimming down your Windows directory. This month we're
taking a different approach, since we've covering the subject of bootable CD-ROMs - what they are,
how to create them and why they can save your life in the event of a virus attack.

PC architecture has changed a lot over the last couple of years. Previously, you could boot your PC
from either the internal hard drive or a bootable floppy disk - and that was it. The changes to the
PC's BIOS - the small program held on a chip on your motherboard that kickstarts the PC and loads
the operating system - mean that your PC can now boot directly from an IDE CD-ROM drive. If
you have a full installation of Windows 98, you have a bootable CD in your possession already.

You can boot directly from this CD, and you're given the option of continuing the boot process from
CD - which runs the Windows 98 installation program - or booting directly from your hard drive if
an operating system is present.

Created Equal?
Not all CD volumes are created using the same methods though, and you can't just boot from any
old disc. Normal CD-ROMs are created using the ISO9660 file system, and are readable on any PC
running MS-DOS, Windows or Linux. Bootable CD volumes use a standard known as El Torito,
created by Phoenix Technologies. This standard has been rapidly adopted over the last couple of
years, despite sounding like a famous brand of tortilla chips, and all modern motherboards support
booting your PC from El Torito CD-ROMs.

There are numerous reasons why it's worth the bother of creating a bootable CD for yourself. First,
there's the problem of viruses. Many viruses can stop Windows dead before it's even loaded. Nasty
pieces of work such as Win32.MTX can cause absolute havoc by bringing your Windows
installation to a grinding halt, making it hard to get going again without a complete partition wipe
and re-installation of Windows. Some anti-virus suites can run directly from MS-DOS without
Windows being loaded, making them a useful recovery tool. With a custom-made bootable CD that
loads MS-DOS directly from a CD-R, you can run a virus checker, such as Norton AntiVirus 2001,
directly from DOS, disinfecting your Windows installation with very little hassle.

All very well if you're foresighted enough to create the virus-killing bootable CD before disaster
strikes, but what about when you find you have no other choice but to re-install Windows? Once
that arduous task is done, you can future-proof yourself to make it very easy to recover from a
similar situation again. Once you've installed Windows and you have it set up the way you want it
along with all of the device drivers installed for your hardware, you can use an imaging tool such as
Symantec's Norton Ghost or PowerQuest's DriveImage to create an image of your hard drive to
restore your system in the event of disaster.

We've discussed disk images in PC Answers many times before now. Basically, an image is a
compressed file containing every bit of information on your hard drive - files, folders and all data
needed to recreate the hard-disk partition exactly as it was when you created the image. With a few
mouse clicks, you can restore a crippled PC back to your own custom equivalent of the default
factory settings offered by major PC manufacturers.

What Do I Need?
The most obvious requirement here is that you need to own a CD-Recordable drive. It doesn't
matter whether it's a SCSI or an IDE drive, and it makes no difference if it's an older drive that
doesn't support CD-RWs either, since you'll be using a CD-R to create your bootable volume.

You'll also need some CD-mastering software that's capable of creating bootable discs that conform
to the El Torito specifications. For the purposes of this month's Hidden Secrets we're using Ahead's
Nero Burning ROM 5 since it both makes the creation process easy and comes available in a free
30-day evaluation that you can download and use to create your one-off bootable CD-ROM. You
can download the demo version of Nero from www.ahead.de. If you already have some mastering
software that came with your drive, then you may be able to use it to follow this tutorial. Other than
Nero, the most popular bundled software with new CD-R drives is Roxio's nifty Easy CD Creator,
which can also create El Torito volumes, though you'll have to check the manual for information on
how to do this.

Finally, you'll need a blank CD-R or two. You should only need the one, but make sure you have a
couple of spares handy in case of mistakes on your part or because of errors such as buffer
underruns. You'll also need a blank floppy disk - more on why you need this later.

Altered Images
As we said earlier, bootable CD-ROM volumes differ from normal data CDs in that they use a
specialised file system that's created for the purpose. The area of the CD that actually handles the
boot process needs to contain what's known as a boot image. Put simply, your bootable CD-ROM
requires the image of another existing bootable volume to work. What happens is that the BIOS
temporarily assigns your CD-ROM drive the drive letter A, and re-allocates your floppy drive to B.
The PC boots up as normal from the boot image placed on your bootable CD as if it were a real
floppy drive.

The easiest way to capture a boot image is from a floppy disk you know already boots your system,
such as a Windows start-up disk - run Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel, iclick on
Startup Disk tab and then the Create Disk button, making sure a floppy is in the drive.

If you plan to use Norton Ghost to archive your existing system state to CD for later retrieval, it's
worth noting that you can also use the Ghost Boot Wizard to create a boot floppy with CD-ROM
support, which will do much the same job, and saves your having to copy the Ghosted files to your
CD-ROM later on. And if your PC has SCSI drives, you'll also need to make sure you copy the
correct DOS drivers for your SCSI card to the boot floppy before you proceed, or your bootable CD
won't be able to access any SCSI drives on your system.

Creating a custom bootable CD with Nero

1 - Insert your start-up disk into your floppy drive and launch Nero. When the New Compilation
Wizard opens, scroll down and select the icon labelled CD-ROM (Boot). Switch to the Boot tab and
ensure that the source of the image data is set to drive A.

2 - Switch to the ISO tab. To make sure the disc is perfectly readable under MS-DOS,set the buttons
to ISO Level 1, ISO 9660 character set and clear the two boxes in the Relax ISO Restrictions
section.
3 - Switch to the Label tab and make sure the drop-down menu at the top is set to ISO9660 and not
Joliet. Give your CD meaningful name such as 'BOOT' or something similar.Click the New button
to close the Wizard and open Nero itself.

4 - Use the File Browser window to navigate to directories containing any program files you want
to copy to the CD, such as your copy of Norton AntiVirus or Ghost. Drag the directories and drop
them on top of the CD icon in the left-hand window to add them to the CD.

5 - Click the Write icon on the Nero toolbar, or select Write CD from the File menu to open this
dialog. Switch off Determine maximum speed and Simulation, then click the Write button to begin.

6 - Once it's finished,restart your PC with the CD in your drive and your custom boot CD will load,
leaving you at the DOS prompt. To test Norton AntiVirus, change to the directory on CD and type
NAVDX to see full list of commands.NAVDX /A will scan all drives except floppies, for example.
Frank Charlton

How to Create a Bootable CD-ROM

Author: Gabriel Torres Last Updated: November 23, 2004
Type: Tutorials Comment on this article!

Page: 1 of 1

If you are not already aware of it, you can boot up your computer via a CD, as if it was a floppy
disk or hard disk. To this end, the CD has to be bootable and you must change the computer's set up
to allow booting via CD (the Boot Sequence option should be changed to something like CDROM,
C).

We often have to make a bootable CD. The usual case when we must run an antivirus program on
an infected computer. As the machine will be booted through a CD and seeing that data cannot be
directly written on a CD, it is much more sensible to run the antivirus this way (the virus has no
way of attacking the CD). Furthermore, current antivirus programs are too big to fit on a mere
floppy disk.

To make a bootable CD, just chose, from the CD recording program, to create a boot CD. In Easy
CD Creator, for instance, this is accomplished on the File menu, option New CD Layout, by
choosing Bootable CD. The program will then prompt you for a floppy disk containing the boot's
image.
 Figure 1: Making a Bootable CD with Easy CD Creator.

And what is this? Well, to be able to boot, the CD has to contain a file holding an image of a boot
disk. This will allow it to boot by simulating the floppy disk. In other words, you will have to set up
a boot disk in the precise way you want to boot via the CD.

During the boot, the computer will perform as if it was really being booted by a floppy disk. This
virtual floppy disk (the image of the disk recorded on the CD) will be accessed as letter A of the
operating system. The computer's floppy disk drive (drive A) will be accessed through letter B.

You must create a boot floppy disk that will also make the system recognise the CD-ROM drive,
seeing that when booting via CD the computer believes that you are booting by using a normal
floppy disk, not aware that you are booting via a CD. In other words, you must prepare a boot
floppy disk that works precisely the way you wish to run your boot from CD.

We recommend that this boot floppy disk to be used as an image on the CD be created through the
following commands on the DOS prompt of a machine running Windows 98:

Format a:/s
Copy c:windowscommandebdoakcdrom.sys a:
Copy c:windowscommandmscdex.exe a:

Then create a Config.sys file via command Edit a:config.sys containing the following command:

device=a:oakcdrom.sys /d:mscd001

Next create an Autoexec.bat file through command Edit a:autoexec.bat containing the following
command:

a:mscdex.exe /d:mscd001

Your boot floppy disk is ready now and you can use it. If you want to automatically run a program –
for instance, an antivirus – just add the command that calls up the program in the last line of the
boot floppy's Autoexec.bat file. Note that after command Mscdex, the computer will already
acknowledge the CD-ROM drive. For instance, if you have written the F-prot antivirus on a CD-
ROM in a directory called F-prot, the last line of Autoexec.bat will then be:

d:f-protf-prot.exe

BTW, this antivirus can be downloaded at http://www.f-prot.com.

Note that we assume that the CD-ROM drive will be accessed as letter D. If you boot via CD a
computer with more than a single hard disk or with a hard disk with more than one partition, a
message path not found will appear. You will then have to run the command manually.