Hirens Boot CD 15.2

Just tried it on the win 7 desktop. It is a live CD, and boots and works OK. It loads to RAM and runs quick and light.

This is probably old stuff to the more knowledgeable members here, but it is new to me so I thought I would share it.

A word of WARNING for other not too tekkie mortals like me. Hirens has some very powerful apps . . . they can bypass most windows restrictions and allow you to make disastrous changes and delete stuff you shouldn't, like system files and boot flags.

This win 7 desktop came back from the shop with the DVD drive and OS replaced, and I wanted to test the DVD drive. Also, I have had concerns for some time about the trend to restrict the ability of newer computers to boot "other" OSes, so thought I would try Hiren's live CD. Used a little app called BURNCDCC to make the boot disk.

Posting here now through firefox 16 running from the CD.

Hiren's connected to this wireless router when given the security protocol and password.

Haven't even begun to explore the options, haven't had time yet and am a bit intimidated, but one thing I want to do is change the partition structure of the win xp drive on this computer. Want to reduce the size of the OS partition and create storage partitions. The HDD is 1 terabyte, windows xp probably doesn't need all that. :P

Hiren's has "Parted Magic" included, will try it when I get up the courage.

I've had Hiren's (and UBCD) on my "toolbox" (USB stick) for a long time now.

Mainly used it for reseting Win passwords and restoring/recovering stuff in "offline" mode (like registry).

Don't be intimidated.

There are some great tools on there and I've not really had any problem when I've used it. Some machines can be 'strange' and work with one version of Hirens and not another. It's useful for when a pc won't boot because of malware, you can just boot from Hirens, go online, and do an Eset online scan in an emergency.

I'm sure you'll enjoy learning about it :)

edit: @ nodles:

Have you ever partitioned a HDD with either of those?

I did, a long time ago when one didn't have to think about UEFI and GPT formatting, but haven't tried it yet with my win xp dual boot HD.

Don't be intimidated.

There are some great tools on there and I've not really had any problem when I've used it. Some machines can be 'strange' and work with one version of Hirens and not another. It's useful for when a pc won't boot because of malware, you can just boot from Hirens, go online, and do an Eset online scan in an emergency.

I'm sure you'll enjoy learning about it :)

You are quite right, it will be enjoyable. Thanks for the reminder.

Sometimes I get really aggravated: at microsoft for moving things around, and at developers generally for not giving us mortals clear instructions, but thanks for the reminder . . . the journey can be as much fun as the arrival. :)

HBCD has proven to be a lifesaver for me several times. The real swiss-army-knife of boot CDs.

edit: @ nodles:

Have you ever partitioned a HDD with either of those?

Nope, I've used them for other purposes.

Great stuff and info as usual Login. You're a star for sure. :)

Thanks, Dennis, that is praise from Caesar, indeed.

I registered here while looking for help with a (then) difficult windows file deletion issue.

After a while I realized that most of the members here are pretty tekkie folks.

But it is us not-too-tekkie folks who can really benefit from softwares that will actually work.

So, why not post up stuff that we not-too tekkie-folks can maybe use easily, eh?

OK, must repeat here that Hiren's is powerful enough to be dangerous.

How can I go about accessing Speccy on the bootCD? I've gone into miniWindowsXP, found it and it told me to boot up xp or later. When I select the boot xp option the systems default operating system (Windows 2000 Advanced Server) just boots up, and I can access Speccy from there, but it freezes my system. I'm trying to check the system out, without getting complications the possibly malfunctioning os. So, where could I find speccy on the disk?

Speccy requires Windows XP and later so it won't work on Win 2000 anyway.

I've gotten an older version to run, but it locks up before completing the profiling. (I think it's the system and not speccy. The system is a bit wonky.) I just need to figure out where it is on the CD, and run it without entering the OS present on the system.

The Speccy version which is on Hirens (1.18.379) does not work on Windows 2000

http://www.filehippo.com/download_speccy/tech/13307/

windows 2k is not later than XP. that's why minixp doesn't see it.

minixp tells me to boot up in another os. I never entered the boot cycle for 2k, so the latest version of Speccy should be able to profile the system. The Minixp mentions booting with another os on the disk, when I try to run Speccy, so which option is that? I'm trying to completely circumvent the installed OS, so whatever version of speccy should run.

Why not try one of the other sys info tools on the disk which work with all versions of Windows such as CPU-Z or SIW ?

Why can you not run the pc in realtime?

Are you not able to login perhaps?