Hiren's Boot DVD 15.2 Restored Edition! - An indispensable tool used by many computer technicians and system administrators. One bootable DVD that contains dozens of the most popular programs and utilities for running DOS. This is a utility for working with hard drive, its recovery and diagnostic tools diagnosis of all the computer nodes, file managers, utilities for the network, as well as many others. Hiren's Boot DVD eliminates the need to keep on hand dozens and dozens of disks required in daily work.

This Restored DVD includes all the utilities (programs) found in the latest version of Hiren's Boot CD 15.2 (December 2012). Contains many tools updated to the latest version. It is called Restored, because it contains all the commercial tools (programs) missing from the official releases (version 11.0). Also contains other support programs such as Acronis, Paragon, [email protected] and other useful software fully integrated with Hiren's menu.

Additional information:

3 Mini (Live) Windows (98, XP and 7) and 2 Linux (Live) are included. New Mini Windows 7 is a modification of Wondershare LiveBoot 2012 Windows 7 PE.

Changes between v 1.0 and v 1.1:

This edition of the Restored HBCD is a bug fix release of the previous version (V 1.0). Mini windows has been further improved, Kaspersky Rescue Disk is finally perfected and boots equally well from DVD or USB. Several new utilities have been added or upgraded and some faulty ones have been fixed. This Hiren's Boot CD Rebuild aims to provide an austere interface but convenient access to the utilities.

Installation instructions and important notes:

• Burn (preferably at the lowest possible speed) the ISO image to a DVD, insert the dvd in a computer and boot from it.
• For installation to USB read document usb-installation.pdf
• For keyboards other than English you can still apply Hiren’s keyboard patch.
• To the forensics distro BackTrack, read document add-BackTrack.pdf
• To reduce size of DVD to CD or to fit in a smaller GB USB stick read file trim-dvd.txt
• Read document install-win-with-hbcd.pdf, a guide for how to install windows from USB.
• Mini Windows XP and Mini Windows 7 run from RAM. If you start one program after another you will soon run out of memory. So clean the temp folder from time to time.
• The HBCD program launcher (and many portable utilities) are incompatible with 64 bit Windows 7. Use them only within 32 bit windows, Mini Windows XP and Mini Windows 7.

Important items:

• Mini Windows 7.

  It is based on the excellent WonderShare LiveBoot 2012 Windows 7 PE. It is heavily modified to look as close as possible to the possible to Hiren’s Mini Windows XP. It includes everything from Mini XP, has better suport for wireless and ADSL modems, and many extras.

• SysRescueCD 3.1.2[2]

  A live Linux Gentoo based rescue CD (choice of 32 or 64 bit) that offers more choice than Parted Magic. It includes many tools for rescuing and managing Linux and windows systems. Hundreds of utilities. e.g. Clam antivirus, Gparted, ntfs-3g, wifi access, syslinux, telnet, ssh, PXE boot, Firefox, vim.

• BackTrack (optional).

  An Ubuntu based Linux live CD for digital forensics and penetration (sic) testing. It includes many well known security and reversing tools, e.g. Aircrack, Ophcrack, Gerix Wifi Cracker, disassemblers, sniffers, etc., as well as commonplace applications such as browsers, file managers, editors, torrent clients, etc. There is a menu entry for BT5 (under Linux), but you need to download and include in the DVD the files. Detailed instructions as to how to do this are included. Read document add-BT5.pdf.

My experience with this is: I've made a bootable USB pen-drive out of it and boot to Windows Live. From there, I run either WinNTSetup or Fast Installer. Then I prepare a Windows partition with the setup files I also keep on the pen. Then boot from the hard drive and install with no media present / needed. I also use it to manage boot sectors (install loader / backup), partition hard-drive, check and fix bad sectors, repair startup, fix registry, backup system…

For a complete list of old and new applications included, search the web… Comment on any issues you may encounter. I'll check back from time to time.