A boot disk can be a computer floppy disk, CD, DVD, tape drive or USB flash drive. It can also serve a number of different functions. Computer manufacturers such as HP, Dell or Toshiba ship an operating system (OS) reinstallation disk that also acts as a repair disk. Other boot disks are loaded with programs that allow you to scan for viruses, repair hard drive partition errors, reset passwords and troubleshoot hardware and software errors. Learn the difference between these boot disks and what they can do for you.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Data purging, or data clearing

With the rising threat of identity theft and viruses that infect the recovery partition of your hard drive, it is important to have a means to completely and thoroughly purge the data from your hard drive. Data purging or data clearing boot disks securely erase your hard drive so data is permanently removed and no longer recoverable.

I recommend: Learn more about data purging by viewing Darik's Boot and Nuke, a self-contained boot disk that completely deletes the contents of any hard disk it can detect.

Preinstallation (PE) environment, or preinstalled environment

Several utility boot disks utilize what is called a preinstallation or preinstalled environment. A PE works by creating a RAM disk in system memory. Because of this, it can be run from a CD-ROM or USB drive, and requires no hard drive or network access.

I recommend: The official Microsoft PE is the Microsoft Preinstallation Environment, or WinPE. It can be used to automate OS installation tasks. Bart Lagerweij has created BartPE, Bart's Preinstalled Environment. BartPE has a graphical user interface, and allows unlimited custom plugins for things like password recovery or virus scanning.

Memory diagnostic, or memory test

A memory diagnostic or memory test boot disk allows you to figure out if it is your system memory that is causing your computer or programs to freeze or behave abnormally. These boot disks perform extremely thorough testing of your computer's RAM.

I recommend: Memtest86+ is a standalone memory test for x86 computers. Memtest86+ is an improvement on the original Memtest86 created by Chris Brady of BradyTech.

Diagnostic or utility boot disk

A diagnostic or utility boot disk runs off of a preinstalled environment such as BartPE, and includes a variety of different custom apps that assist you in troubleshooting or repairing your operating system. These all-in-one resources can perform many different tasks, such as partition management, diagnostics, virus scanning and password recovery, among other things, to diagnose a problem.

I recommend: Two of the most popular utility boot disks are Hiren's BootCD and the Ultimate Boot CD. You can find these boot disks at Hiren.info and UltimateBootCD.com, respectively.

Password recovery

A password recovery boot disk allows you to either cancel or change the password on a user account. Most password recovery boot disks will work on any Windows NT/2K/XP/Vista system. This is because these versions of windows store password information in a specific location in the registry.

I recommend: The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor can be installed either on CD or on USB flash drive.

Antivirus boot disk

An antivirus boot disk is simply a CD, floppy or USB flash drive that has been made bootable and had an antivirus such as F-PROT installed. Older versions of McAfee used to include a bootable virus scanner, but these boot disks weren't compatible with the NTFS file system.

I recommend: Silly Software Company gives instructions on how to create a boot disk with antivirus included.

Boot disk software helps you repair, restore and troubleshoot nearly any computer issue. A boot disk is a floppy disk or CD that your computer can use to load and run an application or operating system. While a floppy or CD are historically the most common forms of boot disks, zip drives and USB flash drives have become popular types of boot disk media.

Have you ever received that blank blue screen and couldn't figure out how to start up your computer? Bootdisk software helps to solve this problem. It's imperative to keep at least one boot disk handy at all times. In addition to restoring and repairing your old system, boot disk software is also helpful with setting up a new system, installing new operating systems and running virus scans. Boot disk software offers many features to help you get your system back running again. Consider the following benefits of a boot disk:

1. Restores and installs an operating system.

2. Recovers and purges data.

3. Troubleshoot hardware and other software applications with a boot disk.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Resolve operating errors with boot disk software

Manually troubleshooting and resolving system issues can require a great deal of time. Boot disk software helps you quickly restore your operating system. With a boot disk your staff can spend less time fixing computer problems and more time on activities that affect your bottom line.

I recommend: Spotmau.com offers a boot disk software CD, which can boot any computer, install and repair Windows issues and increase operating speed. Purchase a boot disk software CD by mail or download the software from Recovery-CDs.

Use boot disk software to troubleshoot other computer issues

We all know how frustrating it can be to lose data and not be able to figure out how to retrieve the data. Losing business data can result in losing a customer. With boot disk software, quickly retrieve lost customer files and business information.

I recommend: DriveCrash.com offers boot disk software to help you recover all types of data saved on your hard drive. With the File Recover boot disk software offered by PC Tools, you can quickly detect and retrieve files and other important data from your computer.

Download a boot disk CD to diagnose other operating system problems

Repair, restore and diagnose operating system problems quickly by downloading a boot disk CD. There is an endless list of vendors from which to choose that offer a boot disk compatible with nearly every brand of operating system, including new and old versions of Windows.

I recommend: Get a free boot disk software download from Brothersoft. You can also download boot disk software from Filesland.com, which offers several tools designed to help you reset Windows passwords, recover lost information and backup and erase files.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Be sure that you write-protect your boot disk to prevent the CD from being erased and to protect your system from computer viruses.