For those of you who haven’t heard by now…..
Account Hijackings Force LiveJournal Changes
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/01/account_hijacki.html
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/01/20/1831245
[Tools that might help you, considering the madness above]
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
http://hewgill.com/software/ljdump/
If you ever have to recover files from an unbootable drive or try to bring a dead PC back to life, here’s a free, zero-footprint tool you shouldn’t be without = BartPE!
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=167100904
The name “Bart Lagerweij” is well-known among a certain subset of geekdom: He’s a very talented programmer who’s been developing outstanding free repair and recovery tools for Windows for many years. We’ve covered many of his tools in past issues of my newsletter.
The newest version of his latest, greatest free tool deserves special attention: It’s a self-contained, CD-based “live” copy of Windows XP. Like the popular “live CD” versions of Linux that can run entirely from a CD-ROM without installing anything, on to making any changes to a system’s hard drive, “BartPE” (Bart’s Preinstalled Environment) gives you a version of XP that you can boot and run on just about any PC without altering anything on the system itself.
The CD-based version is self-contained–you can think of it as a zero-footprint installation of XP–and yet is, as Bart says, “…a complete Win32 environment with network support, a graphical user interface (800×600), and FAT/NTFS/CDFS file system support. Very handy for burn-in testing systems with no operating system, rescuing files to a network share, virus scan, and so on. This will replace any DOS bootdisk in no time!”
This means that if your PC won’t boot from its hard drive for some reason, you can use a BartPE CD to start the system, grab files off the hard drive (even if the drive is formatted in NTFS), ship the files to another PC on the network for safekeeping, and then use the tools either on the CD or on the hard drive to affect recovery or repair of the damaged system.
BartPE lets you start or stop file sharing on the PC you’re working on; set or reset the Admin password; or even invoke XP’s powerful “Remote Desktop Connection” facility. Combined, these abilities facilitate moving files to or from a distant PC, or using repair and recovery tools located on another system.
And did I mention that BartPE is free?
Bart describes some of the additional functions this way, in his usually enthusiastic style:
Goodbye to all the good and bad dos-based NTFS utilities! Now we can boot from a CD-Rom and have full read/write access to NTFS volumes!
Here are a few things that are possible with PE, and are not possible with any type of dos-based boot disk, even when using network support and ntfsdos:
* Accessing very large (>2TB) NTFS volumes or accessing volumes that aren’t seen by the BIOS, like some Fibre Channel disks.
* Very reliable scanning and cleaning of viruses on NTFS volumes using a “clean boot”.
* Active Directory support.
* Have remote control over other machines, using VNC or remote desktop.
And more… all free!
Later, we’ll talk about how to download the tools to build your own copy of BartPE, but first, let’s take a look at the tool in operation:
Starting BartPE
When you boot a PC from the BartPE CD, the initial screen looks very familiar, reporting that “Setup is inspecting your computer’s hardware configuration…”
Soon, though, you begin to see small changes and modifications that remind you that this is not a standard XP installation.
BartPE automatically sets up a temporary RAM disk and uses that as the system disk for a limited install of XP. The normal Windows start screen then appears briefly as the core operating system components load into memory.
Once the core operating system functions are running, Bart’s customizations begin to take over in earnest: First you see a custom splash-screen (reminiscent of the screen used in many live-CD Linux installations, such as Knoppix), followed by network option dialogs.
The automated network setup in BartPE can usually get itself going with little or nor user input, but it’s also highly configurable, if you want or need to use a manual setup.
All the important network settings are easily accessible without having to dig through menus or command prompts: The PE setup presents them to you clearly and cleanly, for you to accept or modify, as you wish.
When BartPE is ready for use, you’re presented with a very simple screen. The custom environment’s features and functions are available via the “Go” button.
BartPE provides basic text, numeric, and graphics tools in the form of Wordpad, Calculator, and Paint.
The Go/Programs/System Tools menu offers a simple tool for copying floppies. But the Go/Programs/System Tools/A43 File Management Utility is probably where most users will spend a lot of time: Like a lightweight Windows Explorer, the A43 File Management Utility lets you manipulate files as needed, even copying them off an otherwise unbootable system. BartPE can see and access even very large (>2TB) partitions; and even offers Active Directory support.
If you previously allowed the optional networking subsystem to install (at boot), you can invoke XP’s “Remote Desktop Connection” to facilitate file recovery or repair work with another, distant PC.
BartPE’s System menu offers additional useful features and functions. For example, a reasonable complement of network setup, repair, and troubleshooting tools is just a click away.
The System/Storage menu lets you manipulate the hard drive partitions, or run a variant of the familiar Chkdsk tool to find and fix problem with the drive. Other items in the Go/System menu give you access to familiar Control Panel and Task Manager type functions. A Run box and a Command prompt round out the available features; with these, plus the File Management Utility discussed earlier, you can access a huge range of tools either on the CD itself, on the host system, or on any system to which your have network access.
So, as you can see, BartPE is a hugely versatile tool, and incredibly useful for repair and recovery efforts.
And did I mention that it’s free?!?!?!
Building Your Copy Of BartPE
“Bart’s PE Builder” is a wizard-type of tool that runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003 that largely automates the creation of your own bootable copy of “BartPE” (Bart Preinstalled Environment) on a CD-Rom or DVD. Bart’s PE Builder provides the scripted intelligence to assemble the correct files and settings; you provide your original Windows XP (Home or Pro; SP1 or later) or Windows Server 2003 (Web/Standard/Enterprise) installation/setup CD; and the operating system files are copied from there. Bart says you also even can use a preinstalled Windows XP version (without a CD) as a source for building a copy of BartPE.Bart has full step-by-step info on his site, along with download links and other useful tools. So if you’ve read this far, it’s probably time for me to stop talking and to send you directly to his site: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
And did I mention that BartPE, like all Bart’s tools, is free?
A final thought: It’s worth mentioning, as an aside, that BartPE and PE Builder are wholly separate from Microsoft’s Windows Preinstallation Environment (“WinPE”). The latter is mainly a command-line-driven installation tool; Bart’sPE is mainly a graphical-interface repair/diagnostic tool.
In a way, the use of “PE” in both names is a little unfortunate because it may engender confusion in people who aren’t paying attention; but the two tools are clearly different and aimed at different uses. Bart drives the point home on his site: “Using PE Builder does not grant you a license to Microsoft WinPE or to use the Windows XP or Server 2003 binaries in a manner other than stated in the End-User License Agreement included in your version of Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. Microsoft has not reviewed or tested PE Builder and does not endorse its use. Please do not contact Microsoft for support on the preinstallation environment that has been created by PE Builder! Microsoft does not provide support for PE Builder or for the preinstallation environment created by PE Builder….”
In all, I think BartPE is one of the best, if not the best, foundations for a CD-based repair/recovery toolkit I’ve seen to date. With native NTFS support, plus support for networking, file sharing, and Remote Desktop Connections, it’s powerful and flexible, and yet the XP-derived interface makes it familiar and easy to use.
Bart accepts donations (via a PayPal button on his site) to support his work, and I’ve made a donation to acknowledge the value of his other tools and BartPE. If you do use his tools, I hope you’ll help support his efforts. But it’s a donation–no payment is necessary. Despite the high value of his work, and as I believe I’ve mentioned once or twice before–it’s all free!
It’s an outstanding tool. Highly recommended!
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